Insurance Cos. Start Hitting Health Reform Hard
5192102As Democrats harden their stance against insurance companies and Republican pushback to health care reform, both groups are unleashing strong efforts to undermine the Democrats' proposals.
Earlier this year, the Obama administration and the health insurance industry displayed efforts to work together to bring down health care costs and expand coverage, but Democrats this summer changed their tune to paint insurance companies as the adversary in the health care debate.
Now the insurance industry, which has from the beginning invested millions in congressional lobbying, is rallying both its employees and its customers to oppose Democratic proposals.
The insurance industry's lobbying group America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) has enlisted around 50,000 employees to contact congressmen through letters, phone calls or visits to town hall meetings, the Wall Street Journal reports.
On top of that, the California insurer Anthem Blue Cross sent an e-mail to its customers Thursday, Politico reports, that says the legislation currently under consideration "does not meet our definition of responsible and sustainable reform" and "would likely have a significant negative impact on our partners and customers."
Anthem Blue Cross, a subsidiary of WellPoint, asks its customers to contact their congressional representatives "to get health care done -- and done right." It also asks them to visit their Web site.
The e-mail says health care reform in its current state could cause tens of millions of Americans to lose their private coverage and end up in a government-run plan, limit customers' choices of the products they can purchase and how they can purchase health coverage, and could increase premiums.
However, it should be noted that in fact, the current legislation in both the House and the Senate would
prohibit anyone with minimally sufficient private coverage from joining a government-run plan. Additionally, President Obama and other Democrats say one of their major goals is to give customers more choices through a national health insurance exchange, which would serve as a "marketplace" for insurance plans.
Some insurance industry insiders have actually described the legislation as a "bonanza" for the industry, given that insurance companies would have a huge new customer base, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Meanwhile, as talks between Democrats and Republicans could be breaking apart, the GOP is suggesting that Democrats may try to deny registered Republicans health care.
The Republican National Committee mailed a fundraising appeal to citizens recently, along with a questionnaire. The Associated Press reports that the questionnaire says the government could check voting registration records, "prompting fears that GOP voters might be discriminated against for medical treatment in a Democrat-imposed health care rationing system."
"Does this possibility concern you?" the survey asks.
RNC Spokesperson Katie Wright reportedly said the question was "inartfully worded."
"The RNC doesn't try to scare people," she said. "We're just trying to get the facts out on health care. And that's what we do every day."
