Insurance lobbyist blasts Dean's 'Medicare option' compromise

Insurance lobbyist blasts Dean's 'Medicare option' compromise

by Jed Lewison

Earlier today, Howard Dean proposed resolving the public option impasse by allowing all Americans -- regardless of age -- to purchase their health insurance from Medicare instead of being legally mandated to purchase insurance in the private sector.

Karen Ignani, the chief lobbyist for the health insurance industry, slammed Dean's proposal because, she says, Medicare "is a government-run program." True, Medicare is a government-run program -- but it's also a a helluva' lot more popular than the private insurers on whose behalf she lobbies.

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The reality is that the only people who stand to lose by creating an optional public plan for health insurance is the health insurance industry itself. What they want is a mandate requiring everybody to buy private health insurance. That's why they are fighting any sort of public option -- they want a monopoly over a system in which people are legally required to buy their product. It's unfortunate that they could get their way.

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AHIP was formed through the merger of Health Insurance Association of America (HIAA) and American Association of Health Plans (AAHP). The HIAA ran the heavily criticized "Harry and Louise" advertisements that helped kill Bill Clinton's health care reform efforts in the early 1990s.