It is unclear to me if the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association was really trying to help Hillary Clinton’s Presidential campaign by praising her health care plan, or whether they were damning Hillary with praise.

In an interview with ASI Health Ms. Alissa Fox, Vice President of Legislative and Regulatory policy for BCBSA praises Hillary Clinton’s health plan, saying, according to ASI:

For instance, “we agree completely” with Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) “that you need to look at increasing value” of health coverage, Fox explains. “She really tracks what our thinking is here, too. You can’t get there from here. You really need to look at changing the delivery system — improve quality and attack cost as you expand coverage. We think that’s critical.…Poor quality is leading to a lot of unnecessary cost in our system.” Fox says studies have indicated that as much as 30% of care in the country is ineffective, redundant or unnecessary. “We need to address that — and get that unnecessary cost out of the system,” she says.

“There are other things we like about her plan and other candidates’ plans too, providing tax credits that are tagged to income — that’s something in the Hillary plan we think makes a lot of sense,” Fox asserts.

Given the enormous amount of ill-will that many of the rank and file Democratic voters and supporters of the Medicare-for-All single payer plan have for insurers in general, is it really helpful to Hillary Clinton to have the largest health insurer praising her health plans five days before the New Hampshire primary? Especially given her third place finish in Iowa? My sense is it is probably not helpful to Hillary. It will likely be seen by the single payer true-believers as the Exhibit A reason they should not support Hillary — that if the largest health insurer is praising her, she must have sold-out.

Cigna’s Reversal on Decision to Deny Care to Young Girl Who Dies Becomes a Rallying Cry for Single Payer Advocates

One of the key points opponents of a single payer system make is that people in places like Canada die waiting for care — because it is rationed by the State.

Now, proponents of a single payer system can say — so what, with private insurance the same thing happens. This is exactly how the article from the On-line Journal starts out, citing the Cigna decision in their passionate plea for a single payer system.

Lack of Basic Understanding About Health Insurance Fuels Easily Manipulated Public Opinion

UPI ran a story about a poll of more than 1,000 American adults that found Americans do not much like learning about their health insurance, and in the best scored question, only a third knew what HMO means:

“Thirty-six percent said they knew that HMO stood for health maintenance organization — a type of managed care that follows a set of care guidelines provided through the HMO’s network of providers — while 20 percent knew PPO refers to preferred provider organization which allows a patient to see any doctor or specialist without referral often within a network. Eleven percent said they knew a HSA is a health savings account, a tax-advantaged medical savings account available to taxpayers.”

Now some in the health insurance and health care industry may not be surprised by these numbers. But an uneducated American adult, who votes, is open to having their views easily influenced when it comes to the issue of health insurance.

It is worth noting, for example, that 64% of Americans want a single payer system. According to a recent AP News poll:

“Nearly two-thirds of voters polled said the United States should adopt a universal health insurance program ‘in which everyone is covered under a program like Medicare that is run by the government and financed by taxpayers.’ Fewer, but still a majority at 54 percent, said they supported a single-payer system whereby all Americans would get their health insurance through a taxpayer-financed government plan.”

This poll is consistent with other national polls. Now, a majority of American want the government to finance their health care.