The insurance industry is intensifying efforts to influence the congressional debate over healthcare reform. The leading industry trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans will unveil a report today warning average family premiums will cost an additional $4,000 over current projections by 2019. The industry-funded study was carried out by the financial services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform, responded, “Those guys specialize in tax shelters. Clearly this is not their area of expertise.” In threatening the higher costs, the industry is seeking to win stricter penalties that would force younger, healthier people into the insurance pool. The current health proposals would create millions of new insurance customers by imposing mandates. But industry lobbyists say their profits would be harmed because most new customers would be older and in poorer health in the absence of penalties to ensure younger, healthier Americans also purchase coverage. The Senate Finance Committee is set to vote tomorrow on Democratic Senator Max Baucus’s healthcare reform measure. The panel has already excluded a public insurance option from the legislation.