podesta-emails
[big campaign] Reid Puts Big Insurance on the Defensive
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www.americansunitedforchange.org
<http://www.americansunitedforchange.org/>
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Jeremy Funk,
202-470-5878
DATE: August 14, 2009
Controversy Over the Health Insurance Industry's Exemption from
Anti-Trust Laws Heats Up Today as Senate Majority Leader Reid Testifies
in Support of the Health Insurance Industry Antitrust Enforcement Act
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) joined the push to eliminate
the exemption Wednesday morning, saying at a Senate Judiciary Committee
hearing, ""It's something that should have been done a long time ago."
As for insurance companies, "There isn't anything we could do to satisfy
them in this health care bill. Nothing," Reid said. "They are so
anti-competitive. Why? Because they make more money than any other
business in America today. . . .What a sweet deal they have." --
Politico, 10/14/09
<http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1009/28276.html>
***Click Here for Full Testimony from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
Before Today's Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on "Prohibiting Price
Fixing and Other Anticompetitive Conduct in the Health Insurance
Industry"
<http://reid.senate.gov/newsroom/pr_091014_insurancecompanypricefixingbi
ll.cfm> ***
Statement from Tom McMahon, Acting Executive Director, Americans United
for Change: "We applaud Senator Reid's efforts to right a serious wrong
in the health insurance industry by repealing its baffling exemption
from anti-trust laws - an exemption that they've exploited for decades.
With 94 percent of insurance markets in the United States now highly
concentrated, insurance companies across the nation take full advantage
of this total lack of competition by refusing to cover millions of
people with pre-existing conditions, rescinding policies when people get
sick, and raising premiums four times faster than wages - all done to
maximize industry profits and compensate its CEO's tens of millions of
dollars. And as a direct result, millions of sick Americans are left
out in the cold and with nowhere to go. This has got to stop."
Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing Comes on Heels of New TV Ad from
Americans United for Change Blasting the Health Insurance Industry's
Exemption From Anti-Trust Laws
See Media Coverage Below of the Ad Aimed at Lawmakers in the Nation's
Capital This Week -
Click Here to View "Real Competition"
<http://www.americansunitedforchange.org/press/releases/new_tv_ad_answer
s_how_baseball_and_health_insurance_companies_are_alike/>
http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/washington-whispers/2009/10/13/pro-o
bama-group-pushes-back-on-health-insurance-industry.html
Pro-Obama Group Pushes Back on Health Insurance Industry
New Americans United ad turns up the heat on the health insurance
industry
By Paul Bedard
<http://www.usnews.com/Topics/tag/Author/p/paul_bedard/index.html>
Posted October 13, 2009
Just as the health insurance industry is reversing course and battling
to kill President Obama's healthcare reform plan, a pro-Obama group is
hitting back, claiming that the industry is scared of competition.
Americans United for Change today begins running an ad on Washington
cable stations charging that the industry, exempt from antitrust laws,
is trying to fix the system by blocking the so-called public option
being pushed by liberal Democrats. "The goal of the ad is to point out
the complete uncompetitiveness of the current health insurance
marketplace and to highlight the need for reform, in particular, a
competitive public health insurance option," said Americans United for
Change Communications Director Jeremy Funk. "It is not widely known that
the insurance industry is exempt from the antitrust laws, which they
exploit at every opportunity," he said. The ad can be seen on YouTube
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVHW5JOzv6A> .
The Plum Line <http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com> Greg Sargent's blog
New Ad Blasts Insurance Companies, Renews Push For Public Option
<http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/uncategorized/new-labor-ad-blasts-ins
urance-companies-renews-push-for-public-option/>
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/uncategorized/new-labor-ad-blasts-insu
rance-companies-renews-push-for-public-option/
There's a growing sense in Washington that the insurance industry
inadvertently breathed new life into the public option by releasing that
report
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/11/AR20091
01102207.html?hpid=topnews> yesterday predicting reform would hike
premiums, creating a new argument in favor of creating competition for
the industry in the form of a public plan.
Now the labor-backed White House ally Americans United For Change is
going up with a new ad timed to capitalize on that sense to renew the
push for the public option:
The ad, which is airing on D.C. cable in an effort to target lawmakers,
concludes: "When health insurance executives fix the game, they get
rich. Time for competition when it comes to health insurance. We need
the choice of a public health insurance plan."
