WASHINGTON — Now, they have an enemy.
For months, President Barack Obama and his administration waged the fight for a health care overhaul without a clear opponent, even courting the industry executives and interest groups that helped kill reform efforts 15 years ago.
But attacks on the leading Democratic reform plan this week by the insurance lobby left little doubt that what was a tenuous truce has turned quickly into an all-out battle.
“The insurance industry has decided to lead the charge against health reform, and everyone recognizes their motives: profits,” said White House deputy communications director Dan Pfeiffer.
Pfeiffer castigated the industry for releasing a report Monday that concluded the Finance Committee bill would increase costs to consumers.
“They made themselves a very good foil,” he said.
The insurers, however, showed no sign of being chastened. America’s Health Insurance Plans, the industry trade group, opened a fresh line of attack with a multistate advertising campaign warning that senior citizens enrolled in private Medicare plans could lose benefits under the legislation.
The Finance bill would reduce spending on the plans by $113 billion over the next decade, which could mean reduced insurer profit, higher co-payments or fewer extra benefits such as eyeglasses and gym memberships.
“We want to begin to build an awareness of the potential implications to seniors,” said AHIP president Karen Ignagni.
She refused to say how much money would be spent on the commercials airing in six states, but one advertising analyst said the industry has enough cash to pose a serious threat.
“They can spend whatever they feel they need to influence this,” said Evan Tracey, president of the Campaign Media Analysis Group. “Seniors are a very important group politically.”
From the earliest days of his presidency, Obama approached the health care debate determined to not repeat the mistakes of President Bill Clinton. Obama invited business leaders to the White House for brainstorming sessions and negotiated deals with several industries, including hospitals and drugmakers. The insurance industry had a seat at the table.
Since Labor Day, the industry has been on the receiving end of more than $25 million of critical advertising, Tracey estimated.
Ignagni complained of a “major effort to discredit and silence” the industry and its allies. “That’s just wrong in a democracy,” she said.
She stood by the report her group commissioned and said she expects other analyses to reach similar conclusions that the bills now before Congress would not constrain soaring medical bills.
As the report has come under fire, PricewaterhouseCoopers has distanced itself somewhat from it. The firm said Monday that AHIP had instructed it to focus on only some features of the bill while not taking into account other major features such as the effect of subsidies for those buying insurance.
In committee debate, Republicans pressed Congressional Budget Office chief Douglas Elmendorf on the impact of the legislation on total health spending nationwide and insurance premiums, but he did not take a side.
“We can’t assess the effects on national health expenditures,” he said. “There are so many conflicting forces, we have not been able to assess the effect on premiums.”
