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A Colorado consumer advocacy group says insurance companies proposing 20 percent to 30 percent price hikes on 2016 health benefit plans can't justify them. The pent-up demand for care unleashed in 2014 is lessening, the group said Tuesday. "We're asking the state to scrutinize the fact that they could have a healthier pool in 2015," said Colorado Consumer Health Initiative director Adela Flores-Brennan. (Draper, 7/7)

North Carolina’s largest health insurer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, is eligible for nearly $295 million in federal payouts under the Affordable Care Act even as the company is seeking another rate increase in the state. The payouts, announced last week, come from a deal between the federal government and insurers to make the ACA more palatable to the industry by minimizing its financial risk. The architects of the 2010 insurance law expected some insurers to face significant cost overruns because the law bars insurers from turning away people with preexisting conditions and also caps rates charged to older customers. (Murawski, 7/7)