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meetings on health reform planned for this week alone.
The more underhanded gambit is the decision to bash the insurance industry at every turn. Ms Pelosi now
calls its bosses “villains”, while Mr Obama wags a disapproving finger. This will score some political points,
as many Americans have a deep (and often well-founded) distrust of health insurers. But the tactic could
ultimately hobble or even doom reform. That is because the health insurance lobby may prove to be Mr
Obama’s most important friend this year.
Though it has a shameful history, the insurance industry has done a U-turn of late. It now accepts the
need for a radical overhaul of insurance markets through measures such as guaranteed issue of coverage
and the creation of health insurance “exchanges”. But its leaders are increasingly unhappy about the shrill
attacks. Can Mr Obama continue to bash the insurers one day and rely on them the next?
Copyright © 2009 The Economist Newspaper and The Economist Group. All rights reserved.
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