If you are one of the thousands of Obama supporters planning to hold or attend a house meeting in the next few weeks to discuss the health care crisis, be on the lookout: patrons of the health insurance behemoths seek to crash your party.
While Barack Obama envisioned these meetings as a means to implement his commitment to "health care reform that comes from the ground up," the Health Insurance companies see a golden opportunity to lobby against their customers. According to the New York Times, these parasites are attempting to mobilize their employees and "satisfied customers" to attend:
Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for America’s Health Insurance Plans, the main lobby for insurance companies, said the group was "mobilizing our grass-roots coalitions and encouraging industry employees" to participate in meetings for the Obama transition team.
To be clear, the insurance companies are antithetical to our interests, highly-averse to "change we can believe in," and will not be attending the meetings in the hopes of furthering patient care. As the NYTimes reports:
Before Mr. Obama even takes office, insurance companies are raising questions about a central element of his plan that calls for creation of a new public insurance program to compete directly with private insurers. A public program would, they fear, have inherent unfair advantages.
Of course, the Obama people, inclusive and magnanimous as they are, don’t share my aversion to having Health Insurance lobbyists intrude on the meetings. According to the NYTimes report, Stephanie Cutter, a spokesperson for the Obama transition team, had these sentiments:
But Ms. Cutter said they were welcome to attend the gatherings. "These are listening sessions," Ms. Cutter said. "We are trying to find people who share Obama’s goal of health care reform, even if they disagree on the specifics."
Consider this a call to arms. Please sign up to join or lead a health care discussion in your area.