Corporate Healthcare Girds for War

A picture really can be worth 1,000 words, or a great deal more. If you don't believe me, click through this link to the New York Times article and pay close attention. You'll see President Obama speaking earnestly about his meeting with healthcare leaders about their pledge to reduce the growth of healthcare spending by $2 trillion over the next ten years. That sounds fantastic; so why aren't they smiling? Not only are they failing to show to do their part to save the economy, they are positively shooting daggers with their eyes. Seriously, I'm shocked that the Secret Service would let them stand behind the president given the malevolence of their expressions.

Of course, they have good reason to look miserable. If you assume that private health care yields a 15% pre-tax profit that means that these people have just volunteered to forgo $300 billion in profit. That's a lot of money, so maybe we should be breaking out the Freedom and Nobel prizes for these gentlemen. But recipients of such rewards usually smile. These guys aren't smiling.

Here's why. First, that $2 trillion represents less than 8% of the $33 trillion that the Health & Human Services Department is projecting that the country will spend over the next ten years. In the past year, many people took bigger pay cuts than that just to try to keep their jobs. Second, this offer consists entirely of "good intentions," and missing the objective carries no penalties. It is therefore little more than fairy dust. Third, the President and Nancy-Ann Min DeParle - Director of the Whitehouse Office of Health Reform - have already decided to bet their legacies in driving systemic change. If you benefit from the status quo, that's bad.

Don't get me wrong. I don't think that theses are bad people; they cannot be happy that they live in a country where 45 million Americans (15% of the population) have no health insurance and 50% of all personal bankruptcies are the direct result of unaffordable care. I also think that the government is perfectly capable of getting it wrong. As we have all heard, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and the desire to build consensus can sometimes produce new and different messes. Nevertheless, the status quo, leads to economic oblivion so something must be done. If that means that the grey-haired men in the dark suits find themselves frowning for quite some time, so be it.

Comments

[emjay1954]

The health care profiteers don't look THAT miserable. At least I doubt that they feel miserable.

First, their promise is merely to cut the RATE OF GROWTH, by a percent and a half. Really, not that much.

Second, what happens if they fail to do so? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Third, this whole dog and pony show is about keeping single payer from becoming a subject of honest debate.

[DocTwain]

Agreed.

This announcement is meaningless song and dance.

The cartels are fighting tooth and nail for their profits, and this posturing is designed to make them look less villainous than they are.

AHIP has already succeeded in cowing the president and Congressional Democrats into obstructing single payer, which the majority of Americans and physicians support, and which would save more than $350 billion a year by eliminating the private health insurance cartels' excess administrative costs.

$350 billion a year over the next ten years is $3.5 TRILLION. That's just the money we could save in administrative costs by knocking out the private insurance cartel.

If we negotiated fairer prices with the pharmaceuticals cartel by using the monospony leverage of a single payer system, we could save even more money. And there are plenty of other obvious things we could do.

Figure $4 trillion in savings, guaranteed, minimum, over ten years--enough not only to insure the uninsured, but to make Medicare comprehensive and costless for seniors.

But AHIP and pharma evidently call the shots in Congress and the Oval Office....

[zest]

The issue is quite simple; single payer health care now. If private health care insurers go the way of buggy whip manufacturers so be it; times change.

[WorkingClass]

Corporate health care girds for war. War is exactly what they are going to get. You don't think these are bad people? They are killing Americans to make money. Their business model is "your money or your life". They think they are safe because they own the government? They should do a little reading and see what happens to oppressors during and after popular revolutions.

[Michael B. Laskoff - Huffpost Blogger]

They should do a little reading, but I've got to say that the truly insidious aspect of health care is more rooted in inertia that actual evil. Sadly, I think that the industry as a whole has lost sight of the individuals that it is nominally constituted to serve.

[Michael B. Laskoff - Huffpost Blogger]

Ain't life grand? Your aunt had the audacity to stay healthy until she was 65. Instead of punishing people for good health, we need to reward it. And yet, the vast majority of people in the for-profit segment of our health care system only make money after someone gets sick. In this world, the "ounce of prevention" has no apparent value at all.

[uninsurable]

Michael,

As it turns out my Aunt did not stay healthy till she was 65. She had a disorder which was caused by a severe undiagnosed B-12 deficiency. She was hospitalized in a State Hospital for 90 days in 1966, and diagnosed with a schizoid reaction. That is the only care she ever had and the cause of the psychotic behavior was not found till the recent hospitalization, some 43 years later.
When I said she was not capable of filing for Medicare, I mean she was not capable of answering the door. She has lived in a world of extreme and paralyzing fear most of her life due to a medical condition called Megaloblastic Madness caused by the near absence of Vitamin B-12. An easily treatable condition, provided one actually has medical care. Unfortunately after years and years some of the health problems are not reversible, such as the damage to her circulatory system which caused the life threatening infection. Insult to injury means being punished with these ridiculous medicare penalties for having been very ill to the point of inability to function, as if having a miserable life was not enough. She is the poster child for universal health care.

