The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama has issued a stern warning – and a threat – to America’s health care providers for allegedly engaging in “scare tactics” related to rising health care costs and recent premium increases.
As it did during the debate over so-called “financial reform,” the Obama administration is once again bullying the private sector in an attempt to silence criticism and hide the true impact of its overreaching policies.
Apparently government’s contempt for the free market is matched only by its contempt for the First Amendment.
In a letter sent Thursday to the leader of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) – a group that represents the health care industry in Washington, D.C. – Obama’s Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius accused health care providers of falsely blaming premium increases on “consumer protections” included in Obama’s new socialized medicine law.
She also threatened to shut them out of new government-created “markets” that are scheduled to open in 2014 under the new law.
“There will be zero tolerance for this type of misinformation and unjustified rate increases,” Sebelius writes in the letter (which you can read by clicking here).
While Sebelius admits that health care premiums are likely to increase in 2011, she claims that the increases are “minimal” and that providers are attempting to “blame their premium hikes and increased profits on the requirement that they provide consumers with basic protections.”
“I want AHIP’s members to be put on notice: the Administration, in partnership with states, will not tolerate unjustified rate hikes in the name of consumer protections,” Sebelius continued.
Translation?
“Shut up … or else.”
In addition to being excluded from new markets in the future, Sebelius said that the Obama administration is also taking more immediate steps to silence its critics – and force them to pick up an even larger share of Obamacare’s estimated $2.5 trillion price tag.
“Later this fall, we will issue a regulation that will require state or federal review of all potentially unreasonable rate increases filed by health insurers,” she writes.
Amazing.
After forcing the private sector to provide additional coverage (and forcing Americans to either purchase coverage or be fined), now the Obama administration is threatening to shut down any health care provider that tells the truth about its new mandates.
What a country …
By DisgustinJustin September 10, 2010 at 3:15 pm
Totally 100% expected.
By ArtVandelay September 10, 2010 at 3:44 pm
Wait..so the president is trying to prevent insurers from artificially raising their rates…and HE’S THE PROBLEM?!
ROFL!
By EasleyJack September 10, 2010 at 3:57 pm
It blows when there is no one worth a damn running for governer, our president stinks and there looks like there is no one worth a damn to challenge him. We have to get the media out of good, qualified candidates noses so that we can get folks to run for these extremely important offices. WHO is going to put their family through the kind of BS you have to go through that has any sense??
By Jack September 10, 2010 at 4:06 pm
Please define the phrase “Socialized Medicine”, so that we can determine exactly what we are talking about.
By Hmmmm September 10, 2010 at 4:10 pm
I can see it now 2012 Health Care providers need bailout program!
By SC Moderate September 10, 2010 at 5:04 pm
No process will be perfect overnight, but I think Obama is far more in line with how we should proceed with health care than Republicans/ Insurance Companies.
To be honest, I still can’t understand why everyone was/ is so against a Public Option… let people choose if they want:
1) higher costing pivate insurance, that some claim is superior in quality (others think Ins Co’s don’t always play fair)
2) lower costing Public coverage plan, that some claim will be equivalent to UK/ Canada in terms of quality.
(this will also take some of the scare tactics and misinformation campaigns out of the equation- that both sides accuse each other of).
By Nat September 10, 2010 at 5:10 pm
Give me the socialized medicine because I cannot afford the current system.
My wife has high blood pressure and she got BC/BS coverage all right, $8,000 a year, with a $4,000 deductible and “exclusion” for all maladies connected with high blood pressure.
I DO NOT CHARACTERIZE THAT AS “INSURANCE” AND IF SHE HAS A MASSIVE STROKE, WE WILL LOSE 0UR HOUSE, CAR AND EVERYTHING ELSE WE OWN.
SHE MAINTAINS A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE BUT STROKE IS COMMON IN THE WOMEN IN HER FAMILY.
BC/BS HAS A M0NOPOLY IN SOUTH CAROLINA FOR “HEALTH CARE.”
ANYBODY WANT TO DEBATE ANY OF THE STATEMENTS ABOVE?
By Cooter Brown September 10, 2010 at 5:20 pm
Nullificashun!
By James September 10, 2010 at 6:52 pm
“To be honest, I still can’t understand why everyone was/ is so against a Public Option… let people choose if they want:”
The insurance industry does not want the general public to have that option. They are afraid, businesses will stop buying group insurance, which is their most profitable income stream. They will then have to compete for with the public insurance when selling private coverage, and that will require them to reduce their premiums.
