Insurance Companies Show Their True Colors

There are no Obamacare silver linings, but a small ray of light is penetrating the black cloud behind which for-profit insurers have been furtively stealing one out of every three dollars Americans spend for health care.

As the President tries to navigate a maelstrom of criticism and confusion, the true enemies of his reform finally show their colors.

During a White House press conference on the issues, the insurance industry flack comes forward to preempt him with blame:

“Changing the rules after health plans have already met the requirements of the law could destabilize the market and result in higher premiums for consumers. Premiums have already been set for next year based on an assumption of when consumers will be transitioning to the new marketplace. If now fewer younger and healthier people choose to purchase coverage in the exchange, premiums will increase and there will be fewer choices for consumers. Additional steps must be taken to stabilize the marketplace and mitigate the adverse impact on consumers.”

The adverse impact, of course, will be on industry profits, the Holy Grail of the GOP’s bitter fight against Obamacare—-and of course their own.

What the vampires who prey on America’s poor and sick are howling about is any change in the health care muddle that might minimize their potential profit. Even without the website disaster, they would have been resisting any threat to their profits by covering the healthy and ducking out on the enfeebled.

The coming months will see a protracted struggle to penetrate all the murk and emerge with something that resembles reform. But at the very least, in all the political posturing and finger-pointing, let’s be clear on one point.

We have finally met the enemy and they are not us but United Health, Aetna, Cigna and Humana, the big four of profiteers from American life and death.