Subject: [big campaign] New Huff Post from Creamer
From: [email-masked]
To: [email-masked], [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 3 Aug 2009 09:34:00 EDT
List-Id: <bigcampaign.googlegroups.com>

August Offensive to Define Health Care Debate: Insurance  Companies in the 
Bull’s Eye 
A potentially decisive battle to define this year’s health care debate –  
and the Obama Presidency – will take place in town hall meetings, little 
league  bleaches, and conversations on door steps near you during the August  
Congressional recess. 
The White House, its Congressional allies, and progressive organizations  
supporting health care reform have launched a new August offensive to write 
the  narrative of the health care debate. The story line is clear: on the one 
side  are America’s health care consumers.  On the other are the eight 
private  health insurance companies that dominate the health insurance market, 
who are  doing so much to deep-six the health insurance reform that America 
so  desperately needs. 
Americans United for Change (for which I am General  Consultant) helps kick 
off this offensive today with a new TV spot that begins  to personalize the 
private health insurance industry.  It asks the question: Why do the health 
 insurance companies and Republicans want to kill President Obama’s health  
insurance reform? It answers with the tale of H. Edward Hanway, the CEO of 
giant  Cigna Insurance.   
Hanway made $12.2 million as CEO of Cigna last year.  Sometimes that kind 
of number just rolls  off the tongue.  But someone who  makes $12.2 million 
is making $5,883 per hour.  He makes 30 times more than the CEO of  the 
federal government – the President.  He makes more in one day than the average 
American worker makes all year  long. 
And that’s not all.  Hanway  just announced he will be retiring at year’s 
end.  For his retirement, H. Edward will get a  good deal more than a gold 
watch.  He will get a golden parachute worth $73 million.  Probably a fair 
amount more than the guy  who runs Medicare, don’t you think? 
The private insurance industry is pretty crazed about a health insurance  
reform plan that will require them to compete with a public health insurance  
option focused on covering everyone and controlling costs, instead of 
making off  with fortunes.  
They would love to see a plan that requires the taxpayers  to reach into 
their jeans and plunk down hundreds of billions more dollars as  long as they 
could continue to skim their take off an ever-exploding national  health 
care bill. They would love to have the government require that everyone  must 
buy their health care insurance.   But the idea of competing with a  public 
plan that forces efficiency, drives down the industry’s growing profit  
margins and gives consumers an option other than the oligopoly of eight major  
health insurance firms? They think that is a terrible idea.   
They feel the same way towards a public health insurance option that the  
local mob boss feels about some interloper who tries to cut into the piece of 
 the action he takes from the bookies operating within his turf.  
So, like the local mob boss, they will be pulling out all the stops in  
August to terrorize members of Congress and sow fear and confusion about the  
Obama Health Insurance Reform plan.  They will run ads.  They will  make 
copious political contributions.  They will provide ammunition to the right-wing 
talk show hosts.  They will do everything in their power  to stop the Obama 
plan dead in its tracks, because they know that once people  have a new 
health insurance system, there will be no going back. 
But this August, Progressives have no intention of being bowled over by  
the assault of the “insurance gang.” Progressives have learned the lesson of  
1994, and this time we will go right at them.  There are four reasons why 
we are likely  to prevail: 
·      The polling shows  clearly that most people agree that the health 
insurance industry has worn out  its welcome with Americans.  Since  1994, 
there have simply been too many people denied coverage for pre-existing  
conditions, or told that they are no longer covered because they have gotten a  
serious illness, or gouged so that H. Edward Hanway can have a $73 million  
retirement package.  It doesn’t take  a rocket scientist to know that something
’s wrong with the health insurance  industry when premiums go up three 
times faster than wages and 14,000 people a  day are losing their health 
insurance, yet insurance industry profits still keep  going up in the midst of a 
horrible recession.  
·      Even though the health  insurance industry has more resources than 
we do, it is also true that it costs  less to convince people that what is 
good for them is good for them, than it  does to convince people that what is 
bad for them is good for them. 
·      We have a President and  Democratic leadership in Congress willing 
to make the case against the insurance  companies in stark, clear terms. 
·      Well-organized  progressive coalitions like Health Care for America 
Now (HCAN), and Obama’s  field operation – Organize for America -- have 
been preparing for  this engagement for months.  They  have been accumulating 
resources, testing public opinion, organizing grassroots  field operations – 
all in preparation for this decisive battle. 
Now the insurance gang has shown its hand.  Of all of the “stakeholders” 
in the  health care industry, it is the one that is prepared to sink health 
care reform  if change threatens its ability to siphon off billions of 
dollars into the bank  accounts of the H. Edward Hanway’s of the world.  
This month let’s all look carefully at the way the H. Edward Hanway’s  
live.  Let’s contemplate whether the  fortunes of a few are worth the continued 
suffering of 43 million Americans who  worry everyday that they might fall 
seriously ill – or be injured driving home  –and be bankrupted by their 
health care bills. 
Let’s ponder whether we should protect those fortunes, even though by  
doing so we continue to pay 50% more per person for health care than any other  
country on Earth, for outcomes that rank 37th in the world.  
Let’s put ourselves in the shoes of the woman who testified before the  
House Energy and Commerce Committee, who had paid her health care premiums for  
years and had her policy “rescinded” (cancelled) on a technicality after 
she got  cancer. When asked if they could guarantee that their companies 
would not  continue to “rescind” policies in the future, the insurance company  
representatives refused to do so.  Wouldn’t want to cut into H. Edward’s 
$5,883 per hour pay check, after  all. 
During the month of August, let’s make sure that the  topic of conversation 
at every bar stool, kitchen table and barber shop  is the health insurance 
industry and the  small group of people who profit from its fine print and 
monopoly  practices.   
Much of the health insurance industry’s power is its ability to pull the  
strings of politicians from behind the curtain.  Like Count Dracula, another 
famous baron  who was good at siphoning off other people’s assets, the 
health insurance  industry does a lot better if it is not exposed to daylight.  
In the next four weeks, let’s light up the health insurance industry like  
Yankee Stadium on an August night. 
If we all do that, when the game is over, after decades of struggle,  
America’s consumers will finally come  out as winners. 
Robert Creamer is  a long-time political organizer and strategist, and 
author of the recent book:  “Stand Up Straight: How Progressives Can Win,” 
available on _amazon.com_ 
(http://www.amazon.com/Listen-Your-Mother-Straight-Progressives/dp/0979585295/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206567141&sr=8-1
) . 

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