President Obama's proposal would allow the Health and Human Services secretary to block excessive increases in insurance premiums. Obama seeks rate-hike control

President Barack Obama wants to give the federal government sweeping new authority to curb exorbitant rate hikes by the nation’s health insurance companies, a White House official said Sunday night – a proposal designed to win over skeptical voters as Obama announces his own health insurance legislation for the first time Monday.

Releasing his bill ahead of Thursday’s bipartisan health-care summit, Obama is seeking to play off voter anger toward recent double-digit increases by Anthem Blue Cross of California and show that his plan is designed to protect vulnerable Americans, both those with insurance and those who are seeking to obtain it.


The proposal for new federal power to rein in premium hikes wasn’t included in the versions of health reform that passed the House and Senate last year, though the rest of Obama’s bill is likely to cherry-pick some of the most popular parts of those bills to craft a compromise proposal that can unify his fractious party, liberals and moderates alike.

The White House declined to provide further details of Obama’s plan ahead of an announcement Monday, when Obama has promise to post his legislation on-line for voters to read ahead of Thursday’s summit.

The proposal also has a populist appeal – Obama standing up to the big insurance companies – that could put pressure on Republicans to go along, even though they have decried the Democrats’ health reform efforts as a “big government takeover” of the system and generally resisted any efforts to give the government a greater role in the private insurance market.

Obama’s proposal would give the Health and Human Services secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, new powers to review premium hikes by private insurance companies – and in some cases, block those deemed excessive. Anthem’s rate hikes of up to 39 percent in recent weeks have focused attention on the skyrocketing health insurance costs, the very costs Obama vowed to fight when he undertook comprehensive health care reform last year.

Obama’s plan would create a new board made up health insurance experts, which would determine annually what are reasonable premium hikes in various markets, and the HHS secretary also would work with state officials, the White House said. The proposal was first reported in the New York Times.

By announcing his bill Monday, Obama also seems intent in putting pressure on Republicans to show they have a comprehensive solution to skyrocketing health care costs, heading into Thursday’s summit.

White House officials have already begun urging Republicans to post their bills on line as well – a clever tactic by the White House, because Republicans ideas for reform were spread across several pieces of legislation, or fell far short of the Democrats’ goal of insuring 31 million uninsured Americans. The main House Republican proposal, for instance, would only cover 3 million more Americans.

But in some ways, Obama’s main audience is his own party, where Democratic efforts to craft a compromise bill have faltered in the wake of Republican Sen. Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts.

The White House has said Obama’s bill will be designed to pass on reconciliation – with a 51-vote Democratic majority, a move that would infuriate Republicans who say Obama is already short-cutting his own summit by planning to shut out Republicans if needed.