It sure was nice seeing representatives of the insurance industry sitting down with the president and declaring that they know the healthcare system needs to be overhauled and that they definitely want to be part of the solution.
Just one small thing: Does anybody trust them?
I spoke last week with a variety of healthcare experts, and not one could give me a "yes" to that question.
"Some of these people in the insurance industry are friends of mine," said Alain Enthoven, a professor emeritus at the Stanford Graduate School of Business who served as a consultant to the Carter administration on healthcare issues. "I like them personally. But I don't trust them."
He pointed out that when he and others crafted a plan for universal coverage in the 1970s, the insurance industry proudly announced that it was ready to compromise to serve the nation's best interests.
"Nothing came of it," Enthoven said. "The whole thing was just a joke."
Karen Pollitz, a research professor at Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute and a former health official in the Clinton administration, said insurers were similarly gung-ho when universal coverage once again became a going concern in the 1990s.
"They said they wanted to be at the table and wanted to deal," she recalled. "Then they all left. They saw that they could kill it."
So here we are again. President Obama said last week that "the stars are aligned" to pass healthcare reform legislation this year.
He also hailed it as "a historic day, a watershed event" after representatives of the insurance, pharmaceutical and medical industries joined him at the White House to underline their commitment to making universal coverage a reality.
You almost expected everyone to break into a chorus of "We Are the World."
In fact, it's hard to see how things are different this time around. Once again we have a Democratic administration committed to upending our woefully dysfunctional healthcare system.
And once again the healthcare industry is presenting itself as a willing and enthusiastic agent of change.
Why should anyone believe that the outcome will be any different now from what happened 15 years ago?
"Everything's different this time," answered Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plans, a leading industry group. "Everybody learned valuable lessons from 15 years ago."
So now we're looking at kinder, gentler insurance companies?
