Aside from the health care reform bill being passed by the Senate Finance Committee, the other big story on the reform front last week may have been the report AHIP released finding, among other things, that the legislation in its current form would significantly raise the price of premiums for most consumers. (I discussed the AHIP report and a more comprehensive one from Oliver Wyman, Inc., in another blog.)

It was very disheartening to see the Obama administration almost immediately discredit the reports as nothing more than insurance industry propaganda (“lies”) intended to disrupt Tuesday’s Senate Finance Committee vote. For me it reprised a most unfortunate if-you’re-not-with-us-you’re-against-us attitude I sensed from the Obama team earlier in the reform debate, one that had seemed to be fading in recent weeks. As I have stated previously in this space, just because a certain entity, in this case the health insurance industry, doesn’t agree with every last detail of the proposed reform measures doesn’t mean it is against reform altogether. In fact, I believe the insurance industry is being very unfairly characterized as obstructionist when, actually, it has eagerly endorsed reform for quite some time. AHIP president Karen Ignagni rather eloquently makes this point, along with a number of other worthwhile ones, in an October 20 Washington Post article. 

To say that the AHIP report was an attempt to derail Tuesday’s vote is rather shortsighted. If the insurance industry really wanted to obstruct reform, it would hardly wait until two days before a subcommittee’s vote on proposed legislation. It would have launched a far more organized and intense offensive many months ago, one that in all likelihood would have been successful by this point. Instead, the insurance industry has been seated quietly at the table, working closely with Senator Max Baucus and other reformers without fiat. In exchange, the industry receives public vilification as reform’s arch enemy any time it voices opposition to certain aspects of the plan.

As I’ve said numerous times, the insurance industry has no interest in blocking the reform effort. It has had its own positive agenda for changing the system for quite some time. Insurers merely want reform to be fair, equitable and amenable for all of the parties it will inevitably impact. That doesn’t seem like much to ask, yet it seems more and more likely that it’s not going to happen.

On an unrelated note, congratulations to the Philadelphia Phillies on winning the National League pennant and making a second consecutive trip to the World Series!