Evidence That Health Care Reform Is Moving In The Right Direction

Evidence #1: The health insurance lobbying groups are freaking out.

On the eve of the Senate Finance Committee vote on the Baucus Debacle, scheduled for tomorrow, AHIP (the helpful folks that represent the private insurers) released a memo and report yesterday to “Member Plan Presidents and CEOs” detailing just how much they’re going to have to raise rates if the Baucus bill passes. Because they weren’t going to raise rates regardless of reform passing?

Comment Scott P points us to an blog post debunking the PriceWaterhouseCooper/AHIP memo. Yeah, I’m sure it’s just a coincidence they released the report the day before the SFC vote.

Ezra Klein also weight in, calls the report “deceptive.”

Evidence #2: Health insurance stocks are down since September, around the same time the Public Option really started gaining steam.

Nate points out that the stock market has been going up since September, while health insurance stocks have been going down.

You know what would really make things better? If our legislators came to the realization that their job is not actually to protect the profits of health insurance industries but is to make the lives of the majority of Americans better. Health insurance companies actually do a great job in their primary mission which is to make money for their shareholders. The way they make money is to take premiums from healthy people and deny care to sick people.

As usual, Rep. Anthony Weiner nails it. The insurance industry is actually making the case for the Pubic Option.

That does put it in perspective. The insurance companies are telling us that they are going to raise our rates. They don’t want a public option because they want new customers and money from the government to help subsidize those customers. They have made no promises that less healthy people will be able to afford their premiums.