The spot is designed to amplify the message - perhaps best delivered
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/12/weiner-ahip-report-makes_n_317
561.html> yesterday by Congressman Anthony Weiner
<http://www.whorunsgov.com/Profiles/Anthony_Weiner> - that the
insurance compannies made one of the strongest cases yet for a public
option by essentially vowing to raise rates. The report also makes it
easier for reform proponents to argue that the industry, which had been
making nice with the White House, is a bad-faith actor not to be
trusted.
It seems like a potentially big tactical error by the insurance
industry, and it'll be interesting to watch how proponents of the public
option capitalize on it to pressure the White House and Senate
leadership to put a public plan - or some form of it - into the final
Senate bill that's being negotiated this week. The public option lives!
Mouth of the Potomac <http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dc/>
by The Washington Bureau
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dc/2009/10/with-cool-weather-in-the.htm
l
A Healthy Swing at the Anti-Trust Exemption >
<http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dc/2009/10/with-cool-weather-in-the.ht
ml>
October 13, 2009 6:44 AM
By Michael McAuliff
With cool weather in the air and America enjoying another playoff run by
the Yankees and the Phillies in the country's favorite anti-trust-exempt
industry, Democrats have decided to tee off on the less popular one, the
insurance industry.
In the spot below, Americans United for Change reminds people that while
baseball uses its exalted status to entertain us with fun, competitive
games (and people go to jail when they rig the the show), insurance
companies just get rich.
The anti-trust question has come up more and more in the health care
debate, but so far, it's not in any of the legislation. Which is one
reason many Democrats are so insistent about having a public option to
create competition.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/62799-liberal-group-goe
s-after-insurers-antitrust-status-in-tv-ad#
<http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/62799-liberal-group-go
es-after-insurers-antitrust-status-in-tv-ad>
Liberal group goes after insurers' antitrust status in TV ad
By Michael O'Brien - 10/13/09 12:49 PM ET
A key liberal group is piggybacking on baseball's October Classic to hit
health insurers after they released a study criticizing health reform
efforts.
Americans United for Change released a new television ad airing on cable
stations in Washington, D.C. this week noting that Major League Baseball
(MLB) and health insurance companies are two of the few organizations
exempted from antitrust laws.
"When baseball players fix the games, they get in trouble," the ad's
narrator says. "When health insurance executives fix the game, they get
... rich."
The ad comes as part of a full-on assault by liberal groups and elected
Democrats on health insurers in the past two days since America's Health
Insurance Plans (AHIP) released an audit of a key healthcare reform
proposal arguing the bill would increase premiums for consumers.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/morning-fix/morning-fix-can-crei
gh-come-ba.html#more
And Speaking of Ads Bashing Insurance Companies. . .: Americans United,
a liberal interest group, is launching another in a long series of five
figure ad buys today with a new commercial
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVHW5JOzv6A> that puts the blame on
insurance companies for blocking health care reform. The ad -- in the
spirit of playoff baseball -- unfavorably compares insurance companies
to America's pastime. "Insurance industry executives are scared of
competition," says the ad's narrator. "Baseball players aren't." And,
then: "When baseball players fix the games, they get in trouble. When
health insurance executives fix the game, they get rich." These ads,
which will run only on cable television in the D.C. market, are largely
aimed at influencing the chattering class inside the Beltway.
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/10/13/2096920.aspx
Liberal organization Americans United For Change goes after the health
insurance industry in a new TV ad
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVHW5JOzv6A> airing this week on DC
cable starting today. The ad, called "Inside Baseball," relates the
health insurance industry to professional baseball, saying they are the
only industries exempt from anti-trust laws, but "when baseball players
fix the game, they get in trouble. When health insurance executives fix
the game, they get... rich."
The Note
Washington's Original and Most Influential Tipsheet
http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2009/10/snowe-watch-a-chance-for-gop-su
pport-and-a-new-old-enemy-for-white-house.html
Meeting for the fight -- Americans United for Change is up with a new TV
ad Tuesday, again taking aim at insurance companies. "When baseball
players fix the games, they get in trouble," the ad says.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVHW5JOzv6A> "When health insurance
executives fix the game, they get ... rich. Time for competition when it
comes to health insurance... we need the choice of a public health
insurance plan."
