March 9
Insurance Industry Backing Reform?
While America’s Health Insurance Plans, the health insurance industry’s trade group, has asserted that it backs Obama’s plans for massive health care reform, including embracing the concept of universal health care for the first time in history, critics are skeptical. In reading the AHIP’s publication of its policies, one can see that the industry’s position has not really changed. The health insurance industry seems to have the same selfish desires it has expressed all along, including asking the government to pay for the care of the sickest and most expensive Americans. They would also like the option of offering bare bones plans, free of state regulations and restrictions which control their premiums. Will private insurance companies play any positive role in the reform movement set into motion by Obama, or will they simply be another enemy to conquer on the path to a better health care system for America?