The White House and AHIP have a deal on health reform. I can’t see item on which the parties disagree. And if you look at what AHIP is saying in its protest adds, the basic message is: the deal is still on, and we want this bill to pass. Just stop blaming us.

The public option was never just a “sliver” as Obama tried to claim. It was about a fundamental moral right and the role of government. But what it was also about was a huge amount of money.

The insurance companies have been taking an incredible amount of heat lately for their stunning rate increases. Anthem kicked things off with their 39% increases in California, but these were not isolated hikes. WellPoint, Anthem’s parent company, is increasing rates by double digits in at least 11 states. And other big insurance companies are hiking rates in at least half a dozen more states.

The idea that insurance rate hikes are driven by increases in the underlying cost of medical care has also been pushed by AHIP, the insurance industry’s top lobbying front group.

Given the health insurance industry’s duplicity on everything having to do with the health care system and their role in it, it shouldn’t surprise anyone to find out that this talking point is a straight up lie.

The fact that the insurance industry and AHIP is behind the health care attack ads from the Chamber of Commerce is something we (and others) have suspected for months now. It’s finally been proven by Peter Stone at the National Journal.

For many long years, I’ve rummaged around the AHIP (America’s Health Insurance Plans) web site quite regularly. Do yourself and the American people a favor, and in the days and weeks ahead, check in from time-to-time with this despicable organization.

Tomorrow, Susan Pearl is coming to Washington, D.C. She’s coming on behalf of her son, Ian Pearl. Ian survives on a ventilator, a lasting condition stemming from respiratory collapse he suffered in 1991. His premiums from a Guardian Insurance policy Susan bought in 1981 have risen from $100 per month to over $3,000 per month. [...]

Alan Grayson should get another shot at CNN’s commentator Alex Castellanos, now that Castellanos is finally going to be forced to admit he’s a paid insurance industry shill.

There is a new “study” [PDF] out today, this time paid for by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. It comes only days after the much talked about “study” from AHIP, and (surprise!) comes to very similar conclusions. The Blue Cross Blue Shield conclusion is that premiums would increase even faster with reform, unless we [...]

  Olympia Snowe and Rahm Emanuel are both pushing hard for their “trigger” idea recently. The idea is the public option would only go into effect if the health insurance industry kept raising people’s rates at a rapid pace. (I believe, after studying the trigger created by Snowe, that it was designed to never be [...]

Insurers have powerful incentives to cherry pick the young and discourage older/sicker patients. A strong PO would have incentives to offset these results ensuring the older/sicker are still covered. A state opt out would strengthen insurers’ ability to discriminate and perhaps drive older people way from all coverage.