Friday, November 1, 2013

The Educative Effect On The Insurance Industry Of The IRS Scandal

     The whining, moaning, and gnashing of teeth being engaged in by the insurance industry over the crushing weight of ObamaCare regulations, is a case of too little too late. Now that these insurance executives realize that the customer bonanza that was promised by President Obama to get their support before the law was passed has turned into a huge loss of customers, they are quietly complaining about the law they helped write. These supposedly "smart" people in the highest positions of the health insurance business, foolishly believed that somehow socialized medicine was going to create more capitalism in their industry.
     Recently, reports that many health care insurance executives are afraid to speak out publicly for fear of reprisal from an ever more powerful and unconstitutional executive branch, has highlighted the administration's strategy of using the force of the federal government to intimidate opposition. This current intimidation of the insurance industry has its roots in the targeting of Conservative groups by the Internal Revenue Service that was revealed in the spring of this year. I believe the twofold purpose of the IRS harassment strategy was, one, to suppress the votes of Republicans in the 2012 presidential election, and two, to send out a warning to anyone in the future who even thought about criticizing this administration.
     Intimidation only works if the one being intimidated has reason to believe that the intimidator has not only the ability to carry through on any threats, but also the history of doing so. The Obama administration took a calculated risk to leak the IRS scandal, knowing that it was a pretty safe bet that the main stream media would keep their fat out of the fire. And while there was no real consequence to the administration for this illegal and immoral activity, it served as an educative exercise to anyone who even thought about criticizing President Obama or his policies. Those foolish enough to do so would feel the full force of an overly bloated and constitutionally-mitigated executive branch. 
     So the insurance executives are now exhibiting behavior of the intimidated, beyond the normal intimidation that business fears from government regulators. They have not only dummied up in public, but are saying how great ObamaCare will be for the consumers of health care insurance. Now with insurance companies being driven from the commercial health care insurance market by the new law that they supported and helped write, I wonder if these "smart" people actually understand that they have been the instrument of their own demise.

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