The Washington Monthly

October 12, 2009

PRIVATE INSURERS LAUNCH NEW ATTACK OVER REFORM.... Private health insurers haven't exactly played a constructive and supportive role on health care reform this year. So it's not especially surprising that, the day before the Senate Finance Committee votes on a reform plan, the industry's trade association is issuing a new series of warnings.

After months of collaboration on President Obama's attempt to overhaul the nation's health-care system, the insurance industry plans to strike out against the effort on Monday with a report warning that the typical family premium in 2019 could cost $4,000 more than projected.
The critique, coming one day before a critical Senate committee vote on the legislation, sparked a sharp response from the Obama administration. It also signaled an end to the fragile detente between two central players in this year's health-care reform drama.

Industry officials said they intend to circulate the report prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers on Capitol Hill and promote it in new advertisements. That could complicate Democratic hopes for action on the legislation this week.

Administration officials, who spent much of the spring and summer wooing the insurers, questioned the timing and authorship of the report, which was paid for by America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), an industry trade group.

Halperin described this as "AHIP Defects," but I don't think that's quite right. AHIP has been hostile to Democratic reform efforts for quite some time now -- it's not as if the insurance industry is walking away from friends and allies here. Indeed, my first instinct was to dismiss all of this as a meaningless stunt -- dire warnings from AHIP about reform falls comfortably into the dog-bites-man category.

Jonathan Cohn nevertheless went through the substantive details. While some of the larger concerns -- a weak individual mandate, for example -- are legit, Cohn seems largely unimpressed with the AHIP analysis. Ezra Klein went further, calling the new research "deceptive," adding that the report "doesn't offer much in the way of trustworthy policy analysis."

The response from pro-reform policymakers is equally hostile. A Democratic spokesperson for the Senate Finance Committee called the insurance industry's attack "untrue," "disingenuous," and "a health insurance company hatchet job." A White House spokesperson added that the report is a "self-serving analysis," which is "hard to take seriously."

Front-page coverage notwithstanding, it's hard to imagine the new AHIP effort having too much of an effect in the short term.

—Steve Benen 10:55 AM Permalink | Trackbacks | Comments (21)

Comments

that being said, are there actually effective price controls in any of the bills to actually prevent such a scenario?

Posted by: sadly on October 12, 2009 at 11:03 AM | PERMALINK

With any luck the Republicans will rush to their defense.

Posted by: SaintZak on October 12, 2009 at 11:08 AM | PERMALINK

While the "study" may be bogus, the point it affirms probably isn't. American politicians are so stupidly corrupted (and the voters so ignorant) that they will manage to screw up something that every other western democracy has managed to do relatively well.

Posted by: Greg Worley on October 12, 2009 at 11:16 AM | PERMALINK

-and this bit of "news" was delivered on Fox earlier today. We "report", you decide. . .

Posted by: DAY on October 12, 2009 at 11:16 AM | PERMALINK

From a repugnican perspective, this 'study' being a front page article in The Washington Post must provide it credibility. After all, to rethugs The WaPost is like the CBO - great when it agrees with their preconceived opinions and terrible when it does not.

Additionally, the WaPost article was written by Cici Connally, who has always had an extreme liberal bias and has never written anything that would undercut a democrat position or person (snark).

Posted by: AngryOldVet on October 12, 2009 at 11:23 AM | PERMALINK

There is definitely a legitimate concern here for AHIP to keep working on so I wouldn't pass it off as lightly. Some of the arguments used by AHIP seem to be fairly logical. I can see my premiums and deductibles rising as a result of this legislation as currently written.

Posted by: lou on October 12, 2009 at 11:26 AM | PERMALINK

What if we all got healthy and cut the need for "medical insurance" by 50 to 75%? The only lever they have is keeping us in need of their services. If we don't use the medical services "provided" by insurance, whether public or private, we emasculate them. Go for prevention and reduce crisis intervention.

Posted by: st john on October 12, 2009 at 11:27 AM | PERMALINK

I'm willing to take the insurance industry at its word. This is proof positive that we need a genuine public option. Or, better yet, single-payer.

Posted by: jeri on October 12, 2009 at 11:32 AM | PERMALINK

I don't know why civilians have such a hard time with the "chain of command" concept. The President, a civilian, is at the top. Step outside of that process and any general could be a civilian as quickly as Douglas MacArthur *faded away*.

Posted by: buddy66 on October 12, 2009 at 11:40 AM | PERMALINK

sorry...wrong thread.

Posted by: buddy66 on October 12, 2009 at 11:43 AM | PERMALINK

if you think the medical insurance companies in this country wont continue to do this shit -- lie, betray, back stab, steal -- up until the moment they are led to the scaffold and put to death by some sort of single payer universal health care program...you should just continue your grazing on clover and following Little Bo Peep around...

Posted by: neill on October 12, 2009 at 11:45 AM | PERMALINK

At what point will the insurance companies price themselves out of business?

The fewer customers they have, in order to maintain their profit margin, the higher the premiums must be. The higher the premiums, the fewer people who can afford them. Endless circle.

Posted by: wbn on October 12, 2009 at 11:46 AM | PERMALINK

Just keep in mind that when/if the influx of trolls materialize in this commend thread, the vast majority of them will be paid shills for the health insurance or big pharma industries. They will be deliberately fear-mongering and spreading lies because they are paid to do so.

Posted by: Shade Tail on October 12, 2009 at 11:59 AM | PERMALINK

"Just keep in mind that when/if the influx of trolls materialize in this commend thread, the vast majority of them will be paid shills for the health insurance or big pharma industries"

Why would they piss in the wind around here when they have situated themselves as staffers to the congressmen writing this legislation?

Posted by: lou on October 12, 2009 at 12:08 PM | PERMALINK

And GM said seatbelts would cost a million bucks per automobile.

Posted by: inkadu on October 12, 2009 at 12:44 PM | PERMALINK

Man, what's AHIP so pissed about? They didn't get the Senators to wipe their a$$ after AHIP took a big $hit on the American people?

Posted by: Glen on October 12, 2009 at 1:44 PM | PERMALINK

I take this attack as a sign that health care/insurance reform are now on the right track. As long as the insurance companies had some reason to believe they had a chance to co-opt the effort, they were on board. So something changed.

Posted by: larry birnbaum on October 12, 2009 at 2:09 PM | PERMALINK

I would simply like to know how much in annual consulting, tax and/or compliance revenues PricewhorehouseCoopers receives from the health insurance industry? Can't imagine that there is any conflict there whatsoever. No, none at all. Really, nothing.

Posted by: bubba on October 12, 2009 at 2:32 PM | PERMALINK

Ah, the health insurance companies will not "cooperate" with legislation that will eventually drive them out of business. Oh, those naughty companies.

Posted by: Carlos on October 12, 2009 at 3:04 PM | PERMALINK

Seems to me this is a rally cry for single payer not for profit ins plan which would eliminate the threat of increased premiums...forever.

Posted by: bjobotts on October 12, 2009 at 6:06 PM | PERMALINK

I remember when Obama told the bank CEOs at the White House that he was the only thing standing between them and the people with the pitchforks. Sounds like it's time for Obama to let the people with the pitchforks at the insurance companies.

Obviously, there's no need to hold back on the Public Option now.

Posted by: Joe Friday on October 12, 2009 at 6:49 PM | PERMALINK