Subject: [big campaign] AHIP's Two-Faced Campaign Unravels: No 'Comfort To The Enemy' Vs. 'Committed To Bipartisan Health Reform'
From: Adam Jentleson <[email-masked]>
To: "[email-masked]'" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:24:32 -0400
List-Id: <bigcampaign.googlegroups.com>

AHIP's Two-Faced Campaign Unravels: No 'Comfort To The Enemy' Vs. 'Committed To Bipartisan Health Reform' <http://thinkprogress.org/2009/10/22/ahip-enemy-reform/>

For months, ThinkProgess has documented<http://thinkprogress.org/2009/09/17/potter-charm-dirty-campaign/> how the private health insurance industry has waged a duplicitous, "two-faced" campaign to kill health reform. Because the industry understands that the public views it in a largely negative light, the industry presents itself as proactively working hand-in-hand with legislators to produce reform. However, behind the scenes<http://thinkprogress.org/stoppinghealthreform/> - using attacks from front groups, allied politicians, think tanks, lobbyists, and right-wing media - the industry is coordinating a massive effort to kill all reform.
As Congress approaches a final vote on health reform, the industry is having difficulty concealing its underhanded<http://thinkprogress.org/stoppinghealthreform/> campaign. USA Today reports that Karen Ignagni, the President of the insurance industry trade group AHIP, fired off a letter reminding Democrats that despite releasing a deeply misleading<http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2009/10/12/ahip-report/> report last week slashing the Senate Finance health bill, her companies are still "committed to bipartisan<http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/insurance/2009-10-18-insurers_N.htm> health reform":

"You don't turn against reform simply because people have declared you've turned against reform. That's not what we're doing."

The self-conscious letter stands in stark contract with what Ignagni's own lobbyists said today at an AHIP conference. According to the Huffington Post<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/22/ahip-lobbyist-to-gop-dont_n_329828.html>, Steve Champlin, a lobbyist for a firm representing AHIP, declared bipartisan health reform dead and urged GOP lawmakers to refuse to help pass a bill:

"There is absolutely no interest, no reason Republicans should ever vote for this thing. They have gone from a party that got killed 11 months ago to a party that is rising today. And they are rising up on the turmoil of health care [...] So when they vote for a health care reform bill, whatever it is, they are giving comfort to the enemy who is down."

Private insurers have already been caught using a stealth lobbying firm<http://thinkprogress.org/2009/08/27/ahip-lobbying-publicoption/> to send employees to rowdy town halls (and radical tea party<http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/08/major-health-insurance-company-urges-employees-to-attend-tea-parties.php> events), sharing lobbyists<http://thinkprogress.org/2009/10/19/cpr-mcmanus-healthreform/> with slash-and-burn anti-health reform attack groups, and paying a number of<http://thinkprogress.org/2009/08/25/health-insurance-lobbyists/> conservative pundits<http://thinkprogress.org/2009/10/15/castellanos-ahip-gop/> who regularly appear in major media outlets to slam health reform. Almost immediately after AHIP issued its "hatchet job<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/16/opinion/16krugman.html>" report against the Senate Finance bill, Republican lawmakers began parroting the report's talking points verbatim<http://thinkprogress.org/2009/10/14/gop-ahip-study/>. The candid slip by Champlin today, whose firm has been paid hundreds of thousands<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/22/ahip-lobbyist-to-gop-dont_n_329828.html> by AHIP, underscores a larger effort by insurers to derail reform, even bills without robust measures like the public option.
Click here<http://thinkprogress.org/2009/09/17/potter-charm-dirty-campaign/> for ThinkProgress' research page on the health insurers' campaign against reform.
Update The Huffington Post's Arthur Delaney reports that AHIP is now distancing itself<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/22/ahip-health-care-reforms_n_330126.html> from Champlin's comments.

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Adam Jentleson
Communications Director, Progressive Media
Center for American Progress Action Fund
[email-masked]<mailto:[email-masked]>
ajentleson (AIM)
202-247-8614 (cell)

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