AHIP Lobbyist To GOP: Don't Give "Comfort To The Enemy" On Health Care

UPDATED BELOW

A top lobbyist for the major private insurance industry trade group, America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), urged Congressional Republicans to not even consider helping Democrats pass health care reform lest they aid an "enemy who is down."

Steve Champlin, a lobbyist for the Duberstein Group who represents AHIP, declared that the road to a bipartisan health care reform bill was, essentially, dead. And he urged GOP members to keep it that way.

"There is absolutely no interest, no reason Republicans should ever vote for this thing. They have gone from a party that got killed 11 months ago to a party that is rising today. And they are rising up on the turmoil of health care," said Champlin. "So when they vote for a health care reform bill, whatever it is, they are giving comfort to the enemy who is down."

"Long before the Republicans discovered that the House bill was a strategy to kill seniors and all that kind of stuff the plan was already unpopular," he added, underscoring why Republicans shouldn't attach themselves to the legislation.

The remarks came during the opening session of AHIP's annual State Issues Conference in which both Champlin and his co-panelist seemed to concede that reform would pass and will include a variation of a public option for insurance coverage.

"There are indications that there will be something in it called a public option, whether it is a state opt-in or opt-out," said Dan Meyer, another Duberstein Group employee and former Bush administration official. "The question that they have to deal with and what will guide their decision making process as they merge this bill is can we get 60 votes."

Champlin too, predicted that health care reform with a fairly robust public plan would likely make it through the House "by a narrow margin." He attributed the passage to unwillingness within the Democratic Party to contribute to an embarrassing and costly defeat for the president. "Dems do not want to be responsible for the failure of health care and the failure of Obama's top priority," he said.

Since the event was a conference for the private insurance industry, much of the panel's time was spent lamenting the vilification of private insurers. Champlin, in particular, was caustic in discussing how the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress had framed the debate. They are, he said trying to "motivate change through creating an enemy. And the enemy is the insurance company."

"To pass health care that means change and to motivate change through creating an enemy and the enemy is the insurance company," he said. "You see that. We see that because we have been buy trying to work this thing out... it turns out they are completely uninterested in working it out. So they want us where they've put us right now, which is an enemy. My concern about this is that while they got polling data that says that's where they want to be, that they got us where they want to put us. I'm not really convinced that's where the American people want to be."

Added Meyer: "The debate as we were leading into the August break was getting cast... in a way that folks who oppose dramatic health care reform have been successful in the past which is [arguing] that this is a government takeover... My view was there was a strategic decision made. Those who are pushing this cannot tolerate it being framed that way... so the best way to [change] that was to demonize the health insurance industry... It was a strategic very conscious decision."

Champlin, according to a review of lobbying records, was paid at least $400,000 by AHIP in 2008 and the same amount so far this year to lobby on health care related issues.

UPDATE: Champlin contacted the Huffington Post several hours after this report was initially published and stated that he was approaching the topic from the vantage point of a political analysts and not a strategist. He was not urging Republicans to oppose reform, he said, just making the point that it was what the party was likely to do. He acknowledged that all the quotes above were accurate.

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Comments

[cutesky]

01:56 AM on 10/24/2009

AHIP is the enemy !!! It's the enemy of the people !!

[liberalOrgonian]

04:08 PM on 10/23/2009

If the repub party is really a party of pro life...

They too should be calling and voting for Health Insurance reform.

112 US citizens die each day without health Insurance.
really,
pro life?

[liberalOrgonian]

04:00 PM on 10/23/2009

Yea, blame the other guy or scare them, we all know this game.
The Insurance co brought this on themselves.
They are there for profit!

Do you think for a moment they care about your health and well being?
They don't even Insure the SICK!!!!!!!!!!
As long as their JOB is to make MONEY, none of us are safe.
Personally
I DO NOT WANT TO SUPPORT THIS INDUSTRY.
On principals alone.

[SocialistBoy]

10:15 AM on 10/23/2009

Another @ss hole come to light!!

[frappe]

08:46 AM on 10/23/2009

To the health insurance industry, their customers are the enemy because they stand between them and their precious profits.

[1differentdrummer]

05:54 AM on 10/23/2009

So if you disagree with AHIP you are the enemy. I guess this firmly plants this industry group inside the R party, maybe violating the 501 c 3 rules if that is what they are.

[Denalidog]

05:07 AM on 10/23/2009

Why blame the insurance companies? The problem is, the country has no more money. Medicare has ended up costing 10 times more than predicted. The Medicare home health benefit was supposed to keep people out of the hospitals, but it has had the opposite effect. Sen Spector subscribes to the erroneous belief that if everybody had an annual checkup, we'd all spend less on healthcare, but in reality, people who see their doctors annually spend even more money. The Medicare drug benefit was the most irresponsible piece of legislation ever, and has cost the country a ridiculous amount of money and resulted in more seniors being over-medicated..In the states which have tried to enact their own healthcare reform, none of them have found an economically sound model. Go ahead, blame the Republicans, blame the insurance companies, but it won't do any good. There is no more money!

[Babzter]

08:14 AM on 10/23/2009

Your comments are thought-provoking, but without solid proof, they're a bit specious.

[yemaya]

12:46 PM on 10/23/2009

If Bush had allowed drug prices to have been negotiated, we could have saved billions. Instead, Americans pay more for drugs than any other country. There's alot we could be doing to save money and bring down the cost. Streamlining the system and eliminate waste for starters. Instead of pointing out the negatives republicans never actually contribute or partake in the solution. Nattering nabobs of negativity, as Alan Grayson says.

