Orshe

Five CEOs from the health-insurance big dogs (UnitedHealth, WellPoint, etc.) are at the White House this morning to discuss — or more accurately, take flack — over the health overhaul’s issue de jour: rising insurance premiums.

The leadup to the meeting has been disorganized and it’s hard to figure out what’s going on or who is really going to take the CEOs to task. HHS pushed out a press release on Feb. 24 saying the meeting would be yesterday at the department’s HQ.

Then the meeting got moved up to today and relocated to the White House. Rumors are swirling that President Obama himself might sit down with the CEOs for a friendly chat.

The insurance honchos, including WellPoint’s Angela Braly, UnitedHealth’s Stephen Hemsley, Cigna’s David Cordani, Health Care Service Corp.’s Patricia Hemingway Hall and Aetna’s Ron Williams, are expected to keep pressing the point that rising premiums are due to underlying medical costs that are rising at an alarming clip. Execs and their trade group have said hospitals are asking them for 40% reimbursement increases and to pay for high-end biotech drugs that are running into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

What’s likely to come out of the confab? It’s an opportunity for the White House to push the health overhaul by continuing to stoke what it has seized on as a signature issue –- the 39% rate increase that WellPoint asked for in California’s individual market. But like last week’s bipartisan health summit, it’s likely to end up being little more than an exchange of talking points.

Image: iStockphoto

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Health-Insurance Top Hats Take Heat at White House