Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius Wednesday challenged America's health insurers to join with the Obama Administration's efforts to reform the nation's health insurance system.
Sebelius, speaking at the annual conference of America's Health Insurance Plans, said that it was understandable that many Americans around the country should be frustrated by the rising costs of their health insurance.
She said she understood that young, healthy people are leaving the market for health insurance, a trend that puts upward pressure on insurance premiums, but she noted that some 99 percent of all major metropolitan areas in the country are served by very few companies.
"When Americans have so few choices, can you blame them for being frustrated when their premiums go up ten times faster than the cost of health care," she said, according to the text of her remarks as prepared for delivery. "Imagine how folks in Illinois might feel after opening the newspaper to see that profits for major insurance companies went up 56 percent last year only to get a letter the next day saying their premiums are going up by double digits."
She added, "Can you blame them for thinking the system's broken when their health insurance - which is supposed to protect them from exorbitant health costs - still forces them to pay thousands of dollars out of their pocket each year?"
However, Sebelius said she still hoped to work with health insurers to enact the reforms, noting that the companies face a stark choice.
"You can choose to continue your opposition to reform," she said. "If you do and reform goes down in defeat, we know what will happen. By next March, premiums will be taking an even bigger bite out of Americans' wages."
She added, "More small businesses will be forced to shut down or cancel their employees' coverage. Parents and children with pre-existing conditions will continue to be shut out of the insurance market."
Sebelius acknowledged that such a strategy might prove profitable in the short term.
"I read that you've been advised that you may still be able to make money off the customers who are afraid to leave or who don't have other insurance options - at least for a while," she said. "But this kind of short-term thinking won't work in the long run for the American people or our health care system. It won't work for you."
The insurers' other choice, Sebelius said, was to take the millions of dollars they had planned to use for negative advertisements attacking Obama's plan and use those funds to help keep insurance premiums down.
"Instead of spending your energy attacking the parts of the President's proposal you don't like, you can use it to strengthen the parts you do," she said. "If you take this approach, you may give up some short-term profits."
She added, "But you will also be helping to create a sustainable health insurance market where all Americans will be able to buy coverage. That's better for the American people. And it could be better for insurance companies too."
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June 05, 2026 16:18 ET A busy week for economic news flow saw a slew of reports being released that reflected the trends in the U.S. labor market. In Europe, economic growth and inflation data gained attention as the European Central Bank and Bank of England head for policy session later in the month. In Asia, the monetary policy session of the Indian central bank was in focus as the country, a major oil importer, reels under the pressures of a weaker rupee and rising inflation.