Senator Baucus' Insurance Industry Profit Protection and Enhancement Act

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President Barack Obama last week quoted Wendell Potter's recent Congressional testimony. Yesterday, speaking before the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, Wendell "warned that if Congress 'fails to create a public insurance option to compete with private insurers, the bill it sends to the president might as well be called the Insurance Industry Profit Protection and Enhancement Act. ... Potter, who was previously a vice president of communication at Cigna, also sharply criticized Democratic Senator Max Baucus' health care reform bill in a conversation with reporters Monday, calling the plan an 'absolute gift to the industry.'" In his testimony, he stated that the Baucus plan "would create a government-subsidized monopoly for the purchase of bare-bones, high-deductible policies that would truly benefit Big Insurance. ... It's hard to imagine how insurance companies could write legislation that would benefit them more."