Insurance Industry Strikes Back at Health Care Reform

Price Waterhouse Cooper Audit Suggests $4000/Year More for Insured

The health insurance industry, long the punching bag of President Obama and people who want single payer health care, has decided to strike back with a report from Price Waterhouse Cooper that suggests that Obamacare will cost people $4000/yr.

The White House has reacted very sharply, claiming that the report is not worth the paper it is printed on. The Republican Party, however, has reacted with glee, with Senator John Barrasso, one of the two actual physicians in the Senate, weighing in on the Fox News Network. Barrasso pointed out that one problem with the current version of health care reform is that while taxes and fees kick in immediately, subsidies for buying health care insurance would not kick in until 2013.

Another problem with health care reform is the surtax on so called "Cadillac" insurance plans, the idea being to discourage plans that encourage overuse of the health care system. Unfortunately, by 2019, most insurance plans will be considered "Cadillac", subject to the tax, thus morphing into a general tax on health insurance, providing no incentive to choose cheaper plabs.

Hitherto the insurance industry has been silent about health care reform, hoping not to have its interests too damaged. However the decision to come out with a report, which suggests that by 2019 people will pay $4000 a year more by 2019 than is currently being rejected, constitutes a new, aggressive push back against health care reform. It also complicates efforts to pass health care reform bills in the Congress, particularly in the Senate.

Hospital groups and doctors have already expressed a dim view of health care reform, despite the "white coat" photo op that took place recently at the White House. Health care reform, by most polling, has become increasingly unpopular with the public in general.

The plan by Democrats is, so far, to ram through health care reform no matter what. Whether they will succeed or not largely depends on how many democratic lawmakers value their political careers over the chance to pass legislation which liberals have dreamed about for decades.