Another Online Forum for AHIP
Posted on September 3rd, 2008 by Jason Rosenbaum in Profits Before People
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The health insurance industry is doing another one of those "online forums" in Minneapolis on Thursday. It's got the same problems as their last online forum they did last week in Denver:
On Monday, America's Health Insurance Plans held an online forum as part of their sham "listening tour." They asked for questions to be submitted to them via email, easily allowing them to pick and choose what they answered. They controlled the medium - with a moderator choosing questions for CEO Karen Ignagni to answer - and that allowed them to control the message. Judging from what actually went on during the forum, with softball questions and no followups, the insurance industry was allowed to spin their position on health care. You can watch the forum here.
As you may remember, we asked Health Care for America Now members to submit questions to AHIP's "listening tour" last week, and we received over 1,700 questions, copies of which were forwarded to AHIP. I've read through every question submitted, and to the best of my knowledge, AHIP didn't answer a single one.
So, since they're doing another online forum on Thursday, we thought we'd give them another shot. Here's the email I just sent to info@americanhealthsolution.org, the email address they are using to collect questions: (Feel free to use it to send your own questions, and go ahead and leave us a comment here with what you sent so we have a public record. Or you can use our email tool to email some questions to AHIP.)
Dear America's Health Insurance Plans:
Last week, when you held an online forum in Denver, Colorado, we asked our members - people from all over the United States - for questions they would like to ask the insurance industry, represented by America's Health Insurance Plans. Due to your releasing of your public schedule on a Friday before your Monday forum, there wasn't a lot of time to plan. Nevertheless, even though our email went out to our members on Monday morning at 10 am EST, leaving only a few hours before the online event, we received over 1,700 questions. A copy of those questions were emailed to you, as well.
I attended your online forum that day, and to the best of my knowledge, none of the 1,700 questions asked by real people all across this country were answered. The Campaign for an American Solution bills itself as a "candid and transparent conversation with Americans from all walks of life." In that spirit, we hope that this time, when you hold your online forum again on Thursday, you will answer some of the 1,700 questions you received last week. Every letter we (and you) received is available at http://healthcareforamericanow.org/page/content/ahip/
Everyone in this country deserves straight answers as to the insurance industry's role in health care reform. I and 1,700 other real Americans hope you will take the time to candidly, transparently, and fully answer some of the questions that have been posed to you. We also hope that going forward, you will release the times, dates, and locations of the rest of your listening tour well in advance so the public can make sure it is truly heard by the insurance industry.
Sincerely,
Jason Rosenbaum
We'll see if AHIP answers your questions this time around. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if we put enough pressure on them this time for them to answer a few. Still, given that questions are pre-screened and there is no opportunities for follow-ups, even if they do answer a few real questions, they will pick questions they can easily spin, leaving no room to pin them down on their bad practices.
Without real public forums in unmoderated locations (virtual or physical), the health insurance industry's listening tour is nothing but a sham, a piece of propaganda used to convince America it's happy with the current state of health care in this country.
Don't buy it. No matter what they say, they're not really listening.
So why are you even bothering to engage the private insurers? Why not just ignore them, advocate for single-payer (which eliminates them) and move on? I'm not a concern troll, but I am deeply troubled by HCAN's insistence on a role for private insurance in their "reform" goals ("A choice of a private insurance plan, including keeping the insurance you have if you like it"). I know that the bulk of HCAN supporters are well-intentioned, caring people like me. HCAN, as an organization, purports to support single-payer. Do they support SB840 in California? No. Do they support HR676 nationally? NO. Why not? You tell me. I would suggest that there is some connection to the insurance companies they profess to abhor. And I'm not suggesting that the insurance companies are villains, they need to make a profit by law and they are in a highly competitive market. But they are simply not needed to finance health care.
Health Care for America Now supports no legislation at the moment, which means we do not support SB840 or HR676, but we are not against them either.
We have said over and over again that a properly designed single payer system fits within our statement of principles. However, it is true that so do other options.
Either way, folks who advocate for a single payer solution will find a powerful ally in us. We have a common enemy - the insurance industry - and we can and will fight them together.
Sorry Jason,
But I've got to agree with Bart, HCAN doesn't really seem to have a plan, and a lot of us can't ally ourselves will an organization that really isn't proposing much of anything. We've seen what a hybrid system has wrought in Massachusetts, and we know that it is definitely the wrong way to go. Take a real stand!