Insurers: Reid's Compromise Is A Roadblock

While Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is praised by the left today for, as they're explaining it, a gutsy maneuver to get a public option to the Senate floor, health insurers are casting his plan for a public option that lets states opt-out as exactly the opposite. The public option, even with the opt-out clause, is a "roadblock" to national health care consensus, they say. Here's the statement issued this afternoon by America's Health Insurance Plans President and CEO Karen Ignagni:

"A new government-run plan would underpay doctors and hospitals rather than driving real reforms that bring down costs and improve quality.  The American people want health care reform that will reduce costs and this plan doesn't do that.  

"The divisive debate about a government-run plan is a roadblock to reform.  It's time we focus instead on broad-based reforms that will ensure the affordability and sustainability of our health care system."

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2009/10/insurers-reids-compromise-is-a-roadblock/29088/