$1 billion lawsuit over CalPERS insurance rates moves forward with trial date
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He estimated the plaintiffs could receive as much as
The
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CalPERS says in its petition to the
"There is no source of funds to pay a judgment other than the long-term care fund itself. Should the fund come up short because of a judgment, we would have to raise rates significantly," CalPERS spokesman
The lawsuit stems from a series of rate increases that CalPERS adopted for long-term care insurance beginning in 2013, peaking with an 85 percent rate hike in 2015. CalPERS says in its most recent appeal that it would raise rates on the plan by 124 percent if it loses the lawsuit.
Bidart contends that the structure of the rate increases breached the contracts people signed when they bought the policies beginning in 2003. Those agreements included assurances that rate hikes would be spread among those who bought long-term care insurance, and that people who bought inflation protection policies would not see their rates increase because of expanded benefits, according to court documents.
Bidart criticized CalPERS' argument that winning the case would harm plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
"When they make that argument, it takes your breath away," he said. "Your defense is you can do whatever you want, you can create harm, that the harm you create is so great that you cannot carry on your program without sticking it to the people you stuck it to once."
In July, people who bought the long-term health insurance plan began receiving checks worth about
About 20,000 people had not cashed their checks by September, according to an update Bidart's team posted to a website it created for the case, calpersclassactionlawsuit.com.
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