The critique, coming one day before a critical Senate committee vote on the legislation, sparked a sharp response from the Obama administration. It also signaled an end to the fragile detente between two central players in this year's health-reform drama.
Industry officials said they intend to circulate the report prepared by PriceWaterhouseCoopers on Capitol Hill and promote it in new advertisements. That could complicate Democratic hopes for action on the legislation this week.
Administration officials, who spent much of the spring and summer wooing the insurers, questioned the timing and authorship of the report, which was paid for by America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), an industry trade group.
"Those guys specialize in tax shelters," said Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform. "Clearly this is not their area of expertise."
At the same time, White House officials were forced to retreat from plans to tout Republican endorsements of Obama's top domestic policy initiative. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel instructed the Democratic National Committee Sunday to withdraw a pro-reform television commercial featuring former Sen. Robert Dole, R-Kan., after he objected that it was being used for partisan purposes.
Confidence expressedThe developments came as administration officials were beginning to boast of fresh momentum in the drive to remake the nation's $2.4 trillion health sector. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., has expressed confidence that he has the votes to pass his 10-year, $829 billion legislation out of committee on Tuesday, enabling party leaders to prepare a final bill for floor debate.
"What's remarkable is not that we've had a spirited debate about health-insurance reform, but the unprecedented consensus that has come together behind it," Obama said in his weekly radio and video address.
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