Health Insurers = MLB?
http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/10/ahip_mlb.php
Oct 13 2009, 10:23 am by Chris Good
<http://politics.theatlantic.com/author/chris_good/>
The liberal activist group Americans United for Change compares the
insurance industry to Major League Baseball in a new TV ad, as the
gloves continue to be off (for the most part) between insurers and
supporters of the Democratic health blueprint. The similarity?
Exemptions from certain antitrust violations.
Americans United for Change has gone after insurers pretty hard
throughout the health reform debate (particularly
<http://www.americansunitedforchange.org/blog/entries/new_tv_ad_from_ame
ricans_united_for_change_halloween_comes_early_for_insura/> Humana CEO
Michael McCallister) as has the liberal coalition Health Care for
America Now!, even above the reported protestations
<http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0809/25900.html> of White House
Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Today's buy is under $100,000, the group
says, meaning it's not a major campaign.
http://www.politico.com/politicopulse/1009/politicopulse103.html
NEW AD TARGETS INSURERS <http://bit.ly/arauD%20> : White House ally
Americans United for Change is up today with a new ad. The five-figure
buy, aimed at lawmakers and opinion makers, will air this week on DC
cable.
http://www.politico.com/livepulse/1009/Americans_United_for_Change_targe
ts_insurers_in_new_ad.html
October 13, 2009
Americans United for Change targets insurers in new ad
<http://www.politico.com/livepulse/1009/Americans_United_for_Change_targ
ets_insurers_in_new_ad.html##>
White House ally Americans United for Change is up today with a new ad.
The five-figure buy, aimed at lawmakers and opinion makers, will air
this week on DC cable.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1009/AUC_Real_Competition.html?sh
owall
October 13, 2009
AUC: 'Real Competition'
<http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1009/AUC_Real_Competition.html?s
howall##>
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVHW5JOzv6A>
Another day, another attack on the insurance industry from a White House
ally, in this case Americans United for Change, which also calls for a
public option in this sarcastic spot airing in D.C.
Posted by Ben Smith 07:15 AM
Health-care voting time: Battle lines
<http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2009/10/healthcare_voti
ng_time_battle.html>
Posted October 13, 2009 7:00 AM
http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2009/10/healthcare_votin
g_time_battle.html
by Mark Silva
As the Senate Finance Committee sets out to vote today on a health-care
overhaul which supporters say will offer heatlh insurance to millions of
more Americans -- with the Congressional Budget Office setting the cost
at about $830 billion over 10 years -- the insurance industry complains
that the legislation will drive premiums higher.
At the same time, a union-backed campiagn for health-care reform is
asking in a new television ad airing on cable stations in Washington
this week -- aimed at the participants n the debate here -- what the
insurance industry and Major League Baseball have in common. They're
exempt from anti-trust laws.
Insurance, Americans United for Change says, needs some competition. And
the White House insists that "choices'' are what it is seeking for
consumers.
Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House's Health Reform office,
made the White House's case in an interview last night on the PBS
NewsHour.
"I think they looked at a different bill,'' DeParle said of an insurance
ndustry's study warnng of higher premiums. "I think the insurance
industry had an analysis done of a different bill than the one I have
seen being marked up in the Senate Finance Committee.
"You know, the president asked everyone to come to the table and work
together to try to get this problem of the health insurance premiums
rising and doubling over the past decade, to get it solved for the
American people,'' she said. "And, so, it's disappointing when an
industry puts their special interest ahead of the national interests
here.''
Karen Igagni, president and CEO of America's Health Insurance Plans,
which sponsored the study critical of the legislation, said: "What the
report does is, they look at the taxes. And there are two parts to the
tax. One is an excise tax, a new health care tax that would be on
pharmaceutical price -- costs on devices on health insurance. According
to CBO, that gets passed through to individuals.
"Our point -- and then we looked at the Cadillac tax -- if you have not
everyone in the pool, if you have costs shifting from not doing
comprehensive cost containment, if you have new excise taxes, that's
increasing costs.''
