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Insurance Group Bashes Baucus Bill With Report
White House betrayed by 'hatchet job' predicting cost hikes
By Kevin Spak
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Posted Oct 12, 09 7:38 AM CDT
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(Newser)
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The White House is steamed this morning over a report, sponsored by the insurance industry, saying the Senate Finance Committee’s health care bill would cause premiums and costs to rise. The report was commissioned by America’s Health Insurance Plans, an industry group that has until now supported reform publicly, while fighting to kill certain ideas, like the public option, behind the scenes, Politico notes. It claims the bill would, by 2019, cost a family $4,000 more in premiums than projected.
AHIP told the White House and Finance Committees last week that they were “a ways away from doing an analysis,” according to one administration source. So “there is a feeling among White House officials that they were misled.” A Finance Committee spokesman called the report “a health insurance company hatchet job, plain and simple.” The report threatens to affect tomorrow’s committee vote on the bill.