Obama asks health plans to report rising rates

The Obama administration says it will require health insurance companies to report all price increases, no matter how small, to the federal government so officials can monitor the impact of the new healthcare law and insurers' compliance with it. Under current rules, the federal government requires insurers to report information on rate increases of 10 percent or more. New rules being issued by the administration will extend this requirement to all rate increases for all health plans sold to individuals, families and small businesses—a total of 60 million people. Federal health officials said they needed the additional data to monitor trends in premiums as major provisions of the law take effect and more people buy insurance.