See the full PBS report and the ad below, and view the ad above.:
Monday ... 10/13/2009 ... 9 am
WHAT'S NEWS
*Americans United for Change is up with a TV ad
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVHW5JOzv6A> on DC cable, arguing
insurance execs. "are scared of competition" (Wake-Up Call! sources).
And the DNC axed a new TV ad touting GOP support for reform "after
protests from" ex-Sen. Bob Dole (R-KS) (AP
<http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-10-11-dole-dnc-ad_N.htm>
).
http://www.politico.com/playbook/1009/playbook831.html
-- NEW AD TARGETS INSURERS: White House ally Americans United for Change
is up today with a new ad, "Inside Baseball." The five-figure buy, aimed
at lawmakers and opinion makers, will air this week on DC cable.
http://bit.ly/arauD
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitol-briefing/2009/10/insurers_and_l
iberals_take_the.html?hpid=topnews
Insurers and Liberals Take Their Fracas to the Airwaves
By Ben Pershing
The fight between insurance companies and proponents of Democrats'
health-care reform plans is heating up on the airwaves, as both sides
are mounting new television campaigns.
The industry trade group America's Health Insurance Plans
<http://ahip.org> sparked controversy
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/12/AR20091
01203108.html> this week with its report claiming that a Senate
committee bill would cause premiums to skyrocket. A day later, a key
liberal group hit back <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVHW5JOzv6A> :
This ad from Americans United for Change
<http://www.americansunitedforchange.org/> seeks to link two subjects
currently in the news -- the health-care debate and the baseball
playoffs -- by noting that health-insurance companies and Major League
Baseball teams are both exempt from federal antitrust laws. The ad says
that insurance companies are "scared of competition," a reference to the
industry's opposition to the creation of a government-sponsored
insurance program, or "public option." (On a related note, the Senate
Judiciary Committee has a hearing scheduled
<http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/hearing.cfm?id=4111> Wednesday on
"Prohibiting Price Fixing and Other Anticompetitive Conduct in the
Health Insurance Industry.") The ad is running this week on
Washington-area cable TV stations, and the overall buy is relatively
small -- "low five figures," according to an Americans United spokesman.
The White House Bulletin
October 13, 2009 Tuesday
Pro-Obama Group Takes On Health Industry Critics
SECTION: IN THE WHITE HOUSE AND AROUND TOWN
Americans United for Change, the pro-Obama public interest group, is
taking on the president's health industry critics by highlighting in a
new ad their exclusion from anti-trust laws. The new ad to starting
airing on Washington, D.C. cable stations today compares the health
insurance industry to anti-trust exempt Major League Baseball, but notes
that while ball clubs live for competition, the industry is scared of
competing with the public option being pushed by House Democrats. "The
goal of the ad is to point out the complete un-competitiveness of the
current health insurance market place and to highlight the need for
reform, in particular, a competitive public health insurance option,"
said Americans United for Change Communications Director Jeremy Funk.
"It is not widely known that the insurance industry is exempt from the
anti-trust laws, which they exploit at every opportunity," he said.
While the ad, the eighth focused on health care reform from Citizens
United, comes as the health insurance industry has withdrawn support for
Democratic-styled reform, Funk said that theirs is a continuation of the
group's pressure on an industry he says never fully embraced reform. "Is
it to help offset the industry's last-minute switch? Well, let's be
clear: since day one, the insurance industry has wanted to kill reform
in its tracks. It's just now they're completely open about it." The new
ad is called "Real Competition" and says that while baseball and the
health insurance industry are similar because they are exempt from
anti-trust laws, they are different in several ways, according to the
script provided to the Bulletin. "How are they different? Insurance
industry executives are scared of competition. Baseball players aren't.
When baseball players fix the games, they get in trouble. When health
insurance executives fix the game, they get rich. Time for competition
when it comes to health insurance. We need the choice of a public health
insurance plan." -- Bulletin exclusive from U.S. News
________________________________________
Jeremy J. Funk
Communications Director, Americans United for Change
Office: 202.470.5878
Cell: 605.366.3654
[email protected]
www.AmericansUnitedforChange.org
<http://www.americansunitedforchange.org/>
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