Lawmakers seek data

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Two Iowa legislative committee leaders pressed state regulators Thursday to come up with detailed information to justify an 18 percent average rate increase announced last week by Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, which dominates the health insurance industry in the state.

Rep. Janet Petersen, D-Des Moines, chairwoman of the House Commerce Committee, and Sen. Steve Warnstadt, D-Sioux City, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, called for the information during a joint meeting with Iowa Insurance Commissioner Susan Voss and top officials from Wellmark.

"I believe Iowans deserve to know why their health insurance rates are increasing, what they can do to lower their rate and what we can do to ensure they receive reasonable notification of rate increases," Petersen said.

Warnstadt said regulators should "produce a detailed report on insurance rate increase data, health care expenditures, ranking factors that raise or lower costs in each plan and other data."

Laura Jackson, a vice president for Wellmark, said health insurance costs are driven by the soaring cost of health care and trends that show Iowans are less and less healthy.

"We know that 60 percent of Iowans are obese or overweight," Jackson said. That drives an increase in diseases like diabetes, she said, which costs an average of $14,000 a year to treat.

That's aggravated by a population that's increasingly old and by trends showing relatively healthy young people dropping their coverage as costs increase, Jackson said.

Voss said that leaves roughly 80 percent of the spending on health care going to roughly 20 percent of the population. National figures show roughly $7,600 in health care spending per persons, with 75 percent of that going to chronic diseases that are often preventable, she said.