Insurance Lobby Exec Says Costs Not Addressed In Health Care Bills

America's Health Insurance Plans CEO Karen Ignagni is speaking today about health care at the Detroit Economic Club and says the bills being debated do not sufficiently address cost containment.

"As far as cost containment is concerned, it's as though the house is on fire and the strategy is to rush to the scene with an eight-ounce glass of water," she said.

Readers will recall that in October AHIP commissioned PriceWaterhouse Coopers to do a report showing that insurance premiums would rise under the bills being considered on Capitol Hill.

According to speech excerpts, Ignagni will warn against passing a bill just to call it reform.

"If we don't do what needs to be done to address costs and instead settle for passing inadequate legislation - simply to attach a 'health care reform' label to something - we will have made promises that will be impossible to keep. Deficits will increase, Medicare will remain financially unstable, government subsidies will be inadequate to protect families, and employers will find it much more difficult to continue to provide coverage."

Ignagni says there is " still time to get it right."

Her close:

Sustainable health care reform is still within reach. The nation can provide affordable health care coverage to all Americans. To get there, all of us with a stake in the health care system need to heed the call to a higher national purpose that trumps political expediency.