Full Court Press

by digby

So the insurance companies are doubling down:

By releasing a transparently hyperbolic and self-serving study on the effects of health reform, the insurance industry appears to have blundered in a big way. They discredited themselves in the eyes of the media elite, alienated potentially sympathetic members of Congress, and rallied Democrats around a common foe. So what are they doing now? They seem to be trying the same stunt again, with a brand new study. It’s not as deceptive as the last one. But it’s not going to win any points for intellectual honesty, either. This time the study’s sponsor is the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA), rather than America’s Health Insurance Programs. The hired gun accounting firm is Oliver Wyman, instead of PriceWaterhouseCoopers. But the message is the same as before: Pass reform, as currently envisioned, and insurance premiums will go way up.

Can someone please explain to me why this isn’t a blatant threat? Nice little health care system you have here. Be a shame if anything happened to it.

In a normal country, this kind of corporate threat, in which they openly say that unless they get their way, they will raise premiums sky high and make everyone suffer, would be considered criminal. After all, premium pricing is entirely in their hands — and that’s why we are in the terrible situation we are in today.

This new report, much like the last one, leaves out the information about subsidies, so the amounts are very scary to the average person. But that’s not the only point. They are also signaling to the deficit scolds that they have something valuable to trade with, namely that the insurance companies are going to gouge the government hard if they don’t get their way. The deficit scolds will naturally use that as another reason to defeat health care reform.

And I’m still not sure that this insurance company salvo doesn’t have a kabuki element. We’ll have to see if this second report, from a different “trusted” source doesn’t give this gambit some restored respectability. (Hopefully, this will help.)

Update: Blitzer was pretty brutal with Karen Ignani today, basically implying that she hired Price Waterhouse to come up with a specific result. If that attitude holds up, it’s good news.

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