My friend Gary Gross steered me toward this story the other day.  It seems that Congressmen Waxman (chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee) and Congressman Bart Stupak (chairman of the sub-committee on Investigations) have upped the ante on those health insurance companies that aren't on the Obama Care bandwagon.  Click on the second link to go to a PDF file of a letter that was sent by the Congressmen to the President of United Health Care in Minnesota.  In the letter Waxman and Stupak demand that United Health turn over the following information to the committee:

• Officer Compensation from 2003 thru 2008
• bonus compensation including stock options and non-equity compensation
• details on what officers sold stock in those years and how much they got for it
• board member compensation for the same years
• a list of all conferences and events that were not held on company property
• revenues, income and dividends for the same time period

Now if the list had stopped at this, one could wonder if Congress wasn't working on ginning up so faux outrage at executive compensation as they did with Wall Street.  Granted, these health industry exectives are NOT taking government bail out dollars but that has never stopped the Democrats from demonizing people before...

What is truly concerning was when the Congressmen requested data concerning the different health insurance LINES that United serves.  Can you imagine the Congressional outrage if a company such as MICROSOFT had gotten that kind of proprietary operating information on one of it's competitors....oh wait - no need to imagine that...

The worst part is that this is not an isolated letter.  In total some 52 insurance companies received these letters according to the Chicago Tribune.  The Tribune is also the one that points out that the letters did not go to industry groups that are advertising in favor of Obama Care.  It also points out the consequences of not providing that information as "requested".

While companies are not under legal obligation to comply, the committee could respond to a refusal by voting to subpoena the information at a later date.

I find it stunning, in light of stories like this, that anyone could deny that a "government option/co-op" will do anything OTHER than run private insurance out of business.  Congress (and this President) have already shown a penchant for taking over other industries....why should health insurance be any different?