Whether you like all of the compromises or not, the White House’s strategy throughout this health care reform effort has been to bring all well-funded players on board and try to work with them, to avoid any of them launching overt, “Harry & Louise”-esque public campaigns against any reform whatsoever. The head negotiator for the health insurance industry’s collective lobbying arm (AHIP) has been this sneaky lady named Karen Ignagni, who had mostly kept her word to avoid a full-scale attack on reform efforts — until this weekend, when her organization released a 26-page report saying current compromises would dramatically raise everyone’s premiums and be terrible. Maybe a public option would help that? WHATEVER, SOCIALIST.
It is not a coincidence that Ignagni released this a few days before the Senate Finance Committee finally planned to get its damn bill out. The Washington Post was more than happy to help! (HERE IS A GOOD REBUTTAL THING.)
But this could be a good sign! If the insurers are finally starting to sweat, maybe it’s because Congress is actually planning on passing something decent. Or maybe nothing will pass at all! Everything is terrifying. Good show, all.
New Bill Would Raise Rates, Says Insurance Group [WP]
Is the Insurance Industry Declaring War? [TNR]
Karen Ignagni’s late hit [Michael Tomasky]
{ 39 comments }
Nothing will frighten Americans more that a 26 page insurance policy report.
Bastards!
so this means all this bullshit will be over soon, right? And we will get nothing and like it?
Sauve qui peut ! A la France pour l’assurance maladie !
Anthony Weiner’s got your number, Ms. Ignagni.
http://www.dailykostv.com/w/002242/
But yeah — saying Baucus’ bill doesn’t do enough to keep costs down was probably a shot in the foot.
Actually, I see this as encouraging. I would much rather see the insurance companies on the other side, where they belong.
I’ve been reading TR Reid’s The Healing of America, and I keep asking myself, WHY ISN’T EVERYBODY READING THIS BOOK? Jeezuss. If I had any hope at all that the morons would even look at it, I’d send copies to both of my state’s senators. That state, unfortunately, is Idaho.
I wouldn’t be sad if the Heath Insurance employers all went out of business and were forced onto the dole. They could have the choice of being homeless or working at the post office which is about the level of their skills.
Yeah, raise those rates. We’ll finally be able to get support for single-payer!
Wow she doesn’t even sound like a heartless bitch hijacking a Nordstrom truck at all. Ignagni, right? yeah weird. Nice shoes.
Considering that their proxies (Teabaggers, Rush, Glen Bekc, Militia Nuts, KKK, Various Op-Ed Whores, Libertarian Tards, George Will, various Blue Balled Blue Dog Demoncraps) turned their argument into a frothing wave of nuttiness, the Insurance Companies have little recourse but to jump in.
Of course, all the stories coming out about denying coverage do little to help them.
The health insurance industry needs AHIP replacement after kicking consumer ass non-stop for the last 50 years.
[re=432519]ManchuCandidate[/re]: i doubt that was the point. i mean it made so much sense at the time.
AHIP?! Angry Health Insurance Pricks? Antagonizing Hicks Ignorant of Politics?
Oh, right – it must be a reference to the Sugarhill Gang.
Is she holding a gun to our head or her head?
[re=432513]Bruno[/re]: It’s time we rescission their asses!
/Austrian Death Machine
~
Hard to be more OT than this, but:
Hollywood Movie of the Year Award
It’s a battle of the nerds: Star Trek and Harry Potter are neck and neck!
Karen O Ignagni = N. Korea Gaining!
DUNH DUNH DUNH!!!!!!!!
Proof enough for me, off to Bagram with her!
[re=432559]AbstinenceOnly Ed[/re]: Wow. That is awesome. And scary. Also.
[re=432537]Oldskool[/re]: She’s holding the gun to her own head, a la Cleavon Little in Blazing Saddles.
[re=432511]DoktorZoom[/re]: Po-tay-To!!!
AHIP: America’s Health Insurance Parasites
Does nobody else see this as a petulant threat on the part of the insurance companies? Only instead of just openly threatening to raise your premiums if there is any reform, they “commission a study” that finds… health insurance companies will raise your premiums if there is reform. Oh, that makes it ok and non-threatening. If it’s a study, they are merely performing a public service and not actually committing extortion on a massive scale.
