Karen Ignagni, Chief Healthcare lobbyist, is UNINSURABLE in the private market she defends!

[Nikki Stone1]

Karen Ignagni at 14:58 here:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundamerica/view/

She heads the health insurance industry lobbying group and is vehemently opposed to the public option. Yet, in an interview with Frontline, Ignagni admits she has a serious asthma condition that would make her uninsurable in the private market.


http://www.whorunsgov.com/Profiles/Karen_Ignagni

If President Obama is going to succeed in passing meaningful health-care reform legislation this year, he’ll need to go through Ignagni.

As president of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), Ignagni is the voice for the companies that offer health, dental, disability and long-term care coverage to millions of Americans. She’ll play a key role in negotiating any legislation that changes the way those companies do business....

"In a city teeming with health-care lobbyists, Ms. Ignagni is widely considered one of the most effective. ...

As respected as Ignagni is in the insurance industry, she’s been vilified by some outside of it, mostly by universal health-care advocates who say insurance companies put profits ahead of people. Ignagni's AHIP has come out against many of the Democrat's favorite proposals, most notably the creation of a public health insurance option to compete with private insurers. The industry has been accused of torpedoing the 1993-1994 Clinton health-reform effort, and all eyes are on Ignagni to see whether she helps defeat the Obama plan too.

[Nikki Stone1]

1. Thanks for the rec

I think this is really important. Ignagni's name has been around a lot lately.

[lapfog_1]

2. I'm sure there have been lobbyists for big Tobacco

who died from lung cancer caused by smoking.

I know that the actor that played the Marlboro Man died of lung cancer..



People do strange things to make a living. How they "live" with themselves is a mystery.

[Vinca]

3. Years ago a woman who was a lobbyist for the tobacco industry

appeared on one of the talk shows. Larry King, I think. Throughout the entire interview, as she was pimping for big tobacco, her nose was running. I don't mean just a little running, I mean great globs of snot dripping down her face. A sicker person on air I've never seen. It was amusing.

[Nikki Stone1]

7. No kidding.

Do you have link?

[Vinca]

8. This was YEARS ago - long before you could post film on the Internet.

[Nikki Stone1]

9. Ah. Oh well.

It would have been worth seeing.

[Nikki Stone1]

4. But the Marlboro man didn't lobby Congress to keep people sick

Ignagni IS.

[lapfog_1]

12. Nah, he "just" went on the TeeVee many times a day (and night)

for YEARS to make smoking look like something "a real man" would do, looking all fit and rugged and handsome.

Often directly marketing to teenagers and pre-teens.

Nothing damaging here.

he didn't lobby congress, he lobbied directly to the people of the world.

(actually, I believe years later he did testify to congress about his guilt over doing those commercials, but I could be wrong about that).

Anyway, the point was that people do strange things for money, even going against their own personal self-interest.

[Nikki Stone1]

14. He was an actor, not a lobbyist with an agenda

You can't really compare the two.

[lapfog_1]

24. You want to know a secret...

If you walked into the lobbying firm in question here and dropped a suitcase with, say, $100M on their desk.

They will ask YOU want you want them to do. Lobby to enact single payer, no problem.

They are paid whores. They get associated with one cause because of who they hire to lobby for them (former party officials or even elected officials). But bottom line, they will lobby for whoever pays them the most (after calculating how much of the funds they are "losing" by taking you on, of course).

[AuntPatsy]

5. Another one for rachel to oust...

[Nikki Stone1]

6. YES. This IS a Rachel thing.

How do we get this to her.

[PA Democrat]

10. What a despicable woman.

Not only has she got HER health insurance, but she is getting rich by denying other people the same access to health care.

[Nikki Stone1]

11. Bingo.

:kick:

[Ilsa]

15. An empty heart indeed. What would she do if she was gasping for air

and the ER wheeled her chair into the ambulance bay and dumped her?

[PA Democrat]

16. Or forced to apply for charity to get her asthma meds

hoping she does not have a severe attack while her application is processed?

[Ilsa]

20. Or the charity runs out of funds in a bad economy. nt

[Nikki Stone1]

23. No kidding.

:kick:

[Nikki Stone1]

13. I sent it to Rachel's email: [e-mail]

We'll see what happens.

[Captain Hilts]

17. What a tool. I have no pre-existings and I can't get insurance because I'm unemployed. nt

[Nikki Stone1]

19. Hey, email Rachel with this

Maybe we can get her to investigate this.

[Fuzz]

18. Whore. No offense to decent whores.

[Texasgal]

21. Hypocrites.

It's what's for dinner.

[Canuckistanian]

22. Public option supporters are fighting for her, too

Even while she fights against it.

[Nikki Stone1]

25. Shame we can't leave her out.

:(

[Nikki Stone1]

26. The health industry is really working against us

This one is working behind the scenes.