Victor Fazio: “over the past few months the health insurance industry has spent millions of dollars to convince the American public…”

“over the past few months the health insurance industry has spent millions of dollars to convince the American public that we should be worried about efforts to reform health care. These slick Madison Avenue advertisements were brought to you courtesy of the Health Insurance Industry of America, a trade association for commercial health insurance companies. These companies have an obvious financial stake in the outcome of health care reform. What may not be obvious is the fact that the health insurance industry has bankrolled a $14 million ad campaign to kill health reform with your insurance premium money. These are the same companies that do not want to stop excluding treatment for pre-existing conditions, do not want to give up lifetime limits on benefits, and do not want to stop their skyrocketing premiums. And now you know why the HIAA has decided that rather than spending their money and your premiums on providing care for those who need it, they would spend millions of dollars to put ads on television to convince the American public that the current system of providing health care insurance is OK. Well, there are millions of uninsured and underinsured Americans who can tell you that the health care system is not OK. There is no doubt that health reform can be a confusing and complicated issue, without the help of an industry that stands to gain from killing it.”