Health Care Reform Forces Rate Review: Cuts Costs for Consumers & Small Businesses

Today, consumers got some good news when a big insurance company – Blue Shield of California – announced it will be returning $295 million to consumers and the community by the end of the year. This announcement will provide some much needed relief to families who have seen their premiums increase in recent years. And it’s the fourth positive announcement we’ve heard this week alone about health insurance premiums.

Before the Affordable Care Act became law, many insurance companies could raise your premiums without any transparency or accountability. If you wanted to know why your rates were going up, they were under no obligation to tell you.

Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, that’s all changing. Starting September 1, 2011, in every State and for the first time ever, insurance companies are required to publicly justify their actions if they want to raise rates by 10 percent or more. The Affordable Care Act also included $250 million to help States strengthen their rate review procedures so they can successfully fight high premium hikes and help keep costs under control.

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GE to Build Solar-Panel Plant in Colorado, Hire 355 People

General Electric Co. selected Colorado as the site for a new solar-panel plant that will be the biggest in the country, bringing 355 jobs to the Denver suburb of Aurora. The new plant, which was announced in April, will be up and running a year earlier than projected with the first panels coming off the line next year and being commercially available in 2013. The plant will make enough photovoltaic panels annually to generate power for 80,000 U.S. homes, or about 400 megawatts.

GE plans to invest about $300 million in the facility, bringing its investment in its solar business to about $600 million.

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Photos from Occupy Wall Street

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