HMOs Demand More Blood to Suck from the Baucus Bill

October 13, 2009 (LPAC)—The parasites of the health insurance lobby published a report Oct. 11 that says they would be forced to raise rates even higher than they already planned, under the Obama-supported Baucus bill facing a Senate committee vote later this week.

A most "scholarly" study conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers for the America's Health Insurance Plans lobby, contends that the cost of the average family policy is approximately $12,300 today, and will rise to $21,900 in 2019 under current law and to $25,900 under the Baucus bill.

The projected increases means the insurance business would rip the average family off for $10,400 additional per year by 2019, instead of a mere additional $6,400.

AHIP's argument is that not enough people will be forced onto their health plans quickly enough by the Baucus bill, since the Senate Finance Committee voted on Oct. 2 to lower the penalties on those who wait to sign up.

Predictably, the Obama apparatus inside and outside Congress went into orbit at the AHIP revelations that premiums will rise under their plan—something they have assiduously lied about for months. White House spokeswoman Linda Douglass called the report a "self-serving analysis." "It comes on the eve of a vote that will reduce the industry's profits," Douglass told TalkingPointsMemo.com. "It is hard to take it seriously."

Senate Finance Committee spokesman Scott Mulhauser, in defending the Nazi health reform, called the AHIP report "a health insurance company hatchet job, plain and simple."