Insurance: Pelosi says insurance companies funded misleading adverts
The Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, has accused the US insurance industry of "secretly bankrolling the effort to kill health insurance reform for millions of Americans."
Pelosi drew attention to a TV report which her office says was "showing that the nation's largest insurance companies funnelled between USD10 and USD20 million through the US Chamber of Commerce to fund deceptive television ads opposed to insurance reform." The TV report was supported by an article published by National Journal which, Pelosi's office says "also reveals that the effort was well underway even as the insurance companies were publicly claiming to support health reform."
Pelosi has accepted those reports apparently without question: she says "The insurance industry has spent millions of dollars on the wrong side of history -- standing in the way of progress for our workers, families, and businesses, by secretly funding a campaign to maintain a health insurance system of high costs, limited access, and arbitrary cut-offs for American consumers. Congress is working with President Obama and thousands of health, consumer, and labor organizations across the nation to finalize health insurance reform that ensures affordability for the middle class, accountability for the insurance industry, and access for millions more Americans. But Americans should judge these deceptive ads for what they are -- now that they know who has been paying the tab."
But the other side of the same coin is that the National Journal's "Under the Influence" section where the article appeared, heads itself "an Inside View of the Lobbying and Advocacy Industry." It appears to have a broadly Democrat viewpoint - but that doesn't mean it fails to criticise Democrat policy and action.
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