Reform that rewards insurers could be worse

In recent weeks, orchestrated outrage and loony scare tactics have drowned out the most basic fact about health reform: The status quo is far more frightening.

High and escalating costs. Rationing of care. Restricted choice. Long waits for care. Even “death panels” (read: insurance claim-review departments). Our private insurance system imposes all this already — on people lucky enough to be insured.

But it could get worse. As the Los Angeles Times reported this week, the insurance industry’s massive lobbying blitz appears to be twisting health reform into a bonanza for insurers.

This is scarier than the status quo. Insurers could gain tens of millions of new customers compelled to buy insurance, with taxpayers providing subsidies to pay many of those premiums. And insurers may be allowed to sell junk plans that cover only 65% of medical costs — plans that increase insurer profits and give consumers even less for their money.

If these proposals become law — especially without the competitive alternative of a public plan to hold down insurers’ costs and uphold quality — the health reform act will amount to a huge subsidy for insurance companies and will solve nothing.

The insurance industry has molded US healthcare to its advantage for decades. Congress members need to hear clearly from the majority of us who want reform designed to provide healthcare for all people, not to protect insurance companies.