Karen Ignagni

Karen Ignagni is the President and CEO of the industry group, America's Health Insurance Plans.

Biography
Karen Ignagni joined the staff of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) in March 1982, where she directed the union's activities on health care, pensions, Social Security and child care. Before joining the AFL-CIO, she spent three years as a staff member of the U.S. Senate's Labor and Human Resources Committee. She was legislative assistant for Senator Pell from Rhode Island and handled health labor employment and other domestic policy issues. From 1977 to 1979, she served as research director and then assistant director for the Committee for National Health Insurance. From 1975 to 1977, she was a health care research analyst for the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

Funneling money to fight health care reform
As head of America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) in 2010, Ignani insisted her trade group supported reforming the American health care system, while at the same time AHIP was quietly soliciting money from its member insurance companies to pay for anti-reform ads to be run by a third party organization, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Through the Chamber AHIP laundered tens of millions of dollars for anti-health care reform ads.

Related SourceWatch articles

 * America's Health Insurance Plans

External articles

 * "Karen Ignagni", WhoRuns Gov, accessed October 2009.
 * Marc Ambinder, "Interview With AHIP's Karen Ignagni: We Won't Take Bait", The Atlantic, August 3 2009.

Lobbying