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TechnoratiLook Who's Begging for Regulation
"Regulate the health insurance giants," chanted the reformers.
"Stop denying coverage to sick people," they demanded. "Stop jacking up premiums," they cried. "Health coverage for all," they bellowed.
It was an impressive show that the health care reform movement put on last week at a hearing before the Senate finance committee. It was especially impressive because those doing the chanting, demanding, crying and bellowing were not aggrieved outsiders, but the ultimate insiders - the health insurance giants themselves!
When the dogs begin demanding leashes, you now that something unusual is afoot.
Indeed, two things are afoot. First, the public is fed up with our country's insurance-dominated health care system, which cares first about corporate profits and only secondarily about the health needs of America's people. As a result, we pay more for health coverage than any other country, yet the quality of care we get ranks 37th in the world (below such countries as Malta, Morocco, Chile and Dominica).
Insurance companies maintain a massive money-sucking bureaucracy that exists essentially to say "no" to policy-holders who need approval for treatment and to say "hell no" to anyone who can't afford the ever-escalating price for those policies. In the richest country in the history of the world, 47 million Americans are uncovered, and many millions more have "coverage" so thin that it leaves their families out in the cold for most ailments. This is why 76 percent of the people said in a March poll by the Pew Research Center that our health care system either needs "fundamental changes" or needs to be "completely rebuilt."
Which brings us to the second factor in play: political change. Americans have been angry about the insurance-run system for years, but neither party produced results. Bill Clinton botched reform in the early '90s, spooking Democrats so badly that, for years, they wouldn't even attempt major reforms. George W. Bush and congressional Republicans never met an insurance company they wouldn't hug, take money from and serve faithfully, so they've simply ignored the people.
Last year, though, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich and other Democratic presidential contenders raised the reform flag high, ultimately carrying it into the White House.
Today, redoing the health care system is on Washington's front burner, including plans for a public insurance option to extend coverage to middle-class working families. This public entity would provide a missing level of competition, lower costs and instill some honesty in companies that had been gleefully profiteering on the present system.
Like vampires, health insurance corporations shrink from sunlight, so they have rushed an army of lobbyists to Washington in a desperate attempt to stave off this public option. However, they recognize that they are widely despised across the land and that even some Republican members of Congress will no longer stand for the status quo (as one Democratic leader noted, "Status quo is Latin for 'The Mess We're In'").
Thus, we're being treated to the delightfully dizzying sight of insurance executives begging Congress to harness them with new regulations. "We are comfortable with that," said the head of America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the industry's chief lobbying group, which heretofore has ferociously opposed any and all protections for consumers.
Of course, AHIP members are wiley masters at slipping out of regulatory harnesses - remember, these are the people who hire roving packs of lawyers trained to write and enforce incomprehensible insurance policies that boil down to this: "Thank you for paying us to do our damnedest to stiff you."
In exchange for accepting such "regulation," AHIP wants Washington to require everyone in the country to buy health insurance from Aetna, Humana, United Health or its other members - with taxpayers covering the annual premiums of those who can't afford the policies. In other words, these private corporations would get a government-guaranteed market. What industry wouldn't be "comfortable" with that?
In the interest of America's health, insurance giants should never be made to feel comfortable. At the very least, real reform requires a public insurance option to assure competitive integrity - and to put some "care" back in health care.
48 Comments so far
Show All"...we pay more for health coverage than any other country, yet the quality of care we get ranks 37th in the world (below such countries as Malta, Morocco, Chile and Dominica)."
There is always a price to pay for the upward movement of wealth. In this case, as with most in this country, the price is being paid by everyone below the elitist class which makes the rules, of, by and for themselves.
"One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It is simply too painful to acknowledge -- even to ourselves -- that we’ve been so credulous" - Carl Sagan
As the numbers grow in favor of "single payer", it would appear that the bamboozled are coming out of their comas.
