Overheard: ‘Insurance lobby’s scare tactics are ironic and deplorable’

Looks like the folks at AHIP won’t be on Ron Pollack’s holiday card list. After AHIP President Karen Ignagni released a statement in the wake of the Senate Finance Committee’s vote on health care reform legislation, Pollack, executive director of the consumer health organization Families USA, fired back.

Pollack appears particularly upset by Ignagni’s claim that the bill crafted by committee chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) would result in an increase in insurance premiums. Such a claim, Pollack says, “gives hypocrisy a bad name,” adding that insurers are “conveniently forgetting that they imposed significant premium increases during the past decade that are making health coverage unaffordable for families and businesses.”

Pollack concludes: “The insurance lobby’s scare tactics are ironic and deplorable. They are like a poker player who complains about his hand when, in fact, he is the dealer.”

Looks like we have a (another) war of words a-brewin’ here. Are you on Team Ignagni, Team Pollack or neither?