Corporations Still Fear Success of Public Option

Anti-reform forces are renewing their push against healthcare reform, specifically the public option. Internal memos show that insurance lobbyists and astroturf organizations find the "threat" of the public option very, very real. This is probably spurred by house liberals' revolt over the issue and White House reassurances that it still supports the option.

First off, Talking Points Memo reports that UnitedHealth Group (UHG) is urging their own employees to attend town halls and push against the public option. Here's UHG's talking points:

-UnitedHealth Group supports bipartisan, comprehensive health care modernization.

-Our company is playing a constructive role in the health care modernization discussion, engaging with the Administration, Congress and industry leaders in support of sustainable reform that will slow future health care cost growth while still delivering quality medical coverage.

-Our industry has been innovators in developing best practices that achieve this goal - these include efforts from far-reaching administrative reforms that slash paperwork to initiatives that reduce medical errors, all to ensure that doctors and hospitals can focus on patient care.

-UnitedHealth Group, in partnership with physicians, hospitals and other care providers, has developed proven initiatives that government could undertake today to slow future health care cost growth, including institutional preadmission programs to manage illnesses and prevent avoidable hospitalizations, clinical evidence-based care management tools, and rewards for physicians for providing comprehensive medical care. It is critical that sustainable health care reform be passed that will not only expand coverage and improve quality, but also will slow the growth of health care costs.

-Our industry's proposal for health reform brings everyone into the system, guarantees coverage for all Americans, does away with pre-existing condition limitations, and ends ratings based on health status and gender.

-The approximately 75,000 men and women of our company work passionately every day to help people lead healthier lives.

-Our company is very concerned that a government-run health plan would be a road block to meaningful health care reform. It would significantly increase costs for individuals and families, would add billions of dollars in new liabilities to the federal budget, would break down the current health care system upon which more than 160 million Americans rely, and would violate the President's commitment that those who like their current coverage can keep it.

-We are committed to the enactment of a uniquely American approach to health care reform and bipartisan reforms that build upon what is currently working and that ensure those who like their current coverage can keep it.

An interested mix of happy-talk and bullshit. The company denies they're astroturfing town halls, but TPM reports "a source who obtained the letter says UHG directed him to an anti-health care reform tea party outside of the office of Rep. Zack Space (D-OH)."

Another example comes from Greg Sargent, who reports on an internal memo [PDF] from the astroturf Conservatives for Patient Rights.

The memo discusses a “Martha’s Vineyard ad strategy” that’s set to kick in next week. According to a source familiar with the group’s plans, this is a reference to a planned national ad targeting the public option that will reference the President’s vacation.

“Rumors of the death of the public option have been greatly exaggerated,” reads the memo, which is likely to be taken by liberal groups pushing for the public option as a sign that they need to redouble their fundraising and organizing efforts.

CPR’s memo confirms explicitly that the group will work to foment opposition to the public option at town halls. “It is critical that we stay focused on the public option and not become mired in sideshows or discussions of the public option under any other name,” it says. “We must continue to encourage people to attend town hall forums and other public events to stay focused on stopping the public option.”

There's a certain amount of tea-leaf reading in judging how freaked out these organizations really are over the possibility of a public option. Calls to action are like fundraising appeals -- they tend to overstate their concerns a little bit. But the insurance industry obviously wants no increased competition at all (and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying. Industries hate competion and spend millions to eliminate it), so if they thought the public option wasn't any threat, you'd think they'd start ginning up fear over the co-op compromise. Co-ops would compete too, just nowhere near as effectively.

It doesn't look like industry is ready to move on to the next fight, which means this is still a fight they believe they could lose.