Off with their heads! (?)

Congress was in a snit over a Blue Cross subsidiary that announced a 39% rate hike. Rather than focusing (like a laser!) on the magnitude of the increase out of context, the irate regulators should have been more concerned about the company's medical loss ratio, the percentage of each premium dollar spent on paying claims (as opposed to administrative expenses and profit), in order to ensure some reasonable relationship between premium revenues and actuarial risks.