The Health Insurers Have Already Won: How They Did It

BusinessWeek:

As the health reform fight shifts this month from a vacationing Washington to congressional districts and local airwaves around the country, much more of the battle than most people realize is already over. The likely victors are insurance giants such as UnitedHealth Group (UNH), Aetna (AET), and WellPoint (WLP). The carriers have succeeded in redefining the terms of the reform debate to such a degree that no matter what specifics emerge in the voluminous bill Congress may send to President Obama this fall, the insurance industry will emerge more profitable. Health reform could come with a $1 trillion price tag over the next decade, and it may complicate matters for some large employers. But insurance CEOs ought to be smiling.

Read the whole story: BusinessWeek

Comments

[condor101]

03:29 AM on 08/13/2009

Rampant Fraud from the Right Wing. I'm re-posting this link. Please watch the interview of Wendell Potter. He speaks the truth. We need congress to vote for a Public Plan. Right now, the insurance companies are salivating at the prospect of having the 50 million un-insured to be mandated to buy health insurance. We need a Public Plan so that private insurance companies will have to compete and lower their premiums. Wake Up People! Do Something! Please watch this video interview of Wendell Potter and then contact your congressma­n/senator, urging them to support a Public Plan. Also, feel free to copy and re-post the video link below and/or my message and place on all comment boards on HuffPost. We need to get more and more people to watch this interview and effect change. Currently, the Corporate Beaurocrats and their Lobby are taking over town hall meetings and influencing the general public to be scared of a Public Plan. We need to take control of this debate and show the Real Truth. If you haven't seen Bill Moyers' interview with Wendell Potter, former PR executive for CIGNA, I strongly recommend it: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07102009/watch2.html

[laurieanichols]

08:31 AM on 08/12/2009

We need a new political party for the 21st century. This two party system doesn't really reflect the evolving nature of our society. Our economic/social structure has become one giant pyramid. The top belongs to the uber wealthy and the bottom apparently belongs to the financially strapped middle-class and the working poor. Our society, I believe, would function more equitably if our economic/social structure operated more in line with a circle. A small top, a small bottom and a large healthy middle section. When it comes down to it, it is the middle-class that drives this nation. The people up top in their towers deliberately forget that, I'm not anti-wealth I just find it abhorrent that there are all these arguments against any policy that tries for any re-distribution of wealth comes from the right. Our democrats in Washington don't seem to be doing a great job fighting for us. We need something.

[RTIII]

04:32 PM on 08/08/2009

If the bill that results doesn't have "robust public option" let us make ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN it gets ki//ed.

Partial "reform" will just prevent / delay what we need to happen and will likely not morph over time into something helpful from where we are today.
.

[RTIII]

04:31 PM on 08/08/2009

If the bill that results doesn't have "robust public option" let us make ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN it gets killed.

Partial "reform" will just prevent / delay what we need to happen and will likely not morph over time into something helpful from where we are today.
.

[admiral74]

12:08 PM on 08/08/2009

Proof of Ultimate Goal for Obama, in his own words:

http://www.breitbart.tv/uncovered-video-obama-explains-how-his-health-care-plan-will-eliminate-private-insurance/

http://www.breitbart.tv/obama-in-03-id-like-to-see-a-single-payer-health-care-plan/

[Teacher477]

12:04 PM on 08/08/2009

With our current health care system the US ranks 178 out of 219 countries when it comes to infant mortality. The infant mortality rate is a very strong indicator of how well a countries health care system works. We rank with Cuba, Croatia and South Korea. The vast majority of the countries at the top of the list have some form of socialized health care.

That is what I don't get about the republicans, who are very pro-religion and against abortion, and all that “family values”, yet they do not want to improve the way we supply health care. Don’t they want to know the members of their family will always have health care? Don’t they want to know that they won’t have to go bankrupt because of an illness? They just do not act very christ like at all.

It is immoral for a country as rich as ours not to provide a more efficient form of health care. The debate needs to be civil and respectful. We need to listen to those who are more educated than us. The doctors know the truth. Yet they are afraid to speak out because they are tied in with the pharmaceutical and insurance co’s.

