Insurance giant funding group pushing statistic

An interesting statistic is being used by opponents of health care reform to prevent creation of a public insurance plan. Opponents of health care reform say that more than 100 million private insurance beneficiaries would abandon their private companies for the less expensive public plan. Even Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has been quoted using this statistic, calling it “crowd out.”

The Congressional Budget Office estimated only 11 million to 12 million would switch.

It turns out that the so-called non-partisan Lewin Group that developed this statistic is, in fact, funded by the insurance giant United Health Group. This is the same insurance company that was charged with defrauding its customers going back as far 1994 and paid a settlement of more than $400 million. This is the company that has been fighting tooth and nail to eliminate the public insurance plan that would give Americans more choices of insurance plans to purchase from.

If there was one thing I learned from my public education, it was to always check my sources.

Jacob Kramer

Iowa City