FACT CHECK: Health insurers cherry-pick facts

The Associated Press fact-checks the insurance industry's latest attempts to derail health reform:

In its assaults on a Democratic health care overhaul bill, the insurance industry uses facts selectively and mixes accurate assertions with misleading spin and an embrace of worst-case scenarios.

...[A study the health insurers released earlier this week] concludes that Democrats' health care effort would drive up premiums for insured people, based on cherry-picking convenient facts and perspectives. It's an example of the classic lobbying tactic of commissioning a report that, predictably, reinforces an interest group's views.

The study only examined four parts of the Finance bill that it said would boost consumers' costs. It ignored provisions aimed at making health care more affordable, such as exchanges whereby companies would compete for customers and subsidies to help lower-income people afford policies.