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A working group on health insurance met today in Tallahassee, trying to minimize potential fallout from the national health insurance law. Under the national plan, health insurance companies and HMO’s must put at least 80 percent of their premium dollars into service delivery. Mark LaBorde of Aetna says, in Florida right now the rate is only 65 or 70 percent depending on coverage.

“It will be difficult for many insurance to continue to provide coverage in the Florida individual and small group markets during the transition because most of these products were priced and sold prior to the new MLR rules,” LaBorde said. “Current Florida regulations set MLR’s of 65 percent for insurers and 75 percent for HMO’s.”

The group is expected to phase in the increased premiums to service rates over the next three years.