Oregon regulators under fire for health insurance rate hike approval

Attorney Charlie Ringo accused government watchdogs who oversee the Oregon health insurance industry today of an “outrageous breach of public trust.”

Ringo made the case before an administrative law judge in Tualitan on behalf of Karen Kirsch, a Regence individual health plan holder who along with 100,000 other Oregonians had their rates increased by 26 percent last July.

"Karen Kirsch said enough is enough," Ringo said. "She wasn't going to put up with a rate review process wholly inadequate for protecting Oregonians. It's unfair to 100,000 others."

Today's hearing comes eight months after the rate hike led a group of health reform advocates to rally on the streets outside the downtown Regence office in opposition to the hike.

In his opening statements, Ringo said the rate increase itself was not the issue. It was how the matter was decided.

Ringo suggests that political pressures may have led to the rate approval while rank and file employees within the department recommended approving a much lower rate increase.

Ringo cites a high-level meeting between Regence President Bart McMullan and Department Director Cory Streisinger just days before the final approval. One email between actuaries was titled “Gaming the System.”

Under state law, the Department of Consumer and Business Affairs has the power to approve or reject individual and small group health insurance rates. Streisinger was subpoened to testify, and the law judge, Allison Webster, tried to compel her testimony but Streisinger refused because she has the final say in the rate approval despite any of the judge's ruling.

The current administrative hearing is the first of its kind thanks in part to a law passed in 2007 making the rate filings a matter of public record on the Internet. To review other rate filings and to file an insurance complaint go to the Oregon Insurance Division Web site and click on Consumers.