Newsflash: Insurance Companies Oppose Reform
Posted on October 12th, 2009 by Levana Layendecker in News Clips, Profits Before People
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Like we have been saying, if the insurance companies win, you lose.
Today they didn't like what the CBO said about the Finance Bill. So, they just bought their own study that says what they want it say. (Feel free to browse their full report here: PDF)
HCAN National Campaign Director, Richard Kirsch had this to say:
"This is a transparent attempt by the health insurance industry to sabotage reform. Of course they're coming out with guns blazing at the 11th hour. They're out to protect their money and their power, and they'll go to any lengths - including circulating fake information - to stop real change.
The health insurance industry pretending that they care that premiums will go up is like the Yankees saying they are worried about hitting too many home runs. While there are problems with the Baucus bill, the health insurance industry is only sounding alarms now that the government is backing off from placing onerous fines on people who can’t afford the industry’s sky-high premiums.
The solution isn’t to do what the industry wants – force people to buy their overpriced insurance or pay a high fine. The solution is provide enough assistance to people to make health care affordable and to force the industry to compete with a public health insurance option so that they have to face real competition and lower their premiums.
While the insurance industry’s overall analysis is both wrong and self-serving, we would agree with one point it makes: placing a 40% tax on higher cost health care plans will only serve to raise premiums and out-of-pocket costs for families. Instead of taxing health care plans, Congress should raise revenues from households that earn more than $250,000."