Colo.: Insurance Bills Would Crack Down

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Carole Walker, spokeswoman for the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association, said the reform package would drive up auto insurance rates, not lower them. She said states that require prior approval for rate hikes sometimes take as long as two years to make a decision, which pushes insurance companies to ask for even higher rates because they can't predict what will happen that far out.

Walker said most rate hikes are found to be justified and that the proposed plan would only delay the inevitable.

"They still have to be applied," she said.

Mike Huotari, spokesman for the Colorado Association of Health Plans, said Colorado law already requires health insurance carriers to submit rate increases with supporting information and that the Division of Insurance has the authority to reject rates that are inadequate, excessive or discriminatory.

He said rate increases are driven by technology and improvements in health care, not profit, waste and administration as critics charge.

"The only thing this will do is add to the cost of complying with the new rules and the cost to the state of administering them," Huotari said.

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