[re=432577]Sweet Baby Cheeses[/re]: She’s holding the gun to her own head as she’s giving me head, which is terrifying, and kinda hot. Nohomo.
Dick Cheney is going to run the death panels?! Well, he is used to that sort of thing….
So, the health insurance industry’s plan of action is to raise the rates, thereby pushing more people into their only option – Medicare/Medicaid. What’s the difference between embracing the public option now or forcing it later? Oh, yeah. The American business model never exists in the reality of long term because there’s money to be had right now. As long as the gravy train keeps rolling…
OT. Our (lone) congressman held a health care discussion the other day. Someone complained about the speed of the deliberations – “our so-called representatives voting on a bill before we can read it.” Uh-huh.
Read the 26-page report or we shoot the puppy.
[re=432527]Extemporanus[/re]: To be fair, the bulk of the sacro-ilial damage occurred after AHIP joined forces with the lobbying group, American Health Option Plans. Let this be a lesson to all you aspiring break dancers/multibillion dollar corporate trollops out there.
Too clever, they name their collective lying arm after my home province’s beloved OHIP (Ontario Health Insurance Plan) under which, BTW, my own mother has had speedy surgeries for (early detected) lung cancer AND breast cancer and is still whooping it up today eight and five years later.
Dear God, now I think that the Senate plan might actually do some good. I’m so confused.
[re=432634]user-of-owls[/re]: Fair point on the timeline, and well taken.
I guess it’s the unabashed gusto of their most recent kicking and screaming that has exacerbated AHIP problems, and ours.
Also, I hope that your warning to aspiring break dancing corporations is well-heeded. Just look at what happened to Enron after its logo started trying to do a backspin.
An industry cabal threatening to raise their prices if a bill they don’t like passes? Surely this is a coincidence that the only other industry that does this sort of thing (on a local scale) is pro sports, the only other industry that’s specifically exempted from antitrust laws.
When are we finally going to get the socialism I voted for? I don’t need a lot of it; I’m talking Teddy Roosevelt, not Eugene Debs here.
[re=432653]Lionel Hutz Esq.[/re]: Yeah I know. That TNR rebuttal article about it is just even more confusing. It says the insurance industry didn’t get any sweetheart deal from the White House like Big Hospital and Big Drug got. But I thought the Baucus bill *was* their sweetheart deal.
Forget health care, what about the damn digital television BS? Where did my Matlock go? My Motorola gets nothing but Rachel Maddow without horizontal hold!
[re=432655]Extemporanus[/re]: AHIP, AHOP, somebody gonna git hurt. Or appointed RNC Chair.
[re=432671]Edywin[/re]: Tune to UHF already! Oh, look…Lost in Space!
[re=432687]user-of-owls[/re]: It’s the Capitolhill Gang, featuring Wonder Mike on the wheels of Steele!
“I said AHIP hop the hippie the hippie to AHIP hip hop a you dont stop the rock it to the bang bang boogie say up jumped the boogie to the rhythm of the boogie the beat!”
[re=432697]Extemporanus[/re]: Grandmaster Cash, baby!
“Don’t push me ‘cuz I’m close to the Ledge
I’m trying not to lose my bread
Uh huh ha ha ha”
I hope lying liar Karen Ignagni gets cancer of the puppy and then is dropped by her insurance company. And then her kidneys fail. In conclusion, choke on your own black heart, Karen.
launching overt, “Harry & Louise”-esque public campaigns
Wait, Pelosi’s first name is Louise? Oh, this so explains everything.
[re=432634]user-of-owls[/re]: AHIP-AHOP is dangerous stuff glorifying death?
What this means, those you out there with reasonably good health insurance, is that your premiums are going to increase quite a bit faster that previously expected. This will be due, of course, to the Health Insurance Industry’s need to recover all the money they spent to have this fraud of a cost assessment report produced by their fraud of an industry think tank.
Comments on this entry are closed.