Is the President waging an apparent one-man war as he still continues to gauge support for his nascent reform overhaul? As recently as a couple of days ago — as part of his weekly address — he renewed attacks on Insurance, noting that “For too long, we have been held hostage to an insurance industry that jacks up premiums and drops coverage as they please. But those days are finally coming to an end.”

Naturally, this message was directed to WellPoint, the California insurer which came under fire during the latter stages of the reform bill fight in Congress; it was accused of raising premiums to astronomical levels, establishing a fighting target and kicking off a newfound confidence in the President in getting his plan passed into law.

WellPoint’s CEO specifically responded to Obama and essentially told him to stop the attacks.

WellPoint Chief Executive Angela Braly fired back. In a letter Sunday addressed directly to Obama, she noted that policy changes were underway nationwide, and she called on him to stop his attacks on the industry. It will take cooperation between the industry and government to implement the new healthcare reform law, she said.

WellPoint also backed down and pledged its own internal investigations when recently accused of rescinding coverage to previously covered policyholders obtaining breast cancer treatments. HHS Secretary Sebelius and, now, Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA), are urging for more discussions with the CEO and others to address this issue. Of course, this all begs the question — as insurance companies are supposed to be working with the President before the law requires them to specifically do so — can’t they all just get along? | LINK

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