Air-Brushed Tribune Story Slams Insurers

What's with this Tribune puff piece touting DNC talking points on insurance rates, putting up big photos to take up an entire page. The White House calls insurance execs in to give them a talking to. Because they are the villains du jour. There always has to be an enemy with these Dems, who could never run anything well in the real world to save their lives. You know, unlike the government, insurance companies aren't in business to lose money--would we think that was a good thing? (Dems will just unionize their employees and bail them out at our expense--oh wait):

Execs and their trade group have said hospitals are asking them for 40% reimbursement increases and to pay for high-end biotech drugs that are running into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Well, no problem, under ObamaCare we won't have to worry about this high-tech stuff. Well, wowee, under the ObamaCare Dem bill the government just passes the cost on to taxpayers.

Why won't Democrats let individuals choose HSA's on a level playing field tax-wise. HSA's control costs with the patient in charge--it's working in Indiana:

In Indiana's HSA, the state deposits $2,750 per year into an account controlled by the employee, out of which he pays all his health bills. Indiana covers the premium for the plan. The intent is that participants will become more cost-conscious and careful about overpayment or overutilization.

Unused funds in the account—to date some $30 million or about $2,000 per employee and growing fast—are the worker's permanent property. For the very small number of employees (about 6% last year) who use their entire account balance, the state shares further health costs up to an out-of-pocket maximum of $8,000, after which the employee is completely protected.

The HSA option has proven highly popular. This year, over 70% of our 30,000 Indiana state workers chose it, by far the highest in public-sector America. Due to the rejection of these plans by government unions, the average use of HSAs in the public sector across the country is just 2%.

No, but we live in Illinois, with a hack of an insurance commissioner, where the Dems run everything, and where the Tribune runs a brainless, unbalanced story like this.

Actions have consequences. Gee, let's live in a world where everyone works for the benevolent, except when they're not, government.

(Oh, but who would be left to pay the bills then?)

P.S. At least somewhere else in the newspaper there's some common sense on a different issue. Longer jobless benefits causing longer unemployment?

More. NRO:

The Congressional Budget Office has also found that the Senate bill would increase, not decrease, premiums, as the president was forced to admit at the Blair House summit meeting last week. One-size-fits-all federal insurance requirements would force millions of Americans to buy more expensive coverage than they have selected in today’s marketplace. Research by a private actuarial firm shows that premiums would jump by more than 50 percent in the individual market and 20 percent for those in small employer plans.