Consumer advocates have raised concerns over the rates charged by insurance companies to buy health coverage under the Affordable Care Act. They have asked the government that if it cannot have a control over the rates, then it won’t be fair enough for Americans to buy the health insurance under the act.

In order to monitor the prices, the health reform law introduced a procedure called as rate review. The review was to be used by state insurance departments to assess whether the carriers’ projected a premium rise of 10% or more to decide whether they are reasonable or not.

However, even in case they find that the hike is unjustified and excessive and there is no reason of introducing it, the insurance commissioners have failed to stop the insurance companies from making the rise effective.

The Department of Health and Human Services declared Tuesday that the reviews saved consumers $1 billion in rate increase. On the other hand, insurance commissioners and advocates asserted that they would have helped the consumer secure more, if the government establishment in the 50 states would have supported them in restricting the insurance companies from moving ahead with the baseless hike. “At the end of the day, the companies can tell us to pound sand”, says Dave Jones, the insurance commissioner in California.