Consumer advocates ramp up pressure on health insurers

{mosads}In regulatory comments filed Oct. 21, the trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans wrote that the industry has “long supported efforts to provide consumers with clear information about their health coverage options” but that “the proposed rule requires an almost complete redesign of how information is provided to consumers today, and it will be difficult and costly to fully implement in the short time frame.”

Separately, California-based Consumer Watchdog on Wednesday filed a ballot initiative that would “make health insurance companies open their books and publicly justify, under penalty of perjury, proposed rate changes before they take effect.” The group needs 504,760 signatures by May 1 to qualify the measure for the 2012 ballot.