White House, Dems reject Price Waterhouse study

By Rick Moran

Unless you want to believe that one of the most prestigious accounting firms in the country is cooking the books for political purposes, the Price Waterhouse study released yesterday that shows a shattering increase in health insurance premiums for families over the next decade under Obamacare spells huge trouble for the Democrats.

So, of course, they attack it.

The White House:

"It comes on the eve of a vote that will reduce the industry's profits," Douglass told TPMDC. "It is hard to take it seriously. The analysis completely ignores critical policies will lower costs for those who have insurance, expand coverage and provide affordable health insurance options to millions of Americans who are priced out of today's health insurance market or are locked out by unfair insurance company practices."

The chances of Obamacare doing any of those wonderful things before the study even came out is what is hard to take seriously. The White House calls the study "selective" in choosing which policies to consider.

As if they don't simply ignore facts that inconveniently show them to be full of hot air?

Meanwhile, Democrats on the Hill are scrambling to denounce the study. "A hatchet job," said a spokesman for Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus. Dem allies in the private sector were also trying to shoot down the numbers - evidently before any of them had time to even read the darn thing.

How much impact will the study have on the debate? Hard to tell at this point. It certainly has riled Democrats and the White House which means they must believe it will affect some Blue Dogs in the House and Senate. Otherwise, why raise such a stink?

All of this points to the idea that despite making some progress this past 7 days with a favorable CBO report for the Baucus bill, there is still a long way to go for Democrats. Whether they can overcome the numerous fights yet to come and pass something before the end of the year remains a big question mark.