McCaskill Skeptical of Insurance Companies

"LIKE WHITE ON RICE"

Members of a U.S. Senate committee are pressing health insurance companies about how they reimburse consumers for using out-of-network doctors.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, is one of the leading skeptics. "We need to be vigilant and stay on you like white on rice," she said, in response to UnitedHealth Group executives' insistence that their company had done nothing wrong.

The New York Times reports that McCaskill told the executives that the public takes a skeptical view of health insurers. "People think they are getting a raw deal," she said.

Recent hearings are meant to consider whether more federal oversight of insurers might be necessary to protect consumers.