[thepoliticalcat]

02:22 AM on 10/23/2009

It is nothing short of revolting that a lobbyist for a special-interest group should show such disdain for the lives and health of his fellow citizens. If there is a god, this man will come down with some rare and undiagnosable illness, and his insurance company will deny his claims.

[Chip W]

01:08 AM on 10/23/2009

What could be accomplished but for all the self-serving games that are played. Then the games are taken as reality and nothing gets accomplished.

[SuzyQtsy]

12:55 AM on 10/23/2009

It's pretty obvious from this article, that the current chaos in America derives from insurance lobbyists. And it's pretty obvious that the insurance industry has everything to gain by keeping the lies and misinformation going strong. It may take our Marines, Army, Navy, Air Force, National Guard and Coast Guard combined, but we need to mount a strong defense because the insurance industry has declared war on our current Administration. They are dividing America for their own financial gain and they aim to win at any cost . . . even if they start another Civil War within the United States. Our Commander in Chief needs to take a strong stance, rise up, and drive insurance completely out of health care. We need to raise the American flag of victory over their evil carcasses. Republicans will thank us later. Single Payer!! Medicare for all!!

[thepoliticalcat]

02:23 AM on 10/23/2009

ReapUgly Conz will never thank us. They are bought and owned by the insurance lobby. Single Payer for all!

[SuzyQtsy]

03:06 PM on 10/23/2009

Cat: I know that some Republican politicians are bought and owned by insurance lobbies. But there are millions of honest human beings among them who have been misled by insurnace lobbyists. Insurance is so complex and confusing for most people that they fight for the enemy without even knowing. People fear that their money will be taken in the form of a tax when they do not realize their money is being stolen in the form of sky-rocketing insurance premiums. They do not realize that these funds need to be re-directed out of the pockets of lobbyists, insurance executives, and overpriced health care and right back into their own pockets, into the good health of the American economy, and toward the good health of all American citizens. Most could not give you an intelligible definition of the term "Socialized Medicine" but with fear and conviction shout this is what we want. Ignorance is a plague in America that kills far more than any physical plague. There is a vaccine that prevents the spread of ignorance. There is a cure. Use your words to cure the ignorant and to vaccinate others who may become victims. Don't waste your words or opportunities by calling them names. There is hope if we fight with the right kind of sword. Be a stealthy Navy Seal and go for the root of the problem. Pillaging the civilians is beneath a good soldier.

[Billl]

11:22 PM on 10/22/2009

A two part solution for fixing health care would make reform simple, straight forward, and save hundreds of billions of dollars annually.

A pure public option, with government sales tax funding, replacing insurance, along with distributing all government funded care only through government owned and operated hospitals, staffed by government employed doctors and health care providers, using VA systems, is the best solution for fixing half of the health care problem.

The second half of the solution is to have a pure private option, with private insurance and only private funding, paying for care and medications dispenssed by private providers, that would not be subjected to any government mandates.

Nobody can collect the money to pay for health care as cheaply as the government can through a national sales tax, and nobody can deliver high quality care and medications as cost effectively as the VA.

President Obama commented that “governments unfair advantages” would not be allowed to disrupt private health care’s businesses, however a CBO study to compare all proposed reforms, to a dual public/private plan, would scream that “governmments unfair advantages” offer the only solutions to save lives and prevent bankrupting families, employers, and our country.

Everyone choosing public care could have it no restrictions, no insurance, no co pays, free period.

Employers who select federal public care for their employees would not be required to pay for or have any further involvement with health care.

[thepoliticalcat]

02:27 AM on 10/23/2009

The problem with trying to implement a nationwide public option immediately is that it requires an enormous administrative staff to process the data and set up the framework. And you know that insurance companies will immediately dump as many of their customers as possible and raise the rates for the rest, in an attempt to swamp any such body. Employers might also be tempted to dump insurance wholesale, and the result -- which you will know if you've ever run even a small business -- will be chaos for quite a while, with the government taking all the blame as the insurance companies spend their billions lying to consumers. Sadly, they'll succeed with a large proportion of our fellow citizens. We need to move by steps on this issue if we are not to be defeated by these lying hacks and unpatriotic weasels.

[poaster]

10:47 PM on 10/22/2009

Well the gloves have come off now. Up till recently it has been covert efforts by the Health Insurance industry's to killl healthcare reform. Now their overt as he!!. They will lose. Public Option.......NOW.

[civilbehavior]

10:27 PM on 10/22/2009

I say we act like the enemy if we are going to be called one.

Lobbyists are making laws in washington to break our backs. $$$$ is their calling card.

SOO we take money AWAY from them and their kind.

CLOSE YOUR ACCOUNT at any of the four major banks. BofA, Citi, Chase or Wells Fargo and take it to a smaller bank or credit union. When you close it MAKE SURE to tell the bank manager that you are linking their particular "reversal in fortune" to the BIG MONEY being used in DC by LOBBYISTS to break our backs.

We starve them of their favorite w.e.a.p.o.n . We need to fight back by taking our money AWAY from them. Stop feeding the beast.

[ladyvader]

09:58 PM on 10/22/2009

Single payer

[njgal4obama]

09:54 PM on 10/22/2009

If we are their enemy, wouldn't it stand to reason that they are ours?

But for some reason, they still expect us to pay out of our ears to receive "aid and comfort" from them?

[thepoliticalcat]

02:30 AM on 10/23/2009

They're giving "aid and comfort" to our enemies, the bought-and-wholly-owned people who are supposed to represent our interests. With our money! Outrageous.