Health secretary calls on insurance providers to back health care overhaul

Mar 10, 2010 — Los Angeles Times

By Michael Muskal

LOS ANGELES, Mar. 10, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune News Service delivered by Newstex) -- Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Wednesday urged the nation's health insurance providers to give up short-term profits for a better long-term health care system that could also benefit insurance companies.

In remarks to an America's Health Insurance Plans conference in Washington, Sebelius called on the providers to work with the Obama administration to pass a health care overhaul package rather than fight the proposals.

"You can choose to take the millions of dollars you have stored away for your next round of ads to kill meaningful reform, and use them to start giving Americans some relief from their skyrocketing premiums. Instead of spending your energy attacking the parts of the president's proposal you don't like, you can use it to strengthen the parts you do," Sebelius said.

"If you take this approach, you may give up some short-term profits. But you will also be helping to create a sustainable health insurance market where all Americans will be able to buy coverage. That's better for the American people. And it could be better for insurance companies too," she said.

AHIP describes itself as a national association representing nearly 1,300 members providing health benefits to more than 200 million Americans. The comments by Sebelius were distributed in advance by the White House as part of its push to stimulate support for President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

Obama will travel to St. Louis on Wednesday afternoon, where he will speak about health care, the president's second trip this week. On Tuesday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs left the door open to the president making more campaign-style expeditions out of Washington as well as personally lobbying lawmakers.

Obama has called on the House to act by next week and pass the health care bill that has passed the Senate. The House would also pass some modifications that the Senate will need to pass as well.

In her comments, Sebelius contended that the insurance companies' high profits have led to consumer frustration.

"When Americans have so few choices, can you blame them for being frustrated when their premiums go up 10 times faster than the cost of health care? Imagine how folks in Illinois might feel after opening the newspaper to see that profits for major insurance companies went up 56 percent last year only to get a letter the next day saying their premiums are going up by double digits

"Can you blame them for thinking the system's broken when their health insurance, which is supposed to protect them from exorbitant health costs, still forces them to pay thousands of dollars out of their pocket each year?" she said.

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Newstex ID: KRTN-1429-42762281