Insurance Company Rules: The Cure For Everything But Healthcare

Health Care For America Now, which is a "national grassroots campaign organizing millions of Americans to win a guarantee of quality, affordable health care for all" has been joined in their fight by Public Service Administration - the satirists who last made news when they explored the colorful depths of John McCain's vocabulary. The result of their collaboration? "Insurance Company Rules," which re-imagines what the world would be like if we all lived our lives the way health insurance companies do. As you might imagine, that world would be indescribably hilarious if it weren't so awful.

Their video debuted at Netroot Nations this afternoon, and now, you can catch it here!

Comments

[whiteboyblues]

I've got nunchucks. Hilarious.

[BrighterStar]

I will take insurance company rules any day when the alternative is government rules. Anyone who thinks that the government is capable of delivering quality healthcare has not been paying attention. Wake up people and look at how government opperates and tell my you want them running healthcare.

[research]

usa #42 HEALTH CARE. PAY TWICE PER PERSON WHAT THE REST OF THE MODERN WORLD PAYS.

[indypete]

Dear BrighterStar,

We're sorry, we have to deny your claim because you had a zit on your nose 19 years ago and didn't mention it on your application (check the 23 pages of fine print on the form... what's that, you're not a lawyer? You don't speak fluent obfuscation?). We knew about it immediately because of the exhaustive background check we perform on all our clients but decided it was a snippet of information we'd keep to ourselves. The premiums you paid for all those years that you wouldn't have paid had we rejected your application on those grounds? Well keep them to ourselves too. Good luck with your cancer.

Sincerely,

Your Insurance Company

[YankeeCanuck]

That's what I'm talking about!

[YankeeCanuck]

Perhaps THIS government is the problem. It works in Canada and many European countries.
The rules are simple. If you're sick, you get health care. And it costs far less.Why? No middlemen, no insurers raking in the money and parcelling out health care while taking zero risk. No rapacious CEOs taking hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation for running an organisation that changes the rules if the insured actually needs care.

[coloradosiren]

Imagine healthcare without the insurance industry.

[jeffp26]

That is the only way to fix this. Single payor or nothing gets better.

[indypete]

I grew up with it... it's fantastic!

[obamagirl1968]

Also, what happened to 'mutual aid societies'? Insurance companies should be NON-PROFIT. There is no reason why people who have suffered (health, car, homeowners, flood, etc.) should be subject to someone's profit motives or risk ratings.

[drayntx]

"insurance companies should be non-profit­."
I could'nt agree with you more. Why in the world should they be making a profit when all the give you is a piece of paper and a promise? They invested nothing..t­hey created nothing.. I have never understood why insurance companies should be turning profits.

[obamagirl1968]

They seem more like Billary Clinton or Republican rules to me!

[likeicare]

Translation: the insurance industry/mafia wants the whole world to look like the US, when it comes to healthcare.

That way, everyone would be held hostage to them, b/c who wouldn't do whatever it takes to safeguard the health of their loved ones or themselves, right? And everyone would have to go thru them to get care. And pay them for the "privilege­."

You see, it's all aboout framing the argument. If you claim that health care is a privilege, and not a right, then the parameters are set in your favor, and you can bestow that privilege on whomever you choose. But if it's seen as a right, then the moral ground is a little shakier -- people can actually DEMAND access to health care, and you'd be the bad guy if you didn't allow it.

Nice scam, huh?

[DerAmi]

Insurance is just another term for extortion.

Extortion:

from dictionary.com:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/extortion

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This ex·tor·tion Audio Help (ĭk-stôr'shən) Pronunciation Key
n.
The act or an instance of extorting.
Illegal use of one's official position or powers to obtain property, funds, or patronage.
An excessive or exorbitant charge.
Something extorted.

[mlaiuppa]

Just remember, the people that bring you insurance company rules also want to take over schools and Social Security.

[dadw5boys]

WE COULD COVER EVERYONE AND SAVE $2.1 BILLION IF WE GOT THE INSURANCE COMPANYS OUT OF THE SYSTEM COMPETELY.

NO MORE INSURANCE FRAUD BECAUSE THE INSURANCE COMPANYS ARE TOO SHORT HANDED TO CHECK THE BILL BEFORE THEY PAY THEM .

AT LEAST 22 % OF ALL HEATL CARE COST GO TO FRAUD BECAUSE OF INSURANCE COMPANYS ARE IN THE SYSTEM.

[RealityBaseCamp]

What's worse than, "I'm from the government and I'm here to help."?

How 'bout, "We're a huge for-profit corporation with a 50 million dollar CEO, required to cut corners and maximize the bottom line for the stockholders, and we're going to take care of you!"

[YankeeCanuck]

Yeh, the departing CEO of United Health care (Robert Mc Guire) left with $750 million in salary for his eight years of "service" to the company plus about $600 million in stock options. That's after he returned $620 million of (illegally) backdated stock options.

[Marlyn]

Get insurance out of the health care system. Cover everyone for FREE, paid for by taxes. That is the health care system I want, one like other modern nations have.

[PADDYWHACK]

You need a mied system,but it does lead to inequities­.Also the drug companies have a point,Britain's drug companies were decimated by the government takeover of healthcare,those left standing moved here or bought American companies.

[rosal]

I have family in England. This is not their experience. Do you work for an Insurance Company?

[MarkieBee]

Poor, poor drug companies.­..

[indypete]

Ever been to Britain? Ever talk to Brit about health care?

Removing price gouging doesn't count as causing hardship for a company.

[RealityBaseCamp]

indypete siad:

"Removing price gouging doesn't count as causing hardship for a company."

Sure it does, to them! Price gouging is its own line item!

[nogimmicks]

Makes the point very clearly. However, there are three groups whose out-of-control greed makes the healthcare not affordable:

1) insurance companies - they clearly must go. Computers, a few IT guys and a few controllers can do the job.

2) lawyers: the unlimited liability claims (remember 4B deal for a dying chain smoker) kills the cost. These people must go and a well regulated hard limits need to be assigned to categories of problems.

3) pharmaceutical companies and their cozy alliance with hospitals and doctors: unnecessary drugs, expensive untested drugs instead of reliable and cheap generics etc.

All three problems must be addressed.

Finally the artificial barriers to a free market of medical services.

[indypete]

1 & 3 yes. Absolutely. No doubt about it.

2... Not so sure. We've been hit with a lot of lies about "frivolous" lawsuits for the specific purpose of making it harder to sue the fat boys. I suspect the 4b deal you mention is either a lie or an exaggeration. The stories you hear like the girl that injured herself trying to sneak into a nightclub through the ladies room window and sued the club enough to put them out of business? Never happenned. The lady that tripped over an unsupervised kid in a supermarket and sued the supermarket for a bundle... and it wes her own kid? Never happenned. The infamous cup-of-cof­fee-in-the­-lap... no report on that one ever mentions the hundreds of complaints from people of exactly the same thing before that case happenned. Lawsuits in the medical biz would go down if the AMA was made (allowed?) to police itself effectively. Doctors can be sued for malpractice and yet go on practicing and get sued again and again, driving up their own and everybody elses insurance. Two strikes and out would bring doctors' malpractice insurance down enough that we could immediately see a difference in their fees. Insurance companies have a vested interest in keeping bad doctors working. Like any gambling business, insurance doesn't rely on winning the bets, the profit comes from the "juice". Lose the bet, increase the juice, simple as that.

[haleywins]

Insurance companies rules with their own rules.

[loax]

LOVE THIS ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[finn929]

This was just plain brilliant!