AHIP spokesperson Robert Zirkelbach went on Fox News this morning to discuss what the network has been calling his group’s “bombshell” report on the Senate Finance Committee’s health care reform bill. AHIP released the report just a day before the Finance Committee is expected to take its final vote on the bill, but Zirkelbach told Fox News’ Bill Hemmer the timing was just luck, saying the group had a “responsibility” to put its audit out as quickly as possible.
Though the report was highly critical of the bill, Zirkelbach said there are some things his group and Finance Committee Democrats agree on when it comes to health care reform — namely, the parts of the bill that would result in millions of more customers for insurance companies. Zirkelbach said the industry supports plans to eliminate pre-existing condition screening from insurance applications as well as plans to mandate all Americans buy coverage.
“We strongly support the insurance market reforms so that everybody has guaranteed access to coverage,” he said. “To make it work, everybody needs to be required to participate.”
