Health care coverage: unreasonable rate increases.

Assembly Member Bonta's health care rate oversight legislation shifts the authority to determine unreasonable insurance rate increases from federal regulators to California state officials. The measure modifies existing state law, which currently relies on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to evaluate whether rate increases are excessive or unjustified.

Under the proposed changes, the Director of the Department of Managed Health Care and the Insurance Commissioner would assess whether health plan rate increases qualify as unreasonable based on four specific criteria: whether the increase is excessive, unjustified, unfairly discriminatory, or otherwise unreasonable. The bill amends parallel sections of both the Health and Safety Code and Insurance Code to maintain consistent standards across California's regulated health coverage markets.

The legislation maintains the existing framework for rate review while localizing oversight authority within state agencies. Health insurers and managed care plans would submit rate increases for evaluation by state regulators rather than federal authorities, though the fundamental criteria for unreasonable increases remain aligned with established standards under the Affordable Care Act. The measure requires no new state appropriations, indicating implementation would occur through current regulatory resources and processes.