Insurance Industry Group: Nope, We Won’t Stop Efforts To Get People To Town Hall Rallies

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http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/health-care/insurance-industry-group-nope-we-wont-stop-efforts-to-get-people-to-town-hall-rallies/

Insurance Industry Group: Nope, We Won’t Stop Efforts To Get People To Town Hall Rallies


A few moments ago, the Democratic National Committee launched its most direct hit yet against the insurance industry, blasting out a release hammering the industry’s top trade group for engaging in an “astroturf” campaign to pump up turnout at town hall rallies.

“As organic as James Traficant’s hair,” is how the DNC described efforts by the the trade group, America’s Health Insurance Plans, or AHIP.

Well, AHIP has no intention whatsoever of backing off its efforts, an AHIP spokesperson just confirmed in an interview. “We are encouraging people to go, and we think that they should,” the spokesman, Robert Zirkelbach, said.

Recently, AHIP announced that it was encouraging the insurance industry’s hundreds of thousands of employees to go to town meetings with members of Congress to “confront them” over reform, as Politico put it.

Asked whether AHIP stood by this directive, Zirkelback said AHIP had never urged anyone to “confront” members of Congress. “I never used that term,” Zirkelback said, insisting that AHIP was only urging employees to be “constructive,” and not destructive.

But he left no doubt that AHIP would keep encouraging employees to turn out. “We’re going to continue to do what we’re doing,” he said. “We’re tracking events, working with our members, and encouraging people to participate.”

To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with AHIP encouraging such participation. But it gives reform proponents an opening to point out that the industry, which is opposed to a public health insurance option and has an enormous amount at stake, is aggressively trying to pump up turnout at these rallies — and has every intention of continuing to do so.