The government increased pressure on health insurers on Thursday, saying some planned double-digit percentage increases while profiting billions and paying executives multimillion-dollar salaries.

A report by the Department of Health and Human Services said: “These massive increases are disturbing examples of the problems that make reforming our health insurance system more important than ever.”

The report came as President Obama attempts to resurrect healthcare reform policies in the face of GOP opposition and public skepticism.

Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius two weeks ago demanded Anthem Blue Cross of California submit data concerning policies to raise premiums by up to 39 %.

On Thursday, she said the agency’s report indicated other insurers also were looking for “extreme premium increases” while citizens struggled through a recession. “We know that insurance companies are not suffering that same kind of downturn,” she said at a news conference.

Profits for the 10 largest insurance companies rose 250% from 2000 to 2009, 10 times faster than inflation, the report said.

The top five — WellPoint, UnitedHealth Group Inc, Cigna Corp, Aetna Inc and Humana Inc — received total profits of $12.2 billion, up 56% from 2008, it said.

The chief executives earned (and I use that term very loosely) $24 million on average in 2008, the report said.

Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for the health insurance industry’s trade group, blamed “the soaring cost of medical care” for causing the increase in premiums, claiming the percentage of premiums going toward administrative costs and profits had decreased.

Healthcare spending in the United States is approximately $2.3 trillion yearly, or about 16% of the gross product. Despite the high spending levels, about 46 million United States citizens are uninsured.

Work on healthcare reform ceased in the Democratic-controlled Congress last month.

The House of Representatives and the Senate had passed different versions of healthcare reform and were trying to reconcile the bills when Democrats lost the Massachusetts Senate seat previously held by Edward Kennedy. That enabled rival Republicans to use procedures to stop lawmaking.

Obama has invited Democratic and GOP legislators to a February 25 healthcare conference and promised to release a proposal for a lawmaking makeover by then.

“The idea is that it will take some of the best ideas and put them into a framework moving forward,” Sebelius said of Obama’s proposal.

The Democrats’ attacks on insurers increased after the Los Angeles Times reported in early February that Anthem Blue Cross planned to increase individual market premiums by up to 39% in the coming month. After Sebelius challenged the decision, the company postponed the move for two months.

The HHS report said several companies planned of had implemented big premium hikes in recent years. Anthem sought them in several different Northeastern states while Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Michigan wanted a 56% increase for policies sold on the individual market.

UnitedHealth, Tufts and Blue Cross asked for 13-16% increases in Rhode Island, and some policies in the individual market in Washington raised premiums by 40 percent until the state imposed stricter laws.

“Leading experts have predicted that without reform, these increases will continue,” the report said, “and the federal government and most states don’t have the legal authority to block or reduce health insurance rate increases.”

Democrats hope emphasizing the rate hikes will help increase the prospects for healthcare laws.

“The premium increases are a powerful reminder that the healthcare problems are not going away,” David Kendall a senior analyst for health policy at the Third Way, a centrist think tank, said of the HHS report.

Republican Representative Dave Camp labeled the reported increases “unacceptable” but added “the reforms Democrats in Congress are pursuing would actually make the current situation worse by making coverage more expensive.”

The House Energy and Commerce Committee has called Wellpoint Chief Executive Angela Braly to testify about the proposed rate increases in California at a hearing next week.

On Thursday, the committee wrote to Braly requesting him to explain a “seeming conflict” between Wellpoint’s public explanation and corporate information.

Wellpoint has attributed the discrepancies in part to healthy people dropping coverage in the recession. But information the company gave to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners showed enrollment in the individual market in California “appears to have increased significantly,” the letter said.

WellPoint, in a statement, said the letter “mischaracterizes” membership information. Anthem Blue Cross of California individual membership decreased by around 25,000 members between 2008 and 2009, WellPoint said.

cf  http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100219/pl_nm/us_usa_healthcare_insurers