Baseless Argument of the Day

On yesterday's "The Oprah Winfrey Show", Michael Moore and others debated the topic of health care. One of those individuals was Karen Ignagni, the President of America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP). AHIP is a political lobbyist representing the approximately 1,300 member companies which provide private health insurance coverage to millions of Americans.

As he did in his movie "SiCKO", Moore emphasized the various issues with this country's health care system, including the fact that the United States is the only industrialized nation which does not provide universal health care to its citizens. Ignagni, who earned $1.24 million last year, has asserted that AHIP endorses the ultimate goal of universal health care coverage. However, you will have to excuse me when I say that I don't believe Ignagni. Why? Here are just a couple of reasons:

• 71% of AHIP's donations to candidates for federal positions were to Republicans.
• Ignagni currently serves as a board member for The Bryce Harlow Foundation, an organization which presents an annual award to the individual who has supposedly "worked to advance business-government relations". With that being said, the list of recipients of this award reads like a Who's Who of the Republican Party: Dick Cheney, Dennis Hastert, Trent Lott, Richard Lugar, Robert Dole and John Boehner. In fact, of the 28 recipients, 18 are Republican politicians and administrators.
• Prior to her employment at AHIP, Ignagni served as a professional staff member of the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee and worked Department of Health & Human Services.
• The consumer group within the health care industry for senior citizens, the Coalition for Medicare Choices, was founded by AHIP in 1999. The address for the coalition is the same address for Democracy & Data Communications, a public relations counseling firm with clients such as AHIP, United HealthCare and Humana.
• Julie Goon, Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy in the National Economic Council, previously served as the Senior Vice President of Government Affairs at AHIP. Oh, by the way, before her employment at AHIP, Goon served as the Director of Federal Relations at Humana, the fourth largest health insurance providers in the U.S.