Why do we listen to politicians? They should be listening to us, the people. Not big business. Big business bought our political system a long time ago, it is too corrupted, its time we take it back.

[viper234]

02:53 PM on 08/07/2009

Healthcare reform for all Americans should be a carbon copy of what Members of Congress receive courtesy of the American people. They enjoy excellent, affordable healthcare benefits and have exempted themselves from having to buy into any healthcare reform legislation they pass for the American people. That should send a pretty strong message to the American people about what they really thing about the healthcare reform legislation they are slapping together up there on Capitol Hill.

[jmpurser]

03:22 PM on 08/07/2009

Well basically that is Obama's plan. Congressmen get to chose from a variety of commercial plans and that's the heart of Obama's plan. It's also the heart of what we have now. Hope you're happy with it.

[viper234]

03:53 PM on 08/07/2009

If it's a carbon copy, why is Congress exempting itself from the plan. They should be the first to give up their benefits and sign on. Why create thousands of pages of new legislation with the Congressional healthcare plan buried "at the heart" of the legislation? Why not just roll out the Congressional plan already in existence to the American people. It works for Congress and for all federall employees. I'm sure it would work in its present form for the rest of America. In other words, why reinvent the wheel?

[ksjprod]

02:08 PM on 08/07/2009

Okay, here's how to contact the white house:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/

[Gover]

02:11 PM on 08/07/2009

The White House is the one who put our healthcare system on the auction block.

If you can't see this you're nuts.

[jmpurser]

03:22 PM on 08/07/2009

He's the one who gave the game away to the insurers.

[ksjprod]

02:06 PM on 08/07/2009

Contact the White House. Contact your representatives. Google them to find their email addresses.

Tell them you want a single payer or at least a strong public option or you will not be supporting them in the next elections.

Then, of course, you must follow up by not supporting them.

This may be our only chance at health reform, but it is part of the bigger fight to determine who our reps really work for; the people or the corporations. That fight will be long.

[vanmungo]

02:50 PM on 08/07/2009

What do you mean by "strong public option:"? The one contained in HR3200? Some other one that has not yet been introduced?

Please specify the provisions.

People talk about "public option" or "strong public option" as though these were bumper-sticker slogans without any content that you could specify or look up.

This empty propagandizing is corrupting the discussion of health-care reform. People who claim to favor a public option need to start thinking about EXACTLY what it is they are supporting.

Let's start with this commenter and see what happens.

[ksjprod]

03:17 PM on 08/07/2009

It means a government run, not for profit option. Something that the Ins industry would have to compete with.

It mean an option for people like me who are self employed/free-lance and currently have to enroll in costly individual plans. If my current insurer wants to keep me, they'd have to offer something with comparable cost and services or they lose my business.

[Derelict outlaw]

01:45 PM on 08/07/2009

Turn out the lights, party's over, move along, nothing to see here...single payer is de ad and so are u soon....SB 703 doesn't stand a chance, President Obama has sold out......health care reform will result in windfall profits for health insurance companies.....CHANGE that has been accomplished is that Health Insurance campaign contributions that used to be just for the rethugs are now being spread around to many more democrats....that's the Presidents CHANGE that he has wrought and will endear him to his party.....he's sold us out...read the articile the only thing the Health Insurance Industry feared was single payer and it's GONE>>>>>GONE>>>>>BABY GONE>>>>

Save your breath, don't get in a fight at a town hall, That's all folks.

[nia122]

01:50 PM on 08/07/2009

The health insurance companies are also afraid of a robust public insurance option. I agree that single-payer is dead, but the public opition is not yet. We must not give up or, according this article we are all screwed. We are screwed if we keep the status quo and we are screwed if we get the plan that seems to be coming out of the Senate Finance Committee.

I just wrote to my representatives and the white house for the umpteenth time. I usually e-mail or call every other day. I also sign petitions for MoveOn and Howard Dean's group. I believe, that if we the people do our parts then we can win. We must win.

[Polly]

02:01 PM on 08/07/2009

Boy I love you, you keep up your belief and I really want too also. I was so happy with the election of President Obama and I believe these are changes we desperately need, but I have been very sad about what is taking place in America. I truly thought that once we won the fight would be less, but these people are bent on distruction!!

