With the California Insurance Commissioner, Steve Poizner having worked out an agreement with bigwig health insurer Anthem Blue Cross on Saturday, the much-disparaged double-digit increase in rates for some California residents has been delayed by two months.

Poizner has urged the health insurer to delay the rate-hike move after the Anthem sent notices to least 700,000 individual policy holders who, would be affected with between 25 percent and a whopping 39 percent rate increase.

Elucidating the reason behind seeking the postponement of the rate increase, Poizner told Anthem that the California Department of Insurance required time for determining whether the proposed rate increases will infringe the 2006-introduced state law which it is mandatory for the insurers to spend no less than 70 percent of premiums on health care instead of overhead and profit.

Poizner said: “Medical cost inflation in California is in the 10 to 15 percent range, so I have a healthy skepticism how they can get to 39 percent” and still adhere to the regulations.

While Anthem’s parent company, WellPoint Inc. of Indianapolis, is pretty confident that that its premiums would pass the Insurance department’s scrutiny, Poizner has appreciated the company’s decision to postpone the rate increase, saying that it is the “right thing.” Poizner said: “These are huge, massive rate increases, very concerning to me and my team.”