While the National Association of Insurance Commissioners supports the proposed health insurance exchanges, it wants them to be administered at the state level. In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the NAIC said it endorses the goals of health care reform and asked that a number of provisions be included in the health care bill.
Among their requests, the NAIC would like to extend guaranteed issue protections to the non-group health insurance market, eradicate pre-existing condition exclusions and annual and lifetime limits, and prohibit the rating of policies based on gender and health.
In the letter, NAIC President and West Virginia Insurance Commissioner Jane L. Cline said, "The NAIC supports these measures, if they are paired with an effective individual mandate to mitigate the risk of adverse selection. We also support the creation of state-based health insurance exchanges to streamline the process of purchasing coverage and make meaningful comparisons of health insurance plans much easier."
The NAIC claims consumers will benefit most from reform that ensures continued consumer protection and oversight of health insurance policies at the state level. The NAIC asked Congress to oppose the creation of a new federal Health Choices Administration, arguing that health insurance exchanges ought to be administered at the state level.
Other recommendations include ensuring that all group policies be subject to the bill's reforms at the end of a five-year grace period, imposing stronger penalties under the individual mandate provisions, allowing the federal government to quickly shut down fraudulent multiple-employer welfare arrangements that falsely claim to be exempt from state regulation and requiring that nationally sold plans be subject to the oversight of state insurance regulators.
The NAIC also urged Congress to address soaring health care costs.
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