Obama Targets Insurers, Sells Reform Plan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama launched a sharp attack on health insurers on Monday and called on his fellow Democrats to rise above politics and pass a healthcare overhaul in the next few weeks.

Hitting the road to rally support in the final push for healthcare reform, Obama used a campaign-style speech to urge Democrats to approve a bill and quickly end the political wrangling that has consumed Washington since July.
"There have been plenty of folks in Washington who have said that the politics is just too hard. They've argued now is not the time for reform," Obama said at Arcadia University in Glenside, Pennsylvania.
"My question to them is: When is the right time? If not now, when?" he asked, shrugging off warnings of a political backlash in November for Democrats who back the overhaul.
"I don't know how passing healthcare will play politically, but I do know that it's the right thing to do," he said.
Obama also offered his toughest criticism yet of a health insurance industry that he said placed profits ahead of patients. "Every year, they raise premiums higher and higher," Obama said "They will keep doing this for as long as they can get away with it."
Turning up the heat, Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius sent a letter to top companies such as Aetna Inc and Wellpoint Inc asking them to justify rate increases by making public information about costs, enrollment changes and other details.
"It's time for these insurance company CEOs to do their part to make the system more transparent for the American people," Sebelius said. "If insurance companies are going to raise rates, the least they can do is tell us why."
The Obama administration has targeted health insurers in its final push for an overhaul designed to rein in costs, regulate insurers and expand coverage to tens of millions of Americans.
Obama said failure to pass a healthcare overhaul this year would leave intact a broken $2.5 trillion healthcare system that is ravaged by greedy health insurers.

INSURERS MAKE 'A CALCULATION'
"These insurance companies have made a calculation," Obama said "They're OK with people being priced out of health insurance because they'll still make more by raising premiums on the customers they keep.
The House of Representatives is expected to vote by the end of March on the Senate's version of the healthcare bill, with Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi searching for the 216 votes to pass it. The House approved its version with only three votes to spare in November.
Republican leaders say they will make healthcare reform a top issue in November's elections and urged Republican candidates to focus on the Democratic-crafted bills, which polls show are unpopular with the public.
"A vote for this bill opens an entirely new line of attack on House Democrats," Johnny Destefano, a House Republican campaign committee official, said in a memo to Republican House candidates.
"Now is the time to apply pressure and force your opponents into taking a stand on whether they will walk Speaker Pelosi's plank by supporting her last-ditch healthcare push," he said.
Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell said the new push on healthcare would be a replay of the frantic maneuvering that marked Senate passage just before Christmas.
"Americans don't like this bill any more today than they did three months ago," he said.
But in Pennsylvania, Obama sought the public's help in rallying Congress to pass the overhaul. "It's time to make a decision," Obama said. "The time for talk is over."
The overhaul looked dead in January when Republicans deprived Democrats of their crucial 60th Senate vote by winning a Massachusetts special election, stopping negotiations to merge bills already passed by the House and Senate.
But changes to the Senate bill sought by Obama and House Democrats will be considered separately using a procedure that allows a majority vote in the 100-member Senate rather than the 60 votes needed to clear Republican procedural hurdles.
Obama proposed revisions to the Senate bill last week to ease the concerns of House Democrats, including watering down a tax on expensive insurance plans and boosting federal subsidies to make coverage more affordable.
"I think there's a lot more determination in the Congress now to get it passed," Democratic Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania told reporters after Obama's speech.
"I really think there's sort of reaction on the Democratic side of getting a little angry over the duration and intensity of obstruction and a lot more determination to see it through."
In her letter to insurers, Sebelius asked executives to post on their websites the justification for any individual or small group rate increases they implemented or proposed in 2010, and continue to do so in the future.
The heads of Cigna Corp, UnitedHealth Group Inc and privately held Health Care Service Corp also received the letter.
Health insurer shares were down for the day. The Morgan Stanley Healthcare Payor index was down about 0.4 percent and the S&P Managed Health Care index was off 1 percent.
The CEO of Manpower, a global employment services company that provides temporary workers, said the uncertainty of the healthcare debate in Washington was keeping U.S. employers from hiring.
"The concern is that we have a political system that is too broken to fix systemic issues," CEO Jeff Joerres told Reuters.

