The AP (4/9, Johnson) reports that "during a two-hour hearing in Suffolk Superior Court" on April 8, "an attorney for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and five members of the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans asked Judge Stephen Neel to issue a temporary injunction overruling the state's decision" made "last week to reject nearly all of their proposed 2010 premium increases."

        The Boston Globe (4/9, Weisman) reports that Judge Neel "said he would decide by Monday whether the companies will be allowed to charge the higher prices." In arguments before the judge, "Dean Richlin, a partner at Boston law firm Foley Hoag who is representing six Massachusetts insurers," asserted that "Insurance Commissioner Joseph G. Murphy exceeded the state's authority when he denied 235 of 274 proposed premium increases." The denial of premium increases could lead to some insurers becoming insolvent, Murphy argued.

        According to the Boston Herald (4/9, McConville), "Last week, the state's insurance commissioner rejected hundreds of health insurance plans, saying that the proposed base rates were excessive." It was then that "the insurers sued, saying the insurance commissioner had acted illegally when he told insurers to revert back to their 2009 rates." Meanwhile, "the dispute has captured national attention, since Massachusetts has been held up as a model for national healthcare reform."

        Columnist Says Insurer-State Dispute May Cause Chaos. In his column in the Boston Globe (4/9), Scott Lehigh writes, "Unease is in the saddle in the state's health care sector, and chaos looms on the horizon." But Leigh says that next Wednesday, Senate President Therese Murray will unveil "a proposal she hopes will resolve the great health care standoff." He adds that Murray "makes it clear her alternative will require sacrifices from all of the health care-sector stakeholders."

        WSJournal Says Future Collisions Between Politics, Healthcare Likely. The Wall Street Journal (4/9, subscription required) editorializes that Massachusetts has the highest health-insurance premiums in the US because healthcare costs are so high, not because of any alleged abuses by the health-insurance industry. As the healthcare reform law is implemented across the country, the Journal concludes that politics and healthcare will collide frequently, particularly when it comes to health-insurance premiums.

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