Shocking News Item: Sebelius Threatens Insurers

Kathleen Sebelius penned a threatening note to Karen Ignagni, lobbyist for AHIP (health insurance) warning insurers they dare not try to take advantage of the Democrats' failure to include the exclusion for pre-existing conditions in their prized piece of legislation.  Why should the disapprobation of the insurers stop now, after they willingly cooperated with Democrats for more than a year?  Chief Cheerleader for all things health care at The Washington Post gives the alternate title: Sebelius to Insurers: Make my day.  These are the children in charge of the country.

Sebelius absurdly threatens to do what Democrats seem to specialize in these days, issue an executive fiat to paper over their ineptitude at governing.  If that doesn't work they can always drag a few holdouts before Congress for a bit of public humiliation.  Ezra Klein counts the many ways insurers lose because Democrats can't keep track of what they included and/or promised in their mountainous legislation:

The losers here are actually the insurers. As far as I can tell, their reading of the law is legitimate. And they have a lot to lose from a fight with the administration. It's not obvious that Sebelius actually can change this with a stroke of her pen, but there are plenty of other things she can do with a stroke of her pen that will make the insurance industry's life very, very difficult. And since this policy actually isn't a very big deal -- fairly few kids are uninsured because their preexisting conditions are keeping them off their parents' plan -- I'd guess that the administration and the insurers reach some sort of accord on this.

I am still baffled why Democrats think none of this will backfire on them when a HHS Secretary is given this much power under a Republican administration.  Sebelius can't force the insurers help cover over Democrats' failure to write coherent legislation, though she isn't above trying.  Surely, *asking* for the insurers to cooperate in light of the Democrats own blunder is too much to hope for.  The only alternative this administration finds acceptable is to run roughshod over whoever or whatever is in their way.  What will they ever do about themselves?