"In the richest country in the history of the world"
The USA is only the richest country because it's set that as its highest priority, at the expense of everything else. Thus we see the USA gluttonize fossil fuels like no other country. Thus we see the USA pushing 50 hour work weeks, 50 weeks per year, like no other country. We also see a certain doctrine taught in the USA, ehh? A certain propaganda toward being the richest, most powerful, most influential country on the planet. Nowhere in this agenda do we find support for the well-being of people. In fact, the people are kept unsatisfied, and perpetually seeking. Conflict has only been avoided thanks to the undeserved tolerance by most USans for the elites driving the "richest country" agenda.
The insurance racketeers begging congress for regulation is a transparent ploy. "Regulation" is an euphemism for a much closer cronyist partnership between the two. The message is essentially this: "Dear congress, let us work together, as a team, to guide the nation's healthcare destiny as only we can. All we need is a closer relationship to keep the rabble out of the loop, to shut them out, to keep the decision making between us cronies, we the elites, senators of government and senators of industry. Long live the class hierarchy!"
The USA is the richest nation in the world because they stole most of it.
Until the 1860s the USA was remarkably small on the world scheme, then the US
"Civil War" scared the hell out of the rest of the world (for good cause) when the Americans introduced no less than seven "brand new" weapons of "mass destruction", AND the ancient terrible spectre of "total war"----and they did it against "their own people"-------------
Then the USA introduced the peace treaties with the tribes of the western regions (now the 'west') simply because they could not defeat our people in war---so they used peace. As soon as the Tribal people settled down to learn to live like the "treaties dictated"--since they had agreed to it----the USA began breaking those treaties, confiscating vast lands and all of the mineral and other material wealth that went with them----that is where the USA gained its wealth----and now they just piss it all away.
They do not keep their word. They violate any law they feel the need to---and justify it with the most ridiculous excuses imaginable. They consistently repeat the same mistakes of others and their own-----and do with so with a "national smirk"
on their "collective face"....................
The world cannot possibly tolerate them much longer----and when it dawns on the world that the only thing they need to do is "cut off the credit lines"--the Americans will turn on themselves and make the wholesale slaughter of the Native American Peoples look like "amateur night at the Conquest Club"------------
Good Luck America, you really need it.
"The greatest trick the devil ever pulled is convincing the world that he doesn't exist."
Keiser Soze from "The Usual Suspects".
The most profitable Companies in Canada are.
The Banks. The Insurance Companies. Oil and Gas Companies.
Insurance companies do fine here.
Yes, the behavior of monopolistic corporations is typical when faced with a decrease in profits. They have always operated as such. The government mandates digital TV for them, changes all regulatory structures for them etc., etc, whenever competition rears its ugly head. We now see the government saving the broken banks and regulating to death the secure banks. There is nothing free market about any of this.
The only way we will ever reduce health care costs is to open health care to real competition. You can only save money when you treat root causes of disease. We now treat mainly symptoms, which guarantees a return customer til you die.
Forced to buy health insurance? Cause for revolution.
Bringing in the real definition of free market was what Ron Paul had in mind. He shares every word of what you said.
I know. That was one of the reasons I voted for him in the primaries. But I came to these ideas before I knew about Ron Paul because of professional and personal experiences. I've seen what can be done with simple, low cost treatment. What our gov't has kept from us is criminal. The State of Washington has legislation to limit the Medical Society's ability to go after alternative physicians by setting a standard of malpractice rather than "use of unapproved methods". If physicians knew they could adopt many of these therapies into their practices without fear of reprisal and loss of license, we'd see a big change.
That gives me an idea. Perhaps getting the simple but low cost treatments to the forefront might actually make single payer healthcare look more viable. On another topic, Jenniferbedingfield under a single payer healthcare post described a similar situation. She calls it "healthcare vigilante". Maybe we do have to take the law into our own hands if the government is hell bent on failing us.
Shawn--regarding support for single payer, I just don't know. It's certainly support for vastly reducing health care costs, and then there might be a lot of ways to fund what's left. The first step seems to be setting a standard of harm as the standard for disciplining physicians by medical societies.
