Word: reformer
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Case for Health-Care Reform...
...often speak several times a week. Though Ignagni's group, America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), has long been leery of - and at other times downright hostile to - the health-care bills moving through Congress, an uneasy truce was holding between the insurers and a White House bent on reform. But just barely: when DeParle and a Senate aide asked Ignagni during the call to confirm a rumor that her industry was about to release a report attacking the measure being prepared by Senator Max Baucus, DeParle recalls, "she said, 'No, we are miles away from putting out a report...
Five days later, Ignagni released an analysis by PricewaterhouseCoopers that claimed, on the basis of a misleading reading of the bill, that reform could lead to a painful spike in insurance premiums for ordinary Americans. The episode shattered the thin trust between the Administration and the insurance lobby and set the stage for an ugly and very public war over the shape of the final measure. "I feel completely misled," said the Senate aide who was on the call. "There are a couple of things you have to have in this town, and your good name is one of them...
...congressional bean counters, and it has so many unquantifiable parts that even some of its proponents admit that hard numbers are difficult to nail down. "It's impossible to figure out what the bottom-line impact is," says a Finance-panel aide. (See 10 players in health-care reform...
Though the industry's alarmism failed to derail the Baucus bill, the struggle over health-care reform is far from over. The conversations between DeParle and Ignagni laid bare what is really at stake for the insurers as health-care reform has gained momentum. For example, both DeParle and the Senate aide claim Ignagni voiced serious concerns during the Oct. 6 call over a provision in the Senate Finance bill that would raise $600 million in new taxes on the salaries of high-paid insurance executives. DeParle also said that in a White House meeting the next day, Ignagni repeatedly...