Frankly, it doesn't look like the insurance industry's efforts to burnish their image through a series of town hall meetings are working very well. It's certainly not for lack of trying. Karen Ignani is as skilled a spokesperson as I've ever met. Spending an hour with her is like living your own personal version of Thank You For Smoking. But as you can see from Matt Holt's writeup, she's bedeviled by a very basic problem. The point of the private insurance industry is to turn a profit. Most Americans don't trust that their need to access expensive medical care when necessary is precisely aligned with the insurance industry's need to make a lot of money. So they have to do a lot of -- what's the word? -- spinning. Karen Ignani, for instance, offers up the non-profit industry nostrum: "No margin, no mission." It refers to the need of a non-profit to remain financially sound if it's to pursue its purpose. Take the American Prospect: Our mission is progressive commentary at the intersection of politics and policy. If we don't have any money -- no "margin" -- we can't fulfill our mission, because we can't hire any writers or publish a magazine. The "mission" of a private company, however, is to turn a profit. So when Ignani says "no margin, no mission," she's saying, "no profit, no profit." Which is true, but not really what she's trying to convey. Elsewhere, Holt catches another AHIP spokesman saying they have to turn a profit to cover their costs. "Err no," says Matt. "You have to cover your costs to cover your costs -- profit is on top of that!"
