Tucson, Ariz. – Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva today highlighted the 424,000 Arizonans who received an average rebate of approximately $71 per familyfrom their insurance company this year thanks to the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ACA says insurance companies must spend at least 80percent of what they make in premiums – or 85percent in the large group market– on medical care and quality improvement efforts rather than overhead, profits and executive pay.

Insurers who fail to meet that standard, known as the “medical loss ratio,” have to send consumers a rebate to make up the difference. Insurers sent 8.5 million consumers an average rebate of approximately $100 per family nationwide this year.

The health care law requires insurance companies to publicly post and justify any proposed rate increase of 10 percent or more. Across the country, insurers are withdrawing or decreasing proposed rate hikes, benefiting families and the economy.One high-profile instance over the summer led to Anthem Blue Cross of California dropping its request to participate in the Covered California state health care exchange because of state-level scrutiny of its rate increases.

“Whenever we try to make the market a little fairer for working people, we hear these doom-and-gloom predictions that putting money back in their hands is going to wreck the economy,” Grijalva said. “Ask any of the hundreds of thousands of Arizonans who got a check back from their insurance company this year, and I think they’ll tell you this rule is working.”

House Republicans have voted to repeal the ACA more than 40 times.

The full state-by-state rebate table is below.

CONSUMERS RECEIVING 2012 REBATES FROM THEIR INSURANCE COMPANIES IN 2013[1]