You must have noticed the TV ads sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce taking aim at health care reform. It has been reported that the money behind these ads came from some of the biggest insurance carriers in the industry including Aetna, Cigna, Humana, Kaiser Foundation Health Plans, UnitedHealth Group and Well Point. Their goal? Kill the bill.
The Chamber of Commerce spent an estimated $70 million to $100 million to squash reform, with insurance carriers kicking in somewhere between $10 million and $20 million, all the while claiming to support health care reform.
The ads particularly attacked a “Government Run Plan,” claiming such a plan that would make health care accessible to millions of Americans who currently do not have it would raise taxes. (By the way, Medicare is a government run plan.)
Estimates put the number of uninsured Americans at approximately 47 million (8.7 million children).