As Obama Lashes Out at Insurers During Address, AHIP Defends Study

President Barack Obama's weekly address -- recorded for radio and online viewing -- focused a six-minute assault on the health insurers he accuses of trying to derail health care reform.

"For decades, whenever we have tried to reform the system, the insurance companies have done everything in their considerable power to stop it," Obama said. The president referred to the spiking costs of U.S. health care. "Unless we act, these costs will devastate the U.S. economy," he said. "This is the unsustainable path we're on, and it's the path the insurers want to keep us on. In fact, the insurance industry is pulling out the big guns and breaking out their massive war chests to marshal their forces for one last fight to save the status quo."

He specifically criticized what he said were "deceptive and dishonest ads" and the recent cost analysis from PricewaterhouseCoopers that America's Health Insurance Plans had commissioned. "They are funding studies designed to mislead the American people," Obama said. "It's smoke and mirrors. It's bogus. And it's all too familiar."

AHIP, though, put out a defense of its report, which detailed how health premiums could rise under current reform proposals in Congress. On the limited focus of the study, which leading Democrats had argued was incomplete, AHIP President and Chief Executive Officer Karen Ignagni issued a statement: "The study never claimed to be an analysis of every provision in the legislation. The study makes clear in the executive summary that it is an analysis of four major provisions that will have the greatest impact on premiums."

In general, the PwC study and another commissioned by the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association "found that some of the current proposals will significantly increase health care costs for families and employers across the country," Ignagni said. "We believe these issues can and must be resolved."

But Obama's address wasn't just a criticism of health insurers' methods. It also raised an emerging issue that could threaten insurers. The president -- railing against insurer profits -- said, "They're earning these profits and bonuses while enjoying a privileged exception from our antitrust laws -- a matter that Congress is rightfully reviewing."

That could hint of potential presidential support for an effort led by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who is chairman of the Senate's Judiciary Committee. He's pressing -- along with powerful colleagues, such as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid -- for the removal of antitrust exemptions for health insurers.

"Ending this cozy exemption is another way to strengthen consumer choice through a competitive marketplace," Leahy said in a statement after Obama's address. "The American people deserve reform that serves their needs, not the special interests of insurance companies."