HCAN REACTS TO NEW PROOF THAT INSURERS PAID CHAMBER TO FIGHT REFORM
Campaign Demands Full Disclosure of Insurers’ Funding of Front Groups
Washington, DC – Health Care for America Now (HCAN) – the nation’s largest health care campaign – released the following statement in reaction to Peter Stone’s National Journal article today exposing the duplicity of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) and the insurance industry which have secretly used the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as a front group to fight health care reform:
Richard Kirsch, National Campaign Manager, Health Care for America Now:
“AHIP has paid lip service to reform while paying the Chamber to oppose it. Insurers rigged and gamed the political system the same way they do with people’s health insurance claims and medical care.
We’ve assumed all along the insurance industry was secretly funding the Chamber of Commerce’s vicious campaign against reform. The National Journal article exposes AHIP and its member companies for what they are – corporate machines that care about profits, not people.
We demand the Chamber of Commerce reveal exactly how much money it has received from the insurance industry to kill reform, and we demand AHIP and the insurance companies reveal how much money they are funneling into other front groups besides the Chamber.
Every time we see an ad against reform, Americans should ask which insurance company paid for it. And going forward, we should now always be asking, ‘When the Chamber of Commerce talks, who’s paying?’
If the National Journal found evidence of $20 million, imagine how much more of our overpriced premiums have been used to pay for deceitful ads to protect insurance profits.
We simply cannot trust the health insurance industry to act in anyone’s best interest but its own.”
