As Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill scrambled to pass the healthcare overhaul last month, America’s Health Insurance Plans launched a nationwide campaign to warn America that premiums would go up if the bill passed.
AHIP Press Secretary Robert Zirkelbach said the new reform law would make healthcare more expensive “by imposing billions of dollars in new healthcare taxes and encouraging people to wait until they are sick before getting insurance.”
AHIP President and CEO Karen Ignagni said the new legislation “will exacerbate the healthcare costs crisis facing many working families and small businesses.”
Even before reform passed, AHIP officials said the rising costs of medication, screening tests and medical treatments are the main culprits behind rising healthcare costs.
AHIP’s campaign follows recent public inquiries by the federal government over double-digit premium hikes by insurers in several states. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has demanded an explanation for the hikes in the face of what she estimates is a significant profit for the insurance companies.
Zirkelbach argued in return that insurance plans’ total costs, including all overhead, marketing and profits, amount to 4 percent of the nation’s healthcare spending.
“Reform also needs to address the other 96 percent,” he said.
At the White House last month with executives from the UnitedHealth Group, WellPoint, Aetna, the Healthcare Service Corporation and CIGNA HealthCare, Sebelius asked why they are raising rates and taking in what she says are multi-billion-dollar profits.
On Feb. 10, she asked Anthem Blue Cross to defend its 39 percent rate hike in California.
Sebelius isn’t alone in attacking the Blues. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) has demanded an explanation for Wellmark’s double-digit rate hike in Iowa, and the American Medical Association has released a report showing health plans face too little competition.
The AMA report found that the largest insurers have a combined market share of 70 percent or more in 24 of the 43 states surveyed. “The near total collapse of competitive and dynamic health insurance markets has not helped patients,” said AMA President J. James Rohack, MD.
According to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the new healthcare reform law will “hold insurance companies accountable.”