I personally believe they should have opened Medicare to everyone. Seniors pay 200 to 300 a month for their Medicare Premium. If they brought in a lot of young healthy people at the same premium, Medicare would become more solvent. As it is Medicare and Medicaid must take on the people the insurance industry has abandoned. I.E. people who are old or disabled.
By countryboy September 10, 2010 at 7:41 pm
Saw a poll today that said 80% of democrats still support Obama, so it’s no surprise they are still on here defending the worst president, with the worst policies, in my lifetime (and I was born in the FDR era). This dipstick actually makes Carter’s term look better in retrospect. At least we got out of Carter’s 20% interest rates in short order, whereas we may not get over the deficits this idiot is running up, for decades.
By jerry September 10, 2010 at 8:13 pm
Does anyone expect the Thug-In-Chief to behave any differently?
(after all, he’s a red-diaper baby–weaned on communist propaganda since infancy)
By exyank September 11, 2010 at 8:34 am
Fed regulations added three mandates: no lifetime maximums, cover slacker kids, cover well care. Those have associated costs. They will be passed on.
Growth in Medicaid will impact private insurance as well. Since the caps on MA payments are artificially low, the unreimbursed cost will be born by private insurance companies . . . and passed on.
This will be another situation like with congresscritter Frank in the spring. Government officials will huff and puff. In the end, insurance costs will go up. Insurance companies and feds will trade barbs.
On this issue, the insurers are largely telling the truth. Adding services and removing limits to an insurance policy raises costs.
By dan September 11, 2010 at 7:58 pm
So far Obama’s rosy predictions are consistent—consistently wrong that is…
By eb September 11, 2010 at 8:50 pm
“..the Obama administration is threatening to shut down any health care provider that tells the truth about its new mandates.”
The things the Obama administration says that they will do should make the hair on your neck stand on end and make your skin crawl.
What is more disturbing is the portion of society that seem to think this is OK if they are in line for another perceived government “goodie.”
“There will be zero tolerance for this type of misinformation and unjustified rate increases,”
Your ass is off to re-education camp if dear leader Obama disapproves of your actions.
By trelby September 12, 2010 at 7:56 am
Are Obama’s open threats even legal? O that’s right–the Democrats make up all the rules as they go along.
By Jack September 12, 2010 at 2:59 pm
As and Independent, I have made to observations that seem to have persisted since Obama was elected.
1. Democrats have a lot of ideas, but they never truly come to fruition.
2. Republicans are great at generalized criticism, but short on specifics.
In the health care debate, I believe it is true that what Americans wanted were lower premiums and freedom from preexisting conditions. I think that is what Obama offered, but the bill that passed failed to produce that result.
Obama supported the Bush Wall Street bail out, and said the stimulus package would create jobs. Yet significant jobs are yet to materialize.
Republicans however seem to offer nothing other than an attack on Obama. He enacted Socialized medicine, but they can’t define socialized medicine. He is a thug, but they can’t say specifically what a thug is and what makes him one. They say he has the worst policies in history, but they can’t identify specifically the policies that are bad. They say the things that Obama do should make your skin crawl. Yet they applauded when GWB suspended the civil liberties of US Citizens Post 9-11, by pushing through laws that allowed the FBI and CIA to spy on US Citizens, spying on US citizens before the law allowed it, declaring unilateral unreviewable authority to identify who among us are enemy combatants and to hold them without counsel or bond; and invoking war powers without asking for a declaration of war.
I wish Republicans could at least say what they would do to make things better, and how they have changed from the days of GWB; who I believe was truly one of the worst Presidents in history.
What are thinking people to do?
By Dennis Stallings September 13, 2010 at 9:12 am
Socialized medicine is the system under which everyone is entitled to receive medical care at a reasonable cost. The problem is that the less-at-risk must pay enough in rates to offset the high-risk. Thus, insurance companies must increase their rates across the board.
The young, healthy individuals are helping to pay for the older, less-healthy.
Insurance companies do not operate as a public service. They operate in order to make a profit. In essence, you are betting that you will get sick and require medical care, while they are betting (and hoping) that you won’t.
By Save Yourself September 16, 2010 at 8:17 am
Defund these dictators; dismantle their empire; and delete their programs.
This is America; where do these czarinas get off ! The American people need to fire the US Government and start over with Americans.
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