President Obama's push for health care reform has enjoyed a sizeable boost by Anthem Blue Cross' attempt to raise individual health insurance rates in California.

And now, the backlash against those rate hikes is hitting other health insurance companies as well.

Anthem's individual health insurance rates are slated to jump 39% in California this year, an unprecedented rate increase that far outpaces inflation and will leave thousands of men and women without coverage at all, or with substandard coverage they can't rely on.

In response everyone and their sister has been criticising Anthem's parent company WellPoint Inc., particularly since WellPoint reported record earnings last year.

Now, according to Reuters' recent article on health care, Kathleen Sebelius, the current Secretary of Health and Human Services, has called on other health insurance companies (including WellPoint) to make public the details of their estimated costs.

Sebelius wants companies like Cigna Corp, UnitedHealth Group, and WellPoint to justify rate hikes for small group and individual health insurance so that the public can see exactly how much of their money is going towards health care costs.

This is a great way to maintain attention where Obama and his team need it most - on the skyrocketing costs of health insurance and the inability of many Americans to pay for their own coverage.

Unfortunately there isn't all that much that can be done otherwise. As the article makes clear, the government has little power of health insurance companies, since they are state run and not federally managed.