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Insurance companies made a deal with the devil. You know how that ends up....

CNN: Obama pressuring insurance companies to keep quiet about Obamacare problems

By Robert Laurie ——--October 30, 2013

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Last night, CNN's Anderson Cooper spoke with investigative reporter Drew Griffin about an increasing number of reports suggesting that the Obama administration is putting pressure on insurance companies who might speak out against Obamacare. Quietly, it seems, the White House has "kept its boot on the neck" of any insurance company that would dare complain about the new law or its implementation.
"A behind the scenes attempt to at least keep insurers from publicly criticizing what is happening under this affordable care act rollout. Basically if you speak out - if you are quoted - you're going to get a call from the white house - pressure to be quiet. Several sources tell me, and my colleague Chris Frates that insurance executives are being told to keep quiet. Bob Laszewski, who heads the Health Policy and Strategy Associates - a consulting firm for big insurance and an outspoken critic of Obamacare, says he is getting calls from these executives who want him to speak out for them about the problems. Because they feel defenseless against the White House PR team."
Asked what, specifically the administration was trying to squash, Griffin put it bluntly.
"the fact that clarifications were made to the Affordable Care Act after the law was passed, and those clarifications are forcing the insurance industry to drop insurance plans that do not meet Obamacare requirements. There's a lot of coverage now required in these plans that was not part of many people's private healthcare plans. Those are the people who are being dropped, and despite all the rhetoric from the President you simply cannot keep your healthcare plan if it does not meet these requirements."
So, the law is a complete mess that drives up rates and forces people to buy things they don't need from a website that doesn't work, but that's not what has Obama upset. According to Griffin, multiple sources have confirmed that the White House is contacting insurers who speak out about the fact that the affordable Care Act is forcing them to cancel peoples insurance, thus contradicting the President's "If you like it you can keep it" lie. Essentially, it's all about helping the Commander in Chief save face. Obviously, this is completely unfair, since the administration "didn't know" that this was going to happen, right CNN?
"The administration was warned about this very scenario and ignored the advice."
OK, fine. The White House is all out of excuses and refuses to back away from its train wreck legislation. So what, exactly, are they using as leverage against the insurers? What could they possibly be threatening that has terrified such a large industry? In a word, money. As Griffin puts it:
"Government backed plans accounted for about 48% of healthcare policies last year - a number that's expected to grow this year and in years to come - so basically insurance companies are in a position to just be quiet for fear of offending, basically, their biggest customer."
And that's Obama in a nutshell. An abiding love of crony capitalism has given him influence over the private sector that no politician - of either party -should have. The federal government has grown so huge that entire industries are reliant on cash confiscated from the American people, and the President is using that to silence his would-be critics. Anyone who's unable to see that this kind of collusion leads to some very dark places either has their head deep in the sand, or no grasp of history.

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Robert Laurie——

Robert Laurie’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain.com

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