WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will propose Monday giving the federal government new power to block excessive rate increases by health insurance companies, as he rolls out comprehensive legislation to revamp the nation's health care system, White House officials said.
The president's legislation aims to bridge differences between the bills adopted by the House and Senate late last year, and to frame his debate with Republicans over health policy at a televised "summit" meeting Thursday.
By focusing on the effort to tighten regulation of insurance costs, a new element not included in either the House or Senate bills, Obama is seizing on outrage over recent premium increases of up to 39 percent announced by Anthem Blue Cross of California and moving to portray the Democrats' health overhaul as a way to protect Americans from predatory insurers.
Congressional Republicans have long denounced the Democrats' legislation as a "government takeover" of health care. And while they probably will resist any expansion of federal authority over existing state regulators, they will face a tough balancing act at the meeting with the president to avoid appearing as if they are willing to allow steep premium hikes like those by Anthem.
Republican leaders had not formally accepted the president's invitation to the meeting. But the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said Sunday he would attend. "I intend to be there, and my members will be there and ready to participate," McConnell said on Fox News.
The president's new provision seemed to offer Republicans an opening for a new line of criticism — that Obama and Democrats are anticipating the possibility of hefty price increases for health insurance even after their big legislation is adopted.
The White House has held details of Obama's bill extremely tight, leaving even top Democrats in Congress anxiously awaiting the text to be released Monday. But administration officials said it would incorporate legislation proposed last week by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., in response to the Anthem increases. One official said it would "help make sure that people are not unfairly subject to arbitrary premium hikes."
Anthem, California's largest for-profit insurer, has announced premium increases for nearly 700,000 customers, citing the soaring costs of medical care and the effects of a weak economy in which many younger and healthier people are dropping insurance. But the increases, far outpacing the rate of medical inflation, led to outrage among officials in Sacramento and Washington. The Obama administration has sought to portray the situation as a warning of what could happen to many more Americans if Congress does not act to overhaul the health system.
The president's bill would grant the federal health and human services secretary new authority to review, and to block, premium increases by private insurers, potentially superseding state insurance regulators.
