Private Insurance Stays Silent, 'Neutral' On Health Care Repeal

WASHINGTON -- After Republican leadership failed to pass repeal legislation in the Senate on Wednesday night, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee was quick to pounce, sending out press releases accusing those who voted in the yea of caving to "big insurance."

It was a nostalgia-inducing charge, riffed largely from the script that the party used during the actual legislation-making process. Private insurance companies are oft vilified and horribly regarded. Tying them to the GOP makes for effective politics.

But it also glosses over some policy nuance.

While America's Health Insurance Plans, the private insurance trade group, spent millions (through the Chamber of Commerce) to defeat the health care bill, it has yet to take a formal position on repeal. One insurance industry official described the group as "neutral" on the matter. But AHIP has said next to nothing about the votes.

The group hardly qualifies as a champion of the law. Post-passage, its press and news releases have been a conduit for unflattering stories about Affordable Care Act developments.

In terms of legislative action, however, AHIP does appear more interested in -- drastically -- reforming the president's signature legislation than in axing it altogether, undoubtedly cognizant that, once implemented, the bill will increase the number of individuals required to buy their product.

"We continue to believe that changes are needed to the health care reform law in order to minimize coverage disruptions and cost increases for families and employers," said Robert Zirkelbach, press secretary for AHIP. "While the new law will bring more people into the system, major provisions will raise costs and disrupt the coverage people have today, including: new taxes on small businesses' health insurance; age rating restrictions that will cause premiums to skyrocket for younger workers; and massive Medicare Advantage cuts that will result in higher premiums, reduced benefits, and fewer choices for seniors.

"We will continue to work with members of Congress from both parties to address these issues."

Comments

[groland]

03:18 PM on 02/10/2011

Of course they will remain silent. The entire package is a boom for private insurers in that it will provide a larger pool of healthier customers. We need to ask why it is that private insurers get to insure the healthier younger pool, while the Government must then pick up the older, retired pool of citizens who are inevitably going to be sicker and need more care.

If you work and have good benefits, you and your employer can pay for 40 years. If you remain healthy, very little is paid out. Then when you retire and get Medicare, the insurer that you have been paying for 40 years if off the hook and the Government must step in. This is entirely unfair to taxpayers. Just one more reason why we need a single payer plan.

[Virgil Kane]

03:21 PM on 02/04/2011

Aren't the insurance companies the REAL death panels?

[Philclock]

03:06 PM on 02/04/2011

Well, DUH!

"Private" insurance is in such a regulatory straight-jacket, under the thumbs of federal and state agencies, they might as well be Medicare. The despicable Obamacare? "Private" insurers are now forced, under penalty of law, to operate their business with A SPECIFIC MEDICAL LOSS RATIO NOT TO EXCEED 85%!

Barney Frank and pals ran FNMA and FHLMC in to the ground; "private" insurance is next.

[Actraiser]

06:09 PM on 02/04/2011

MLR might mean something if the industry didn't re-classify administrative expenses as medical expenses.

http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=c9a3b9b4-175f-4b71-9086-a080e2b08480

[Philclock]

06:59 PM on 02/04/2011

Jay Rockefeller, Trust Fund baby extraordinaire, governor-for-life on the backs of West Virginians, who'll pay another fat pension when he retires, piled on top of all the unspent political contributions he'll have lying around in shoeboxes.

Now THERE's the guy I trust to make ALL my health care decisions!

[mikeinoregon]

02:31 PM on 02/04/2011

If they know what's good for them they'll keep quiet. They have seen how opponents of anything obama have been demonized and punished.

[massjim]

08:29 AM on 02/04/2011

Of course Private insurance is silent ... Sec. Sebelius effectively gagged them by threatening retribution if they critisized health care reform in a letter to health insurers, saying they would get 'locked out'.

