{"id":413071,"date":"2010-03-10T17:15:09","date_gmt":"2010-03-10T22:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/?p=78943"},"modified":"2010-03-10T17:15:09","modified_gmt":"2010-03-10T22:15:09","slug":"sebelius-blasts-health-insurance-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/413071","title":{"rendered":"Sebelius Blasts Health Insurance Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_78944\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"width: 490px\"><a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/sebelius.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-78944\" title=\"Sebelius\" src=\"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/sebelius-480x343.jpg\" alt=\"Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (EPA\/ZUMAPRESS.com)\" width=\"480\" height=\"343\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (EPA\/ZUMAPRESS.com)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Just two days after President Obama <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2010\/03\/08\/AR2010030801703.html\">whacked<\/a> the insurance industry for being an impediment to much-needed health  care reform, Kathleen Sebelius took a second swing.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking  Wednesday at a national health insurance conference, the White House  Health and Human Services secretary blasted the nation&#8217;s insurers for a  laundry list of recent trends, including <a href=\"http:\/\/www.californiahealthline.org\/articles\/2010\/2\/5\/anthem-blue-cross-to-hike-premium-rates-for-individual-policy-holders.aspx\">skyrocketing  premiums<\/a> that threaten to leave patients uncovered, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ama-assn.org\/ama\/pub\/news\/news\/health-insurance-competition.shtml\">industry  consolidation<\/a> that has squeezed patient choice, and <a href=\"http:\/\/hcfan.3cdn.net\/a9ce29d3038ef8a1e1_dhm6b9q0l.pdf\">leaping  profits<\/a> reported by the same companies now hiking costs on their  customers.<\/p>\n<p><div id=\"attachment_3087\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"width: 140px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3087\" title=\"congress\" src=\"http:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/congress.jpg\" alt=\"Image by: Matt Mahurin\" width=\"130\" height=\"130\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image by: Matt Mahurin<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"floatButtons\">\n<div style=\"float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/digg.com\/tools\/diggthis.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/div>\n<div style=\"float: left; margin-bottom: 10px;\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\"\n\tsrc=\"http:\/\/d.yimg.com\/ds\/badge2.js\"\n\tbadgetype=\"square\">\n\t<?php the_permalink(); ?><\/script><\/div>\n<div style=\"float: left; margin-right: 10px;\">\n\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\">\ntweetmeme_source = \"TWI_news\";\ntweetmeme_service = \"bit.ly\";\n<\/script> <script src=\"http:\/\/tweetmeme.com\/i\/scripts\/button.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"float: left;\"><a name=\"fb_share\" type=\"box_count\" href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php\">Share<\/a><script src=\"http:\/\/static.ak.fbcdn.net\/connect.php\/js\/FB.Share\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p> A year after Obama entered the White  House with a promise to tackle those very issues, &#8220;the cracks in the  health care system have opened even wider,&#8221; Sebelius told hundreds of  members of America\u2019s Health Insurance Plans gathered at the Ritz-Carlton  in Washington. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to figure out a new strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The  new strategy Sebelius has in mind, of course, revolves around the  health reform bills currently bouncing through Congress. While both the  House and Senate have passed versions of those sweeping proposals, the  surprise victory of GOP Sen. Scott Brown (Mass.) in January has left the  Democrats without the 60 votes they need to push a united bill through  the Senate under normal rules. Democratic leaders are now hoping to tap  the budget reconciliation process to move the legislation with a simple  50-member majority. Meanwhile, the process remains stalled indefinitely.<\/p>\n<p>The  lobbying power of the influential insurance industry would surely help  get those reforms over the finish line, and Sebelius, switching gears  from attack dog to lobbyist, implored AHIP members Wednesday to put  their considerable weight behind the bills.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s  not too late to work on this together,&#8221; Sebelius said.<\/p>\n<p>To  win AHIP&#8217;s support, however, Democrats would have to tweak their  proposals considerably. Karen Ignagni, president and CEO of AHIP, which  lobbies for the nation\u2019s largest health insurance companies, insisted  that the group is behind the general concept of health care reform, but  rejects the Democrats&#8217; plans out of concern that they would &#8220;make the  system more expensive, not more affordable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are  very disturbed about what is happening with \u2026 underlying costs,\u201d she  said.<\/p>\n<p>Ignagni said the industry wants a more sweeping  individual mandate &#8212; meaning the guarantee of more customers &#8212; before  it&#8217;ll sign on to the rest of the reform package, which would prohibit  insurers from denying coverage for preexisting conditions or arbitrarily  hiking premiums.<\/p>\n<p>In one important sense, Ignagni is  exactly right: The cost of delivering health care has historically  grown at a rate much faster than either wages or inflation, and  ever-improving medical technologies have only accelerated that trend.  Indeed, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services <a href=\"http:\/\/content.healthaffairs.org\/cgi\/content\/abstract\/hlthaff.2009.1074\">reported<\/a> last month that Americans spent $2.5 trillion on health care in 2009, a  figure representing 17.3 percent of the nation&#8217;s economy and a jump of  1.1 percentage points from 2008 &#8212; the largest single-year leap since  1960 when the government began keeping such records. And if the cost of  medical care is increasing faster than the rest of the economy, then the  costs to insure that care will necessarily do the same.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We  should put affordability at the top of the agenda,&#8221; Ignagni said.<\/p>\n<p>Still,  the industry has done little to explain why insurance companies  continue to consolidate their operations, leaving patients with fewer  and fewer options in most markets. Indeed, the American Medical  Association <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ama-assn.org\/ama\/pub\/news\/news\/health-insurance-competition.shtml\">recently  found<\/a> that, in 24 states, just two companies control 70 percent or  more of the market share. \u201cThe near total collapse of competitive and  dynamic health insurance markets has not helped patients,\u201d AMA President  J. James Rohack said in a recent statement.<\/p>\n<p>Nor have  insurers had much luck justifying why industry profits are skyrocketing  (up an average of 56 percent in 2009, by Sebelius&#8217; math) at the same  time that companies are hiking premiums in the double digits. Ignagni&#8217;s  explanation that insurers &#8220;must be solvent to pay claims&#8221; likely won&#8217;t  meet the approval of Sebelius, who warned that the cost hikes would only  throw patients off the rolls.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Americans are willing to  pay a fair price &#8230; as long as it gives real security when someone  gets sick,&#8221; Sebelius said.<\/p>\n<p>The saga isn&#8217;t over.  Sebelius has asked for AHIP to come to the table with changes in the  Democrats&#8217; reform proposals, and Ignagni has accepted.<\/p>\n<p>The  ball is now in the court of the insurers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (EPA\/ZUMAPRESS.com) Just two days after President Obama whacked the insurance industry for being an impediment to much-needed health care reform, Kathleen Sebelius took a second swing. Speaking Wednesday at a national health insurance conference, the White House Health and Human Services secretary blasted the nation&#8217;s insurers for a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4315,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-413071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4315"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413071\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}