President Barack Obama heads to Iowa– his first stop after signing the healthcare reform bill earlier in the week. Obama will make a speech at the University of Iowa Field House, located in Iowa City. It’s the same place where he first announced his healthcare plans as a candidate in May of 2007. “I’m sure there will be parents of those that attend the University of Iowa that will have some interest in keeping their children on a health insurance policy through the age of 26,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Wednesday, according to Reuters. Some highlights of the bill include:

• Insurance for 32 million Americans who are without.
• Ban on insurance companies’ ability to refuse coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions.
• More health insurance for the poor.
• New taxes on the wealthy.

“The president believes it is important to continue to talk about the many aspects of the law that will do precisely what he said they’re intended to do,” said Gibbs, according to Reuters. According to a new poll released by Quinnipiac University, before the House of Representatives passed the bill, 54 percent of Americans didn’t agree with it, while 36 percent supported it. After the vote, 49 percent disapproved. But those surveyed said they trust Obama more than Republicans in Congress to manage healthcare. Forty-five percent supported Obama, while 35 percent supported Republicans.

Republicans unanimously voted against the bill and are trying to repeal it. Officials from 14 states have filed federal suits saying the law violates the US Constitution. But some groups who support Obama are planning to spend $5 million on TV and radio ads thanking him, and targeting Republicans.

A panel of CEOs reported to the White House at the request of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Sebelius wanted to know why insurance premiums were increasing so rapidly in recent months. Attending the meeting were CEOs of United Health Group, Inc, WellPoint Inc, Aetna Inc, Health Care Service Corp, CIGNA HealthCare Inc, as well as representatives from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. President Obama also visited the meeting and read a letter from a 50-year old cancer survivor from Ohio who had experienced a 25% hike in insurance premiums since 2009.

According to reports, Sebelius wanted to hear from the executives as to why there was a recent jump in premium rates in several states. “I asked them to explain why these crushing burdens are being placed on middle-class families and what we can do to lower costs,” Sebelius said in a report on Insurance Networking News. “I also asked the CEOs to post the actuarial justification for these stunning rate increases online in an easy-to-understand manner, so that consumers can see why premiums are skyrocketing to the point that some people in the individual market can no longer afford coverage. I hope they will act quickly and make this information available to all of us. If insurance companies are going to raise rates, the least they can do is tell us why.”

The report says that Aetna CEO Ron Williams defended the increases, saying they were reflective of costs that insurance companies were paying to drug makers, hospitals and other health-care companies that were forcing increases to the cost of medical care. “The rate is really reflective of our other parts of the health-care delivery system,” said  Williams in a Wall Street Journal report. They said that trying to lower premiums without addressing those costs was destined to fail.

NAIC’s President says the hikes are another example of why all states need to be allowed to regulate their own insurance premiums. “State regulators are best positioned to perform rate review and many of us do so with great success,” said Jane L. Cline, NAIC President and West Virginia Insurance Commissioner. “Some, however, have not been given the authority by their state legislatures to review and deny unjustified increases. We believe that a federal backstop could help encourage these legislatures to provide that authority.”

Sebelius asked the CEOs to post information online that explains their breakdown of revenue including how much goes towards administrative costs, how much is spent on marketing and what goes towards actual care. She said making that information easy to access by consumers would increase transparency about what is happening in the health care industry and why rates are increasing.