Sincle payer scares me because whatever goes through the federal gov't winds up being controlled by corporate interests. Without Jim Hightower's long ago proposed constitutional amendment limiting the power of corporations (for example "freedom of speech is limited to truthful, commercial speech) the less gov't involvement in health care the better. Obama has said he will not pay for any "unapproved therapies". Beware what you wish for.
Big Pharma and the AMA are running scared and their backs are against the wall; i.e., they are extremely dangerous. The latest was the article here about declaring Cheerios a drug. They did this with cherries a few years ago.
Basically, if you make a health claim you have a "drug" and we, the people, have to pay doctors and pharmaceutical companies a lot of money in order to acquire this product. They just did this with a form of Vitamin B6 after it was shown to be effective in preventing complications of diabetes (by controlling HgbA1C). Of course, people have been taking these supplements for years and have not had any side effects so safety, which should be the only issue, is not the issue. Monopoly is.
They've done it with bio-identical hormones (see Suzanne Sommers). They are trying to do it with Vitamin D. You can purchase what is purported to be quality Vitamin D3 through vitamindcouncil.org paying about $24 including shipping for an 8 month supply of 5,000 units per day, the recommended therapeutic dose. I recently spoke with someone who was diagnosed with severe vitamin D deficiency by her rheumatologist (she was being treated for fibromyalgia). She was in her 20's and of limited means and had to stop the treatment because she could not afford the "prescription" vitamin d. But even this person could afford $3/month to rebuild her health. The "prescription" is D2 which is not even as useful as the D3 available for $3/month.
For those interested, the vitamin d council is run by a physician who learned of the vitamin d deficiency problem and has made it his mission to get the word out.
Railroad spikes and HMO executives. I can't say anymore w/o violating CD terms of use.
Peace,
- Sequoia
Bankers, CEO's of MIC companies, lying politicians ... and a 12-pound hammer for those spikes.
Free market economist, the late Milton Friedman, maintained that any corporation that functioned in any way that failed to maximize profits should be sued by shareholders. His "system" literally guarantees that insurance companies are obliged to refuse as much care as possible.
We can change the direction of our politics by paying attention to what the candidates stand for and what they say, rather than the dashing figures created by the image makers on Madison Avenue. Dennis Kucinich doesn't qualify as handsome, but he sure makes a hell of a lot more sense than our Charm School President and his happy band of liars.
Obama is a POLITICIAN, not a statesman or man of the people. His first priority is HIM, not US!
Re Shawn Berry May 13th, 2009 3:30 pm, who asks,
"How do we the public gain the clout needed to win Congress over?"
A: See that they lose their jobs. Stop voting for them. Stop donating time and money to them. There's no instant gratification, but it's the only way to assure the desired result.
One problem with that answer. I can do my part and they'd still win because there are already too many dufuses voting and donating to them. Otherwise, good idea.
"I can do my part and they'd still win because there are already too many dufuses voting and donating to them."
The Green Party---fixing the world one dufus at a time. We do our parts not because it will prevent their winning, but because it's the right thing to do.
Ok? I do like the idea of a Green Party but like the Republican and Democratic parties, the Green Party is also prone to corruption and bribery. Remember how the Democratic Party was able to control the Green Party and marginalize it to irrelevance? Right now, I really don't know which party to trust or even bother voting at all anymore given the lose-lose that's in front of us. I voted for Nader in 2000 but after the Green Party fell apart gave up and went back to voting Democrat in 2004 and 2008 reluctantly. How does the Green party intend to sustain itself?
POLITICAL PARTIES CAN NOT BE TRUSTED. EVER. POLITICAL PARTIES ARE EVIL.
I hate to say this but we have a problem here. I have evangelical church leaders strongly in support of single payer health care while simultaneously having even some people who claim to be liberal or progressive opposing it because they fear that conservatives will get it too. I even come across young folks who say "What is single payer healthcare? I heard it's a wonder cure but as long as I can enjoy lunch, who cares ?" Even my wife, while she barely understands it will tell me "Honey, you're employed and you're covered well. You don't need government giving you their lousy coverage. And if something happens to you or me, we're covered." I almost feel like thrashing my wife when she talks like that but I don't want to hurt her either. I need a better way to explain this to her and I don't want to confuse her with numbers as she gets too playful about it.
