Hillary Clinton Opposed Insurance Companies In the 90s, But ObamaCare Is Making Her Sing A New Tune

This article originally appeared on Independent Journal Review

Whether it’s because she believes in them or she thinks she must articulate them to defeat Sen. Bernie Sanders and ward off a threat from Vice President Joe Biden, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has become the voice of big leftwing ideas over the last several months. From her sudden opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline to her new plan for federal control of prescription drug costs, she’s leaving precious little room on her left for her Democratic opponents to maneuver.

But there is one dragon she appears curiously disinterested in slaying: Big health insurance companies. In 1994 she called Big Insurance, “the very industry that has brought us to the brink of bankruptcy because of the way that they have financed health care.” But today, despite record insurance profits and sky-rocketing premiums that hardly seem to be in the best interest of consumers, Clinton is stone silent.

Horror stories about plans in Illinois relied upon by families with special needs being cancelled or deductibles that “are crippling the middle class” seem custom made for Democratic campaign ads. But don’t expect those worried-families-around-the- kitchen-table commercials from Hillary this cycle.

It’s not as if the next President of the United States won’t confront Congressional and public concerns about Big Insurance. As the New York Times has reported, insurance companies are looking to hike premiums by 20 percent – 40 percent [!] in 2016. One would expect the Democratic frontrunner to have something to say on these matters.

So, what gives?

The shallow, cynical answer is that Big Insurance has contributed upwards of $15 million to Clinton’s political campaigns and the Clinton Foundation over that past decade. That kind of generosity has a way of changing a career politician’s perspective on things.

But the deeper, even more cynical answer is that under Obamacare, Big Insurance has become the federal government’s private partner in administering our deeply flawed health system; a system in which customers are mandated to purchase their products, seemingly at any price, often with taxpayer money.

The truth is, big government Democrats who gave us Obamacare don’t really hate insurance companies anymore. They once promised the new health law would “hold insurance companies accountable” and talked tough about how it would stop insurance companies from putting profits over people. Yet today President Barack Obama is more likely to blame state insurance commissioners than Big Insurance companies for epic premium increases, as he did this summer.

As Phil Kerpen has written, “the big health insurance companies have fully joined forces with the federal government, the Obama administration, and the Clinton campaign to protect their massive taxpayer-funded subsidies and the government mandate to purchase their unpopular products.”

Democrats no longer view Big Insurance companies as greedy, profit-hungry monsters from whom they need to protect innocent Americans, as they did just two decades ago. Today they are reliant on Big Insurance to operate their failure of a healthcare system.

And that is why Hillary Clinton has a plan to overhaul the way we fund political campaigns, a plan to curb campus sexual assault, a plan to provide Americans with “free” college, and a plan to make America a “clean energy superpower,” but she has no plan to address crushing insurance premium increases caused by Obamacare, the healthcare plan she supported.