Sebelius Asks Insurers for Transparency on Proposed Rate Hikes

Without health reform, "premiums will get a bigger bite out of America's wages and your market will [decrease] further," Sebelius said to insurers. "It's not too late to work on this together. Work with us to pass reform that will prevent Americans from seeing their coverage drop when they are sick and need it most."

AHIP President and CEO Karen Ignagni said her organization strongly supports healthcare reform and added that she would work toward transparency. AHIP has not embraced the Obama proposal, criticizing earlier calls for a public option. The organization also had solicited and funded millions of dollars in what some critics called attack ads on the Obama plan.

At today's session, however, Ignani said AHIP would "accept the secretary's challenge to come back with specifics that can be added to the legislation to bring costs under control, and what can be done."

Ignani said there is a "strong commitment from our members to the concept of transparency. We believe in the concept. We also hope that the concept will be built upon and other stakeholders will be equally challenged to be transparent."