A religious zealot who thinks about beating his wife. Why am I not surprised?
And you think progressives oppose single-payer because "they fear that conservatives will get it too?" Where did you hear that load of crap?
Here's my advice: Don't trust whoever told you that lie. Stop listening to him or her. Stop going to their meetings. Turn to another channel. Don't beat your wife, or even think about it. And, if you have guns in your home get rid of them.
"A religious zealot who thinks about beating his wife. Why am I not surprised? "
I may have come across a few church leaders who are evangelical and I may be mad at my wife when she talks carelessly but I'm not a religious zealot. I don't usually think of beating my wife unless she talks very carelessly and/or angers me. However, I still love her and don't want to put her in pain in tears so I'll back off.
"And you think progressives oppose single-payer because "they fear that conservatives will get it too?" Where did you hear that load of crap?"
I've come across such people out there. Trust me, they do exist.
"And, if you have guns in your home get rid of them."
Guns don't kill people. People kill people. Not that I own any firearms but still.
" I don't usually think of beating my wife unless she talks very carelessly and/or angers me. However, I still love her and don't want to put her in pain in tears so I'll back off."
So if she pissed you off and you punch her in the mouth its her own damn fault for making you mad. I like the way you think. Damn bitches anyway.
>>
"And you think progressives oppose single-payer because "they fear that conservatives will get it too?" Where did you hear that load of crap?"
I've come across such people out there. Trust me, they do exist.
<<
Were they men of the cloth? No doubt, eh? Always follow them. They will never lead you astray.
I didn't say all progressives are against single payer but I have come across some. Likewise, I didn't say all conservatives are for single payer but a growing number of them are. Do you people ever get past the computer to go out and learn and experience? I'm guessing that the answer is NO.
I don't trust you in the least little bit.
You don't even sound like you trust yourself. You sound more like you memorized everything and repeated the "just do ..." kinda like Nancy Reagan's "Just say no to drugs". Your mistrust attitude is what's the matter with progressives and liberals. Instead of paying attention to the issues, you're so warped up in worrying about who's a religious zealot that you'll even misinterpret what they said.
Let's say we have 10 people. 4 of them are progressive, 3 are moderate, and 3 are conservative. According to you, 7 out of 10 will support single payer automatically. However, 2 of the progressives are against it and so is 1 moderate for whatever reason and yet the 3 conservatives are for it but you don't want to talk to them. Well now, you just lost your majority support because you didn't pay attention to the issue and gaining support for single payer.
I'm still sending Get Well Cards to the president. I try to write something a little different on every card, but in general they say: America is sick. We need single payer national health care as outlined in HR676. We don't need health INSURANCE we need health CARE! Love, Elaine
Anyone who would like to join me in sending a "Get Well Soon, America" card to the president, the address is: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NE, Wash. D.C. 20500.
Sen. Baucus is the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee that is holding the hearings and his D.C. phone # is 202-224-2651.
I had to call back a couple of times to get through, then I had to hold for a while, but I sure don't mind if it's a bunch of other fed-up Americans like me telling him to put single payer back on the table.
A great article on what people are doing at the hearings is on this website:
http://www.singlepayeraction.org/
I also encourage all of you to sign up. Anything we can do, even if it seems small, is worth doing, and the more of us that do something the stronger we become. Write, call whatever, but do it today.
Will that card work on my wife who takes healthcare for granted just because I'm employed even if she's not ? Then again, I think I need a better card to actually get her to understand it. Ideas?
Shawn, Sometimes people who feel they are safe get very complacent. What would happen if you couldn't work or got laid off? Or maybe in the future your employer will take a look at your wife and say, hey, there's some dead weight we could skim off to lighten our load. So Shawn, you're still covered but not your wife. She'll have to get a job that provides her with health insurance, or you'll need to pay a lot more out of your own pocket.
