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After Joe Biden Broke His Health Care Pledge, Emboldened Lobbyists Are Targeting the States
By Julia Rock, The Daily Poster
On 5/17/21 at 2:10 PM EDT
When President Joe Biden outlined his legislative priorities during his first address to Congress last month, notably absent was a major campaign promise: a public health insurance option. Instead, his current health reform proposal will funnel $200 billion more to private insurance companies to subsidize premiums, without any requirement that they cap out-of-pocket costs or eliminate them altogether.
As a result of Biden s approach, states have been left to introduce public option legislation themselves, in the process taking on some of the nation s largest and most politically organized businesses. From coast to coast, health insurance companies, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies are using every tactic at their disposal to block states from passing public option legislation.
Truth Test: Ad makes claims about public health care option 9news.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from 9news.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Reaction to the first draft of the Colorado Health Care Option bill, sponsored by Rep. Dylan Roberts, D-Eagle, and Sen. Kerry Donovan, D-Vail, runs the gamut.
The draft bill, first reported by Colorado Politics, sets a two-year timeline for the health industry to reduce premiums by 20% for the individual group market. Should that fail, the state would set up a quasi-public health plan to cover the individual and small group market, a total of about 15% of all insured people in Colorado. The state option, which would go into effect Jan. 1, 2025, would set rates for healthcare services in an attempt to reduce costs.Â
Wendell Potter
First, the warning: As Colorado lawmakers consider the “Colorado Option” public health plan in the coming months, the insurance industry and its front groups will besiege Coloradans with a tidal wave of propaganda. You see, the Colorado option would help the people of Colorado save on medical bills, but the private insurers would lose massive profits if it came to pass. So the insurance companies will dump an unholy amount of cash in the state to wage a disinformation campaign, in an attempt to turn people against the idea.
Here’s my confession: I know this is the playbook the industry will use, because, to my great regret, I am the one who helped write it. For two decades, I was an executive at major health insurance companies, where my job was to craft propaganda designed to protect my companies’ profits, even as that meant preventing Americans from getting affordable health coverage. Eventually, I left the business because my conscience simply could not de