Democrats target insurers ahead of health summit

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Democrats targeted health insurers and wary Republicans braced for a political showdown on Wednesday ahead of a White House summit that President Barack Obama hopes will spark momentum for a broad healthcare overhaul.
Republicans questioned the motive for Thursday's day-long summit and Democrats turned up the pressure on the health insurance industry with a hearing on a recent premium increase by insurer WellPoint Inc and a planned House of Representatives vote on repealing its antitrust exemption.
Democrats called the recent premium increases for some Anthem Blue Cross customers in California a function of greed rather than need and said they highlighted the importance of reform.
"Unless Congress and the administration act, Americans across the country will continue to experience large premium increases and will be priced out of the market," said Representative Bart Stupak, head of the House Energy and Commerce oversight panel.
The summit on Thursday brings together leaders of both parties in a last-gasp effort to revive a sweeping healthcare overhaul that has stalled in the U.S. Congress amid broad public dissatisfaction and unified Republican opposition.
The meeting follows Obama's release on Monday of a new healthcare plan amid signals he is prepared to try to jam the bill through Congress using a procedure that would bypass the need for Republican support.
"In light of all these behind-the-scenes efforts to get around the will of the people, it's hard to imagine what the purpose of Thursday's summit is," Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said.
Summit negotiations have touched on everything from the list of attendees to the shape of the table. The meeting will be broken into sections to discuss controlling costs, insurance reforms, deficit reduction and expanding coverage, the White House said.
Republicans said they will focus on a scaled-back approach that would boost competition across state lines and curtail medical malpractice lawsuits.

'NOTHING TO TALK ABOUT'
But if Republicans insist Democrats should scrap the existing bills and start over "then there is nothing to talk about," Democratic Senator Chris Dodd said.
The Democratic-controlled House and Senate passed sweeping bills last year designed to reshape the $2.5 trillion healthcare industry by cutting costs, regulating insurers and expanding coverage to tens of millions of Americans.
But efforts to merge them and send a final version to Obama collapsed in January after Democrats lost their crucial 60th vote in a special U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts.
McConnell and other Republicans condemned any Democratic effort to pass the bill through a process called reconciliation, which requires a simple majority in the 100-member Senate rather than the usual 60 votes needed to clear procedural hurdles.
McConnell called reconciliation "a last-ditch sleight of hand" and Eric Cantor, the No. 2 House Republican, published a memo casting doubt on whether House Democrats can still muster a simple majority to support healthcare.
Cantor noted the bill passed the House in November with three votes to spare, and the measure has lost at least four votes since then through retirement, death and a change of heart by the only Republican to support it in November.
"House Democrats are farther away from securing the votes to pass a government health care bill today than they have ever been," Cantor said.
Many Democrats fear reconciliation would spark a costly political backlash heading into congressional elections in November that could erase Democratic majorities in Congress.
The White House, which has not publicly endorsed the strategy, reiterated the summit was designed to elicit ideas and find areas of agreement with Republicans. It said Obama's new proposal was not meant to be the final word on the issue.
"At Thursday's bipartisan meeting, the president will continue to work with members of both parties to find common ground and look for the best ideas that will help American families and small business owners have greater control over their own health care," Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform said in an e-mail.
Democrats on Wednesday focused on the health insurance industry, which has taken a pummeling from the White House and Democrats in recent weeks since the premium increases announced by Anthem Blue Cross in California.
Health insurer stocks stayed steady nevertheless, with the Morgan Stanley Healthcare Payor index up 0.5 percent in early afternoon trade.
WellPoint Chief Executive Officer Angela Braly defended the increases and said they reflected higher costs from hospitals and doctors. "Raising our premiums was not something we wanted to do -- but we believe this was the most prudent choice," Braly said.
The House also planned a vote on a measure that would remove the federal antitrust exemption for the insurance industry, a move Democrats said would increase competition and help shine a light on industry practices.