Maybe it would help to mention that with single payer health care Americans will save a LOT of money, and become more competitive economically with nations that don't have to add the cost of health care to their products.
Perhaps she knows someone employed in the auto industry. A great deal of the money problems in that industry are related to pensions for retirees that include health care costs. Give back the portion that would be spent on health care and retirees could stop having to choose between food and medicine.
She might even agree that without paperwork and insurance forms taking up a huge portion of time and causing frustration and ill will, caregivers could actually do more in the way of healing patients. When Big Pharma can no longer make money keeping people on continuous maintenance drugs, maybe they will actually try for a cure. Which leads to the quaint little notion that maybe ALL patients will benefit.
I think it might even help to weed out some of the hacks and quacks. Not all doctors are in the business due to their love of humanity.
But even more than all that, I feel strongly that this is an issue that shows the level of maturity and morality in our country. Are we grownups or are we selfish children? Do we believe in "love your neighbor as yourself" or "I've got mine, you can go pound salt"?
Here's part of a reply that I gave on another thread as to why I chose the health care issue to focus on:
"I want to DO SOMETHING. But I know I can't do everything, and spreading myself too thin gets nothing done. What can a busy, stressed-out, fixed-income American citizen do? That's when I came up with the "Get Well Soon America" card-sending idea.
I feel that the health care issue is one of basic human decency, something that surely has been forgotten by so many. If we could extend basic human decency to each other, could the rest of the world be far behind? I'm not just trying to get Health care, I'm trying to get people to care.
I believe that if we can change the American mindset from a winner-gets-the-spoils, tough-luck-losers philosophy to one of compassion and care for all, thereafter we may not want to bomb, torture, invade and occupy.
For a long time I worked to get local organizations to protest the invasion of Iraq. Big Zero; from churches, city council, neighbors. Well, no wonder, we see many enemies among us: the welfare mamas, the illegal immigrants, all those shitty people who just don't deserve what we've got. As Sioux Rose would put it, "the Others". If we are inclusive of the others within our own borders perhaps we will begin to respect the others all over the world as we slowly realize that we are them.
Also, let me point out that we don't have a for-profit health care system, we have a for-profit health INSURANCE system. The actual care-givers, the hospitals and doctors and nurses, are hurting, too, under this system.
I believe that changing the way health care is delivered is a good start, a hole in the dam, that will eventually let the flood of change wash over other areas of our lifestyles as well."
Good luck with your wife. I might also suggest asking her to explain her understanding of the for-profit health care system as it is now. Try to actually LISTEN to her, and then you can find out if she has the wrong idea. You can get educated together and I feel fairly certain that either the facts or her heart will convince her.
"change the American mindset from a winner-gets-the-spoils, tough-luck-losers philosophy"
Everyone should do their own thing. This is important as it keeps the wheels turning in our heads, and we develop experience with the process. Your get well cards are a good idea. Many people will respond positively. But not the elites, not the racketeers. The only way to get through to them is to stop exchanging with them. The proof is in the pudding: The rackets remain spectacularly successful due only to the people's willingness to continue the exchange. The alternative is to 1.) administer your own preventive healthcare, 2.) write up an exchange contract with your local doctor, like you might with your local farmer. We have to demand what we want in the markets or we'll never get it. We don't deserve it unless we demand it.
I agree that we must be clear about our needs, and that we should try to reject corporatism whenever possible.
But I think we deserve health care because we are human beings. Even if we practice preventive health care and develop a personal contract with our doctors, we are still uncertain of a future that might hold a long hospital stay due to catastrophic illness.
I have a friend who never had very good health insurance, a real high deductible that made most of her medical costs come completely out of her own pocket, so of course she neglected routine checkups and suffered small illnesses without being attended to by a physician.
Finally she had so much abdominal pain that she went to the emergency room (typical for uninsured or underinsured people), and they did a blood test and found she has a nasty form of leukemia and she's been in the hospital for months. What happens to her financially? Most of the people that declare bankruptcy due to medical bills actually do/did have some sort of insurance.