[sugerdog]

06:54 AM on 02/04/2011

Everyone paying about 30.00 a month on health care sounds about right to me. That's about a savings of 90.00 a month on people who just can't afford health insurance and go without it.Now if you get sick you have coverage {full coverage} and that means so much to people that are in there forty & fifties trying to balance this high cost of living and lack a few years before the get their medicare because if you lost your job and to start over again its a little harder to find a good paying job at that age and getting by becomes very hectic and worrisome. Thank you Mr president for your concern for the American people, God Bless !

[eden4barack08]

06:51 AM on 02/04/2011

Insurance cos fond themselves between a rock and a hard place. This reform was good news for them in that it guaranteed them more than 30 million new customers, but bad news because it imposes strict regulations and protections for those customers.
Of course what they'd like is to keep the new customers, sans all the regulations and protections.
No doubt they're breathlessly holding out to see if their cons friends can achieve this for them.

[massjim]

09:04 AM on 02/04/2011

No, they are holding out because Sebelius threatened they would be left out if they dared critisize HCR. Gagging free speech, just like in Egypt.

[eden4barack08]

09:14 AM on 02/04/2011

LOL..and the poor, powerless companies have no choice but to obey? Please tell me you don't seriously believe that in our country a little ol' HHS Secretary is more powerful than megabillionaire corporations?

[CatOut]

12:55 PM on 02/04/2011

An economic penalty for voicing your opinion is not a gag on free speech. You can say whatever you want, but you may have economic repercussions, not life-threatening ones. Not allowing free speech is throwing someone in jail for their opinions (think Nelson Mandela), beheading them (think Islamic terrorists), or cutting off all flow of information (think Egypt or North Korea). Be careful how you throw around the term.

[structurequity]

11:48 PM on 02/03/2011

Insurance companies under the present course of events stand to make ever more buckets full of money so there voice is one of calm hand wringing with a lotion of, we got them coming and going. They do, for their vested interest has been codified as deep up ours.

[NJProgressiveIndie]

11:47 PM on 02/03/2011

Well of course the private health insurance cartels are remaining silent and "neutral" on the repeal. They are hoping that the entire reform package will be scuttled, while making back room deals with their Republican and Tea Party allies, and all of the SAGs and judges to backdoor the mandate back in--so they can quietly get their 30+ million new customers and the resulting record profits.

Meanwhile, the part of the bill that would have protected people from losing their insurance from pre-existing conditions, parents keeping their kids on their policy until age 26, etc.--off the table for good.

[Democrat in the South]

11:17 PM on 02/03/2011

Wendell Potter says insurance cos. have no intention of being for repeal. He says ALL they want to do is take away consumer protections and regulations. They CANNOT be trusted.

[AKJM]

11:14 PM on 02/03/2011

Of course they are, this repeal is short sighted and will only be temporary if passed, but it also leads a direct path to single-payer

[mindara115]

10:00 PM on 02/03/2011

Why is it I don't believe a word any health insurer has to say or not say? Could it be that I have this crazy idea their silence was bought with a king's ransom a long time ago?

[luminavi]

09:24 PM on 02/03/2011

Unfortunately, private insurance is already preparing for the law's repeal.

Premiums are going up everywhere. They need more money because they're now filling money bags so they can buy off both Republicans and Democrats in Congress from replacing the individual mandate with a Public Option, or from bringing up any real discussion about health care cost containment.

I wish people would quit harping on the judge and busting his chops. The individual mandate was never going to work or pass. Heck, we should all be scared if the SCOTUS upholds the individual mandate. The law was profoundly defective to begin with.

What we need to do now is start pushing Congress and the White House for the Public Option. This is what a REAL health care bill should have. It would cover the uninsured, drive down costs in offering the insurance companies competition, and it could be as simple as just expanding the scope of existing Medicare.

We should ALL get together and ask the SCOTUS to uphold Vinson's ruling. The ACA law as it stands right now stinks to high heavens. Try READING it yourselves, and you'll see what I mean.

