Congressional Democrats are going at health care reform hammer and tongs, with emphasis now on coming up with money to help nearly 50 million Americans who lack insurance finally get some.
So far, the nation’s hospitals have pledged to reduce their charges by about $5 billion over, 10 years and other segments of the health care industry have also stepped up.
But so far, health insurance companies have been content to stand idly by while nearly all other parties ante up. To give you an idea of how incredibly selfish and out of line they’re being, consider this:
(New York Sen. Charles) Schumer pointed to the profits of the 10 largest insurance companies — which shot up 428 percent between 2000 and 2007, from $2.4 billion to $12.9 billion — as a reason health care reform is needed.
Note that Schumer is talking not about revenues but profits. And, keep in mind that while the costs of care have been sharply and steadily rising, no way did they go up 428 percent in the same period.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., explained what’s going on, damning health insurers with pain-inducing truth.
“The insurance companies are the people who are just rapaciously, greedily and unstoppably making money by underpaying the patient, by underpaying the provider and by overpaying, therefore, themselves.”
To put it in simplest terms, the health insurance industry has been the proverbial rat in the wood pile. What’s more, the insurers appear determined to continue playing that greedy, selfish, villainous role.
That’s why Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee are looking at making the health insurance industry do the right thing, by slapping it with fees for as much as $100 billion (presumably over 10 years).
If you can take even more welcome news out of the Finance Committee, get this: Schumer indicated awareness that health insurers will, if hit with those fees, seek to protect their obscene profits by passing the fees on to customers. That, of course, would completely undermine the health care reform effort by making insurance even less affordable for millions of people.
But Schumer said they are working to make sure the fee can’t be passed through to consumers. Additionally, a strong government-run insurance plan that competes with the private market will make it more difficult for insurers to pass along the increased costs.
And, lo and behold, Sen. Olympia Snow, R-Me., says she’s OK with that.
Hallelujah!
I have to laugh hearing the republican congressmen say you’ll die if there’s a public option. Somebody want to tell them people are dying right now with our present system. Nah! they don’t listen to anybody but themselves.
Of course we’ll die. Everyone knows that if you take away those $12.9 billion in profits, how will insurance companies fund research into new and complicated ways to screw us over? If we don’t allow them this Constitutionally-protected right, then ingrown toenails become a preexisting condition, then we’re importing drugs from Canada, and selling our possessions to fund a last-ditch trip to some experimental doc in the Far East, you commies.
This really strengthens the argument that we need a government option for health insurance.
And the Democratic spinners need to create a villain. That’s the only way to galvanize tens of millions of voters. There was a Newsweek article saying that we need an Osama bin Laden to point to, to get the public riled up. “Our current system” and “the insurance industry” aren’t enough to mobilize the public. They’ll read a story about somebody dying because their insurance company wouldn’t pay for the life-saving medicine they needed, and they’ll think “that’s terrible” and then click on the next story.
I’m glad we’re not like Republicans, but sometimes there’s a need for vilifying and Swiftboating. And that time is now.
Aw, c’mon Tom! That’s like kicking someone when they’re down! Where’s the fairness in that? 8-)>
We will die anyway, regardless of what kind of health insurance we have.
But the richest country in the world ought to be obligated to do a decent job looking after its own, not just looking after the pocketbooks of those in private enterprise. Everyone ought to have access to health care, and if that amounts to “sharing the wealth”, then by all means bring it on. This is the change the administration is trying to bring about. Kind of an all-for-one-and-one-for-all thing instead of all-for-a-select-few. And I would say it’s about time!
Demeur, money talks, so they listen to lobbyists and the interests that pour money into their campaigns.
Randal, let’s not forget that insurance companies also need billions to retain armies of lawyers. Fighting off seriously ill customers whose policies they’ve suddenly canceled takes time. Some of those canceled customers hang on for years, pursuing the companies in court, before going bankrupt and succumbing to the condition that caused them to file their claims.
Tom, I listened to hearings just a few weeks ago in which the testimony painted a clear picture of who the villains are, what they’ve done and what they intend to keep on doing, unless forced to change. The simple facts need to be driven home, but no embellishing or dramatization is necessary. Just a realization by the public that, hey, the SOB’s could do that to me or mine.
Snave, written like a true socialist subversive. But you’re right. In a contest between a woman of modest means getting necessary treatment and care for breast cancer, hopefully saving her life, and an insurance company executive getting to toss another $200,000 into his hedge-fund account, I think most Americans are decent enough to choose treatment for the woman.
Those who worship the free market “god” should be obliged to sit down and shut up while the rest of us belatedly do what’s right for all of us.
I”m totally with Tom on this one – it’s time to start fighting down and dirty, to get in the mud and start throwing some just as hard as any republican ever has. There is a time for rational discourse, and then there’s a time for cage fighting. This is the time for a good old fashioned bare-knuckled cage fight.
Bee, I like your fighting spirit. I wish I could bottle some and send it to Obama.
Economy has to take a reverse trend. Will there still be profitable foreclosures?