[ntmessage]

I want to support Obama on Health Care, but a cut of 1.5% of the growth of any industry that generally raises their costs as much as 3-4 times the actual rate of inflation is wholly inadequate, especially since we already pay $8,000 each for mediocre health care. This negotiation reinforces and mandates price increases of health care during a depression and a time when housing prices and savings are cut in half.

Next, the organizing for health care group wants us to sign a nebulous statement that includes cheaper health care, but ignores that this will be paid for almost 100% by the people using the health care by raising taxes as opposed to attacking the well-known 30% waste in health care dollars today.

Taking the waste out of health care and holding the line on costs can save One Trillion dollars every year today and every year without raising the costs to the consumer one cent. This should be the goal as opposed to the giveaway a nebulous one Trillion in savings because we will not increased the costs as fast as before.

This is financial and public relations trickery of the worst kind. Deplorable at best. Evil and criminal at worst. What are we doing? Framing the issue around totally disingenuous terms? Why?

[Michael B. Laskoff - Huffpost Blogger]

Because the issue is complicated and filled with political land mines. For example, imagine a world in which sugar – yes sugar – is taxed at a much higher percentage to make it more expensive use for people to consume. We all know that would have a positive impact on the country's overall health, but the politician who gets behind a sugar tax is likely going to lose his elected office. Instead, it's much easier behind the lab coats and the big, impressive sounding numbers.

On the bright site, I heard the head of the HHS Administration last night talking about preventative medicine last night. That's whrer this conversation needs to go.

[ntmessage]

Frankly, this conversation needs to address why the health care industry want to maintain excessive margins and profits while operating a critical system in an almost criminally inefficient manner.

Prevention is again putting it in the consumer. We must not and cannot just say politics as usual on Health Care. A one TRILLION dollars per year waste of our money, both in taxes AND premiums and copays (not to mention what they do not pay for by giving the people a hard time).

This must be looked at economically not pitting one group against another. The Sugar lobby. You kidding? One trillion vs. a few million?

Priorities are complete wrong if we compare this to another lobby and ignore the phenomenal excesses.

[Citizen54]

What are the political land mines of supporting a single-payer healthcare system when about 70% of the people support the idea? The only land mines are the dollars that senators would no longer receive from insurance and pharma companies. There would be no political repercussions.

[olmossy]

Maybe we could tell the Health Care folks that we will trust them to do better in the future nothing in writting of course. and if they are true , We the people will reward them in the future for their good efforts, Nothing in writting OF COURSE

[uninsurable]

My 79 year old uninsured aunt is the poster child for healthcare reform. Somehow though I am afraid that even reform would still let her slip thru the cracks and remain uninsured. She cannot get Medicare because she did not apply for it at age 65. It does not matter that she was completely incapable of applying for Medicare or anything else. Penalties are penalties so far as Medicare is concerned and hers add up to 140% of the monthly premiums for each of parts A, B, and D. She is priced out of the system. No private company will insure her because of age.

She does not qualify for medicaid because she has an interest in the farm which has been in the family for almost 140 years, even though it does not provide her a livable income. So we pay her living expenses. She was just released from the hospital and we borrowed $17,000.00 to pay her medical expenses so the hospital would not be in a position to sue and take the farm.

She receives no public assistance, even though she does not get social security or disability or SSI. She is invisible as an American

[olmossy]

I did the same thing she did. but so far I'm in good health. I 'm sympatetec to her problem.
We need TRUE Health care reform in this country. Whatever worked back in the 40s-50s with good hearted doctors helping out has slowly morphed into something that clearly does not work.
IT does work as far as making the health care/insurance industrys wealthy.
It DOES NOT supply HEALTH CARE.
It would be unthinkable to change Police/fire protection to the same system we have for health care. This is because back when these systems were being formed no one could get rich in Civil Protection ( Except the Lawyers)
So the Hospital would take every penny she and you have , then set her out on the sidewalk after she is BROKE!
The Health Care Ind. is about Bottom Line NOT health care.
Health Care should be treated as a given just as sure as Police/Fire Protection are.
We don't need More insurance, We need Health Care.

[brklynivn]

That is sick, and would not happen in any other developed, and in many developing countries. I think of your aunt they next time a republican asks "do I want to pay for my neighbor's healthcare". Answer - Hell Yes!