Legislation and regulation is what we need. We shouldn't have to cast about for a deal on a doctor. We have elected representatives who are supposed to be acting in our best interests. This is where the breakdown has ocurred. Washington has forgotten about the rest of the country. They're so busy trying to gain "political capital" to remember that they were elected to represent people who have no political capital.
Corruption is the disease of Washington DC, and damn near everyone who goes there catches it.
Anyway, let me again encourage all of you to go to:
http://www.singlepayeraction.org/index.php and sign up.
This morning I received an email from Ralph Nader, (mass mailing of course; don't know him personally!) who is working with this organization. This is the perfect role for Mr. Nader, and the type of cause he will be a great advocate for.
Join up, call your representatives, write cards or letters and don't stop. I sincerely believe that this is a big step, a necessary step, towards a more humane America.
I really don't know how a public/private plan would work or be financed. Certainly it would fail if the insurance industry is allowed to cherrypick the young and healthy. They will fight a public option and then fight any serious effort to regulate them. Knowing Congress, they probably won't have to fight hard to get their way.
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
It would have to be illegal for insurance companies to decline coverage based on preexiting conditions, or charge a higher premium. This is the way it works in other countries with two-tier systems. Switzerland had been mentioned, but I believe the Netherlands is two-tier also. I believe the Netherlands also mandates caps on premiums, so the private companies essentially compete on services. An example is that a subscriber to the public system may have to accept sharing a hospital room, whereas a private insurerer could offer private rooms for a higher premium and therefore attract customers. In my opinion, single payer is the way to go (France is supposedly the best in the world), but a two-tier system, run as in the Netherlands, is not a bad compromise if it means not scuttling the whole thing.
What you described about the Netherlands is kind of how the Swiss system operates. Recalling when I was a "gast arbeiter" there, three levels of insurance was offered: Private, Semi-Private, & Health Fund. As in the Dutch example, the type of insurance one had determined the sort of room one would get during hospitalization, thus those with Private got a private room, those with Semi-Private shared it with someone else, & those on Health Funds were in a room with seven other people.
I had private as the company I worked for had private insurance as an employment perk.
You make a valid point about the corrupt nature of Congress and the way the insurance industry will do anything to torpedo even a slightly good bill. The key to success in overturning the corporate bullies is "clout". How do we the public gain the clout needed to win Congress over? Replacing our members of Congress will help no doubt but our society often chooses on the basis of clout. When there are even a few evangelical church leaders out here in MN are fighting for single payer healthcare while my house democrat and Klobuchar don't, it is unusual that evangelical church leaders would be ignored on this issue and yet if they railed against abortion they listen. There has got to be a way to first make single payer healthcare attain a better clout over issues such as say abortion.
I heard that many people are now drifting away from religion and churches. No offense, but: HOORAY!!!! Evangelical 'leaders' thought that Bush was the most Godly president ever, and worked tirelessly for his election and re-election. Now they cry that they were duped. Then you have outright nut jobs lie Pat Robertson and the like. I doubt many readers here at CD give them any credibility whatsoever. One also has to wonder about those who listen to them, especially now.
And Phillip Morris is dedicated to helping people quit smoking, according to their website.
And 8 of the top bankster CEOs promised the Senate that they wouldn't lie, cheat and steal anymore.
And Monsanto swears "We want to make the world a better place for future generations."
And the USA only kills, maims and tortures humans to keep America safe from people who want to kill, maim and torture.
The health care "industry" is just reading from the playbook...
Insurance companies operate hand-in-glove with HMO operations, pioneered under the Nixon administration. HMOs function as an additional layer of screening for insurance coverage. This is one of those rare and strange instances when conservatives actually claimed that adding a layer of bureaucracy would improve the efficiency of an operation – the difference being that HMOs are private bureaucracies, providing profits to shareholders but accountable to the public only through the mechanism of lawsuits. A public bureaucracy would improve the efficiency of our healthcare system by at least 100%, and would be far more transparent and accountable. There is absolutely no reason for the public to back down or compromise on single-payer health care, and the public should dismiss from office all those who obstruct this reform.
