Health Care CEO's Make Empty Promises to Congress, As Usual!

Health care reform in based on a "wing and a promise." Obama welcomed industry promises that would curb rising prices. What Obama doesn't know is that this is standard operating procedure for insurers. History bears this out, when you look at what happened with Nixon and Carter:

The Commonweatlh Fund: The Costs of Failure: Economic Consequences of Failure to Enact Nixon, Carter, and Clinton Health Reforms

History makes clear that failing to act on health reform has serious and far-reaching economic ramifications. An examination of trends in health spending over the past 50 years shows that ... health reform measures proposed by previous presidents ... (would have) slowed the growth in spending...

President Richard Nixon imposed wage and price controls on the entire economy in 1971. The central features of the plan were employer-mandated private insurance coverage for workers and their families in firms with 25 or more employees, a plan for low-income families that would replace and improve Medicaid, and a federal health insurance plan that would replace and improve Medicare. Reform efforts died when Nixon was removed from office, as proponents hoped to enact stronger legislation in the political aftermath of his impeachment. The Nixon health care cost controls were lifted in 1975 when the industry pledged to control costs voluntarily.

The Carter hospital cost containment legislation, a response to the explosion in health care costs following the lifting of Nixon's health cost controls, was defeated when the industry mounted an alternative "Voluntary Effort."

The U.S. spent 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on health care in 1960; health care now consumes 17 percent of the nation's economy and will reach 21 percent by 2020, if trends continue.

Check out the bewildered CEO faces from the nations biggest insurers below, as they promise to make things better "voluntarily" at a recent congressional hearing. It really is pathetic. Keep in mind, insurers are middle men, an unnecessary profit center siphoning off 20 to 50 percent of every health care dollar spent. From CBS: