The lobbying organization that has the most to lose if real healthcre reform is enacted, America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) have been pretending to play nice on reform, but their real agenda has now been made clear with a seven-figure advertising campaign for "bipartisan reform."
"We have serious concerns with that legislation, particularly having to do with a government-run insurance plan that's going to use Medicare rates," said Robert Zirkelbach, spokesman for AHIP, in an interview with the Huffington Post.
Instead, AHIP favors a bipartisan solution, which, according to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), necessitates that Democrats eliminate the public option.
When asked point-blank whether AHIP opposes a public health option, Zirkelbach said, "That's very correct. A government-run plan in any form is simply not necessary." A public option, he claimed, would "bankrupt hospitals all over California" and force "as many as 120 million people" off the private system.
And we all know what "bipartisan" means by now--Bill Kristol made it perfectly clear--kill reform and, particularly, kill the public option. If there were actually any Republicans committed to real healthcare reform, they'd actually have introduced some real legislation. No, they don't want reform, they want to kill it. And they've got the whole right-wing media behind them, using Kristol's "Kitchen Sink" approach:
But it's more complicated than that. Steve Benen has more on the complications:
Now, as a tactical matter, this makes sense. DeMint, Steele, Castellanos, and Kristol are Republicans, who a) don't support health care reform; and b) are committed to undermining the majority party and the president. Opposition parties are supposed to oppose, so these characters are playing their appropriate role. (The real-world consequences for Americans and their families would be devastating, of course, if the GOP approach successful, but I'm speaking only to the political strategy.)
I just like to point out, from time to time, that these folks can't succeed on their own. They simply don't have the votes. They can call for delays, changes, watered down bills, obstructionism, etc., but Democrats are in a position to finally reform health care anyway.
The only way for this Republican strategy to succeed -- literally, the only way -- is for Democrats to help them. The GOP has its plan, but no way to execute it effectively. They've already been turned out by the electorate.
This is just basic. Regular Americans want healthcare reform. Private insurers and Republicans don't. Now, the latter might provide a lot more money to members of Congress than the rest of us, but we're the ones who vote. Democrats who are working at cross purposes with the White House and Congressional leadership--i.e., the Blue Dogs, would do well to keep that in mind.