I think single-payer universal healthcare is the only way to go. It works in every other industrialized country (except South Africa). (This is the first I've heard that Switzerland has something different.) People in single-payer countries are healthier and happier than we are. There's no reason to try to invent the wheel all over again.
Further, there may be a serious flaw in a private/public system. If the public plan covers all the poor, elderly, working-class and smog-breathing urbanites -- those likely to need the most healthcare and have the least money, while the affluent and mega-rich overlords pay only for their own private insurance and contribute nothing to the public plan, the public plan may be unsustainable. In fact, it may be doomed to fail from the outset.
I'm no expert on this topic, but apparently neither is Jim Hightower. Anyone know more?
As a healthcare provider/practitioner myself, I would like a system akin to the one in Switzerland. I despise the way the insurance companies treat their policyholders and the actual practitioners themselves. As a policyholder, I should not have to get "mommies" approval for the care I need; I am an adult and can make my own decisions. I pay hefty premiums and sometimes I wonder about the what the policy will actually pay vs what the policy states is my coverage. I do not want to shortchange my caregivers and I often think that is the case.
I despise all these executives making millions of money by denying care to those in need as well as overpricing insurance premiums. It's a shame, we hamstring the doctors, nurses, dietitians, etc; the ones who actually do the hands on care, but then give millions to men who haven't a clue about providing care as they have never done care themselves. This giant sucking machine needs to be shut off permanently or we will all be declaring bankruptcy soon.
What is preventing an upstart insurance company from providing essentially the same model as medicare, with 3% overhead, in the free market? Such an operation would not even need an advertising marketing budget. Word of mouth would surely do the trick. But here's what would happen: The mafia would stalk it, and put it out of business. The media would not report it. So capitalism isn't the biggest problem in the USA. The biggest problem is crony/monopoly/collusion capitalism, the kind that violates the contract and oozes through the bars of its cage and slithers into the government and media and takes control over the society. It wasn't like this between 1930s and 1980s.
Jim we love ya dude. Trouble is both parties are whores for the Ins. Industry. If Obama gives us all over to these vampires by requiring us all to buy a "private" policy by law like it is for your car, were fucked. I suspect this is exactly the deal our new fearless leader is working up. No "public option" means in short no reform.
"If Obama gives us all over to these vampires by requiring us all to buy a "private" policy by law like it is for your car, were fucked."
If memory serves correctly, as soon as they passed the law requiring drivers to buy an insurance policy for their car, prices for car insurance tripled (at least in Illinois).
Jim Hightower's piece omitted what the American insurance industry loathes the most: a mixed public-private system that ensures coverage for all (Switzerland has this), or even worse, single payer (most of the EU has this). In both of these models, insurance companies are not the only games in town and their ability to make oodles of money is limited. The American industry knows this because many of them have European operations, or their US subsidiary is the company's cash cow. Unlike the GOP, the Insurance industry knows they are more despised than used car salesmen & are trying manipulate the situation to the best outcome, legally mandated policies underwritten by taxpayer dollars, available to them at this moment. Economic justice dictates that these douche bags should be the ones that get screwed instead of the usual ones, the public and taxpayers.
The insurance companies actually do quite well in Switzerland - they're not complaining. The US companies are trying to privatize the drug industry around the world though - they know they can't stop single-payer, because CIVILIZED people would revolt. They tried to get drugs privatized in Australia recently. The world will eventually turn on US corporatism though, because it is a threat to all human life on the planet. Besides, fascism doesn't work. Never has and never will, because it treats people as fungible 'commodities' - and most people won't settle for being classfied as 'farm animals' - gee, I wonder why not? Maybe because it reeks of slavery?
Yes, the insurance companies do quite well in Switzerland. Their products are used as employment perks.
Also, health insurance companies are incapable of providing coverage efficiently and would get blown out of the water by a single payer system that would spend 2-3% on overhead costs (like medicare does) as opposed to the 20% that HMO's spend. Our current system is horribly inefficient and inhumane.