President Barack Obama and Health and Human Services SecretaryKathleen Sebelius met Thursday with members of the National Association of InsuranceCommissioners (NAIC) to discuss health insurance rate increasesand how to improve health insurance markets for all consumers.

The NAIC released highlights of that discussion:

State regulators stressed the importance of thorough andobjective rate review, adding that premium increases must beactuarially justified without discriminating unfairly against anygroups of policyholders.

"State regulators are best positioned to perform rate review andmany of us do so with great success," said Jane L. Cline, NAICPresident and West Virginia Insurance Commissioner. "Some, however,have not been given the authority by their state legislatures toreview and deny unjustified increases. We believe that a federalbackstop could help encourage these legislatures to provide thatauthority."

"It is absolutely critical that the state role in assuring thesolvency of health plans and promoting competitive markets bepreserved," said Sandy Praeger, Chair of the NAIC Health Insuranceand Managed Care Committee and Kansas Insurance Commissioner."Protecting consumers from high premiums remains a priority, but itis even more important to protect them from insolvency."

Vice-Chair of the NAIC Health Insurance and Managed CareCommittee and Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner Joel Ario pressedinsurers to support reforms that would reduce the fragmentation ofhealth insurance pools. "One problem with premium increases is thatrates go up a lot more for some people than for others," he said,noting that premiums in a reformed marketplace would be more stablefor all Americans.