10 arguments why Americans should doubt this Congress’s desire to reform health care

When insurance lobbyists are hosting fundraisers for the Speaker of the House in the waning days of the health reform battle, we should be angry. When lobbyists are authoring key parts of health care bills we should be very concerned. And when the insurance companies' main lobbying group brags about putting 50,000 employees to work killing reform, Americans should be fighting back by demanding single payer, a "public option" that will work, like Medicare, Social Security and the VA.

1. Pelosi Fundraiser at UnitedHealth Lobbyist’s Home on Sept. 24

"The same day that Speaker Pelosi and Leader Reid announced that they "would support any provision that increases competition and accessibility for health insurance - whether or not it is the public option favored by most Democrats" a chief lobbyist for UnitedHealth, Steve Elmendorf, sent an email blast inviting people to a $5,000/PAC or $2400/individual fundraiser in his home for Nancy Pelosi."

2. Wellpoint lobbyist & ex-Enzi staffer wrote key parts of Baucus plan

"Northrup had been through the revolving door before, joining Enzi’s staff after serving as executive director of the Long Term Care Pharmacy Alliance — just in time to help craft Part D, the Medicare reform widely considered a giveaway to pharmaceutical interests."

3. And the Winner is... the Medical Insurance Industry

"The suspense is over. For weeks we have been holding our collective breath to see if there would be real insurance reform. Now we know. President Obama’s speech on health care incorporated a lot of different ideas, but what was most striking was his statement that the public option was just one of the avenues that could be traveled to achieve an expansion of insurance coverage. Besides the demotion of the public option as an important tool to reign in the all-powerful insurance companies, there was no mention of universal health care. Wasn’t that the point of this whole exercise?"

4. The Health Insurers Have Already Won

"How UnitedHealth and rival carriers, maneuvering behind the scenes in Washington, shaped health-care reform for their own benefit"

5. The House’s Proposed Surcharge on the Rich: Not Progressive Enough

"Beneath all the sturm und drang about soaking the rich, the press should focus on three underlying realities. First, income and wealth wastly increased at the top of the distribution over the past thirty years–in part because of corporate cost savings that included denial of health coverage to millions of workers. Second, inequality itself exacerbates the health care crisis, by fueling the allocation of medical care according to profit potential, not need. Third, inequality Frenchified Madame DeFarges on America’s John Galts. The surcharge will itself help address some of the problems health reform is designed to solve."

6. Sick and Wrong

How Washington is screwing up health care reform – and why it may take a revolt to fix it

7. Why Did Health Insurance Stocks Go UP After The President's Speech?

"Investors may well have been reacting to the President's emphatic endorsement of mandates. He called failure to enroll in a health plan "irresponsible," and said for the first time publicly that "under my plan, individuals will be required to carry basic health insurance." (This is a reversal from his position during the campaign; until now he has preferred to let Democrats in Congress carry water for him on this issue.)"

8. We've Seen This Trigger Before

"After a summer of politics marked by esoteric phrases like co-ops and insurance exchanges, the newest kernel of ubiquitous arcana is the term trigger mechanism. This proposal, which is gaining momentum after President Obama’s speech to Congress, would have any national health legislation include provisions allowing a government-run “public option” only if certain parameters are met in the future. “It’s an obscure policy tool that isn’t even written,” reported the news service TalkingPointsMemo.com. “But somehow, a ‘trigger-mechanism’ is the talk of Washington right now. How did that happen?”

9.  Insurers' Employees Counter Criticism

“All told, AHIP [America's Health Insurance Plans, the industry's chief lobby] spokesman Robert Zirkelbach says, about 50,000 employees have been engaged in writing letters and making phone calls to politicians or attending town-hall meetings.”

10. The Snowe Job, and Why a "Trigger" for a Public Option is Nonsense

"The public insurance option has become a lightening rod for Republicans, hate radio jocks, Fox News, the Wall Street Journal's editorial page, and lobbyists for the health-industrial complex who accuse the White House and Democrats of planning a "government takeover" of health care. Anything that has the word "public" in it is always an automatic target for their rants."