We need to act now, before the insurance industry gets those money bags filled -- and we get sold out by both parties (again). The Democrats' version of health care was nothing more than a big FAT gift to the insurance companies. The Republicans' version of health care will be to table and delay any further legislative initiatives.

[Democrat in the South]

11:19 PM on 02/03/2011

It won't work without a mandate. We know what you're up to. And IT won't work either.

[luminavi]

12:53 AM on 02/04/2011

Really? Then you know I'm for healthcare reform. But I want TRUE reform, damn it. Not a bailout for the insurance companies. The only true healthcare reform is either an expansion of the scope of current Medicare, or a distinct Public Option. The ACA law as it is right now is a JOKE. Too many compromises to appease the corporatists.

And you're a Democrat? You really want the healthcare law as it is right now? The only ones who benefit from this are the insurance companies. Our hands are being tied, and we're being fed wholesale into their maws. Surely you can see this.

[luminavi]

12:38 PM on 02/04/2011

Let me add: it won't work without a mandate. No, it won't. The mandate will be struck down. It's just not legally possible.
BUT ... BUT! ... BUT, it will WORK as a TAX. They should've made it part of the Medicare tax. The Dems balked at it because the word "tax" didn't poll too well. But technically speaking, if the word "mandate" is operationally changed to "tax," then the SCOTUS has no choice but to go along. The government has pretty much unlimited power to TAX. But a mandate isn't a tax. We have to call it a tax for it to work.

[Actraiser]

11:50 AM on 02/04/2011

"Heck, we should all be scared if the SCOTUS upholds the individual mandate."

To those democrats who are worried, and to those Republicans who feel like gloating, I say there is absolutely no chance that the US Supreme Court will rule against the individual mandate. It was a provision put in for the benefit of the health insurance industry. Just as the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of corporations in the Citizens United case, so shall they rule in favor of the insurance companies regarding the individual mandate.

Ruling against the mandate would only accelerate the health care delivery crisis in this country, and there may very well be a reinvigorated cause for *GASP!* a public health plan. Big health insurance and lobbyist influenced politicians on both sides of the aisle don't want that.

[luminavi]

12:45 PM on 02/04/2011

The courts will rule regardless of financial or political consequences. Their job is to consider mainly the LEGAL consequences of court decisions. To hell if it causes trillions. Is it constitutional? That's their mindset.

The SCOTUS has no choice but to strike down the mandate. If they uphold it, it will tear apart the political foundations of the country and one constitutional crisis after another. The full power of the state will be unleashed, and there's no getting it back into its cage.

But this is our chance to FIX things. We have to push now for the Public Option. The PO is the only truly democratic way. That bloody mandate is a blatant corporatist solution.

[patches12]

07:57 PM on 02/03/2011

While the new law will bring more people into the system, major provisions will raise costs and disrupt the coverage people have today, including: new taxes on small businesses' health insurance; age rating restrictions that will cause premiums to skyrocket for younger workers; and massive Medicare Advantage cuts that will result in higher premiums, reduced benefits, and fewer choices for seniors.

Duuhhhhh .... maybe I missed something but this hardly sounds like "neutrality" to me??

[sugerdog]

07:16 AM on 02/04/2011

Where did you get all this republican information ? You must be in a high tax bracket or own a corp.or a large company. Well its time for the rich to pay their part in this new Ara of times. SO ALL THIS MONEY YOU HAVE MADE OR SAVED FOR THE PAST 12 YEARS IS OVER ! DUHHH Maybe you will be reminded that its all about your income that you make. What you will pay for your health care insurance is based on that ! Theres way more people in America thats middle class than higher class , So we know who your speaking for DUHHHHHH.

[jARED w]

06:52 PM on 02/03/2011

I just checked several leading dictionaries, and nowhere is "lobbied the Republican Party and conservative judges to vote for repeal" listed as a definition of "silent."