The insurance industry has been funding attack ads by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce against health insurance reform. That's right - insurers, who at the time claimed to be standing with the President in supporting reform, were secretly funding a campaign to kill it. The National Journal reports:

Just as dealings with the Obama administration and congressional Democrats soured last summer, six of the nation's biggest health insurers began quietly pumping big money into third-party television ads aimed at killing or significantly modifying the major health reform bills moving through Congress.

That money, between $10 million and $20 million, came from Aetna, Cigna, Humana, Kaiser Foundation Health Plans, UnitedHealth Group and Wellpoint..."

How much of that money could've been used for providing health coverage? According to HCAN, that's enough to provide coverage to an additional 3,000 U.S. families each year. Instead, insurance companies spent their earnings playing both sides.

Randy Johnson, a U.S. Chamber Vice President told The Associated Press last June, "I would say it's time to unload the powder and fill the musket," when it came to voicing opposition to reform. That musket was no doubt filled with insurance company dollars.

The double-speak reached new heights in October, when AHIP's spokesperson Karen Ignani pledged strong support for reform despite funding a study critical of the plans in Congress. From the National Journal:

In late October, Ignagni wrote in a letter to the Washington Post defending a health insurer-funded study critical of congressional cost estimates, "Let me be clear and direct, health plans continue to strongly support reform." However, by that time money was already flowing through AHIP to the chamber to fund its negative ads.

The fund raising started last September and continued through December using AHIP as a conduit to avoid a repeat of the political flack that hit the insurance industry after it famously ran its multi-million dollar "Harry and Louise" ads to help kill health care reforms during the Clinton administration.

To put it in terms more familiar to Sopranos fans, AHIP used the U.S. Chamber as its money-launderer (only the legal, creepy front-group kind that exists in U.S. politics). Not only that, but AHIP's Ignani then went on a publicity tour purporting to fully back the idea of reform - they just took exception with a few pesky policy solutions.

So, to recap: insurers were secretly funding attack ads while lying to the American people. Keep that in mind the next time you see one of those round-the-clock U.S. Chamber ads against reform. By our estimation, one should be airing momentarily on a channel near you.