I know the single payer is dead, but the public option is not and I also have been calling & writing, so thanks for the incouragement!!

[vanmungo]

02:51 PM on 08/07/2009

What do you mean by "robust public option:"? The one contained in HR3200? Some other one that has not yet been introduced?

Please specify the provisions.

People talk about "public option" or "robust public option" as though these were bumper-sticker slogans without any content that you could specify or look up.

This empty propagandizing is corrupting the discussion of health-care reform. People who claim to favor a public option need to start thinking about EXACTLY what it is they are supporting.

Let's start with this commenter and see what happens.

[jmpurser]

03:24 PM on 08/07/2009

I think you're right but I don't want to give up yet.

[blueskybigstar]

01:38 PM on 08/07/2009

They are already declaring victory? They are declaring that they will be more profitable? The article ignores the fact that the insurance companies are the reason we spend more per capita than any nation on earth, but service that does not serve our needs, leaving us 37th in the world for health care, and a sad quality of standard of living. This article is just there to paint them as if they are the good guys, that all it took was to show some blue dogs some fancy tech, and probably not the money that they have given them over the years. I doubt that a business journal could extol the virtues of doing business by paying off and buying politicians including Obama as the main reason for their business success. The quid quo pro has to stop. They think if they can declare victory that no one will challenge them on this. Make sure you contact the media every single time they try to pass off shilling pieces like this one on the American people.

[babyboomerorig]

01:44 PM on 08/07/2009

Shows us all just how much influence the common citizen has on their representatives.

Disgusting, isnt' it?

[blueskybigstar]

06:10 PM on 08/07/2009

They don't understand that people will eventually take power. Their opinions about these things are not going to change. Sad indeed, but I am not losing faith.

[joyfulworld]

01:10 PM on 08/07/2009

I'm sure it makes everyone feel just wonderful to know that United Health and the rest of those thieves will be not only fine, but wildly healthy!!! They will be raking millions and billions while the rest of us just suffer and die to support their lust for power and wealth. My health, your health, grandma's health, our kid's health doesn't matter...the only thing that matters is the health of the insurance corporations!!! How on earth did we get to this point!?

[vanmungo]

01:04 PM on 08/07/2009

The alarming unraveling of serious health reform is not a parable of wicked Blue Dogs or Republican elephants. The proper zoological classification of the Beltway menagerie of both parties is money-hungry piggies--including the so-called liberal Democrats who have spawned these farcical, nonstarter public-option shams.

Obama is selling out to the HMOs and Big Pharma by endorsing an approach that retains their chokehold on this dysfunctional, unraveling health-care system by guaranteeing that the shriveled pub op, with its lack of public funding and need to charge premiums and imposed deductibles, will present no challenge to the HMOs.

The only beneficiaries of the mainstream Democratic plans are the HMOs and Big Pharma. All the big players in Congress--­­­mainstre­a­m Dems, Blue Dogs, and Republicans alike--agree on that important principle--keeping their paymasters in business. The apparent infighting is just quibbling about how best to bamboozle the American people while sticking it to them.

For a succinct summary of the problems with the Dems' sellout, see the following:

http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=print/content/top-ten-ways-tell-your-president-his-party-arent-fighting-health-care-everybody

For further education on the reasons that only nonprofit Medicare for all will solve this nation's healthcare crisis, see any of the following:

www.pnhp.org
http://www­­­.1payer.­n­e­t/
www.singlepayeraction.org
http://www.healthcare-now.org
http://www.guaranteedhealthcare.org/

[mady]

01:03 PM on 08/07/2009

The insurance companies have as big a hold on citizens King Georg did in 1776.

Where do I sign a Declaration of Independence???

[kewps]

02:53 PM on 08/07/2009

Here, here!

[Coinyer101]

01:00 PM on 08/07/2009

The insurers won this fight, the day they escorted single-payer advocates from the roundtable. Next time, give everyone a voice like ya promised!

[bascombe]

01:24 PM on 08/08/2009

what next time?