The Honeymoon's Over: Health Insurance Companies Waste No Time Saying No to Obama's Plan
For months the health insurance lobby had been saying this time would be different. They insisted they'd support health care reform and even launched a whole phony "campaign" and "listening tour" to front the charade. But the day after the Obama administration took the first real step towards fixing health care in our country -- including $634 billion in the budget -- the health insurance front group known as AHIP (America's Health Insurance Plans) got up and walked out the door.
President Obama proposed two ways to pay for his down payment on reform. One was raising taxes on families who earn more than $250,000. The other was forcing health insurance companies to compete to offer Medicare plans. This would stop companies from over-charging and get rid of billions in wasteful spending. AHIP put out a statement rejecting the second part.
For those who dreamed health insurance companies -- who make a profit off denying health care -- would take a kinder, gentler stance this time around, this was your wake up call. For those trumpeting "A new day!" "A new consensus!" "We're all in the together!" on health care, this is where the rubber met the road.
Last August, the infamous Harry and Louise made a comeback. They were the couple featured in health insurance industry ads that helped sink Clinton's health care plan back in 1994. When they returned to TV this past fall, the insurance lobby welcomed them with open arms. AHIP accepted an invitation to the ad's debut press conference and cheered the couple's new message: "Whoever the next President is, health care should be at the top of his agenda." This time, though, the insurance lobby didn't pay for the ads. Harry and Louise were hired by a handful of consumer groups and another long-time opponent of reform -- the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) -- in what was loosely branded a "strange bedfellows" coalition. It afforded AHIP excellent cover and allowed them to continue to pretend they were going to support real change.
But the insurance industry only backs reform that protects -- better still, boosts -- its bottom line. That's always been true and became crystal clear once again as soon as President Obama proposed raising $176 billion for health care reform by putting an end to Medicare overpayments. The proposal's not complicated. Private health insurance companies have been ripping off the government, and President Obama wants to save money by making it stop. He wants health insurance companies to go through a new competitive bidding process. AHIP -- seeing less zeros tacked onto its profits -- now claims that having to compete would mean a "major disruption" to Medicare. It sounds ridiculous because it is.
AHIP has also made it clear it will do everything it can to oppose another competitive feature of Obama's health care plan -- giving Americans a choice of a public health insurance plan to compete with private insurance. AHIP understands that if private companies have to compete with a public health insurance plan -- which like Medicare is likely to do a better job of controlling costs than private insurers -- they will lose customers and money.
Our new president isn't fooled by the AHIP charade. In last Saturday's Weekly Address he said, "I know that the insurance industry won't like the idea that they'll have to bid competitively to continue offering Medicare coverage, but that's how we'll help preserve and protect Medicare and lower health care costs for American families... and I know they're gearing up for a fight as we speak. My message to them is this:
"So am I."
On March 10th and 11th, AHIP is holding its "National Policy Forum" at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, DC. They've even invited some consumer groups to speak at the conference in order to keep up appearances. But make no mistake: the private health insurance industry hasn't changed one bit. It's got slicker rhetoric and new friends but the same old game -- charge more, pocket more, cover less. We intend to stand with the President to fight the special interests like AHIP, and we ask Congress to do the same.
We don't intend to take the fight for quality, affordable health care for all in 2009 lying down.
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The only reason for the health insurance companies to be opposed to reforming the health industry in this country is that they foresee their profits declining. If their profits are going to decline because service will get better and costs will go down, then why, exactly, should I care about them?
I say screw 'em. Their slickest lobbying will fall on 95% deaf ears.
At this point the only people in America happy with their health care are the people who can afford to pay cash for it. Harry & Louise have probably filed for medical expense-related bankruptcy and are unlikely to be persuaded the status quo is their best bet.
I have lived in both Canada and UK. Having a "pre-existing condition", or being born with a "condition" does not affect your access to healthcare in those countries. Yes, you must fill out a medical history when seeing a new physician (of your choice), but it DOES NOT affect your access to healthcare. It does not put you on a "lower status" in terms of waiting for treatment. Doctors do not refuse treatment, because they serve you, the patient, not the insurance companies looking for profit. Doubters, please do some research, look at life expectancy, infant mortality rates, compare costs to other industrialized nations. People don't go bankrupt or lose their homes paying for healthcare in Canada and UK. Single payer universal health care is NOT socialized medicine. Those who use the term "socialized" know the label pushes a button. Are police and fire departments "socialized" because they're paid for by our tax dollars? Imagine if their services were based upon your ability to pay. No takers? The US has the finest-trained health care providers and a solid medical infrastructure, yet its system ranks at the bottom compared to other industrialized nations.
Your medical history should only be used by your doctor to help better treat you. It should not be used by a medical insurance provider, period.
So the President wants to introduce free market principles in the health care insurance industry by forcing the private companies to compete for the Medicare dollar, and they are rejecting it? Clearly the conservatives and corporates do not believe in free market principles; what they want is an oligarchy of sorts. Oh the hypocrisy.
Rest assured that the anti-American Republican Party will be at the forefront in allowing the healthcare insurance companies to keep on raping and pillaging the middle class.
Do you think the government can run Healthcare? Look at the failures of Medicaid, PO and Amtrack. All government run and a mess. What about Illegals? How long before we are covering them. Changes need to be made in policies but I do not want total government control.
You guys are silly. OF COURSE the health insurance companies are in it for the money..100
University studies done over the past four years indicate that 18,000 to 20,000 Americans die each year of medically preventible causes due to lack of access to comprehensive healthcare. That's 6 to 7 9/11 attacks, but i guess you and your capitalist friends see that as collateral damage in the march to win higher private insurance profitability !
You are right about one thing, every other industrial country in the world is laughing their ass off as American capitalists cut their own throats by exporting middle class jobs while the American Import market drys up from the loss of all those living wage salaries. You folks have litterly bought the rope to hang yourself, and the rest of us !
Illegal drugs are a great business, people are in it for the money, too. Both industries exist SOLELY because the government allows them to. Both will be eliminated when we make up our minds that we don't need them.
It appears that Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., has excellerated the drive to once again keep his friends in the insurance industry on the inside and in control of our corrupt for-profit health insurance industry.
Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) highlighted Senator Baucus's affiliation with Health Insurers this week on their website www.pnhp.o
PNHP has a membership made up of thousands of doctors in this country who want private insurance removed from between them and their patients. They have made the point repeatedly that the 16% overhead costs typically associated with the administration of private insurance and their rejection of a single computerized medical reporting system is forcing all Americans to pay the costs of a single payer system without actually getting the benefits !
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I often go with my father to the doctor, here in Manitoba, Canada. He pulls out his provincial health card and that is it. The plan is billed and there are no insurance company bureaucrats, deductions, co-payments, extra-billing etc. to deal with. He does have some supplementary coverage with an insurance company thanks to his old job, for extras and drugs. That is when you run into paperwork and bureaucracy. Beware of politicians who are too friendly with or in the pockets of insurance companies. Good luck this time to my American neighbors. When LBJ signed his original medicare bill, his special guest was Harry S. Truman. I hope your new president has some Truman in him as he wades into a difficult, complex but important to every American, subject.
Thanks for the support
Agreed, Northreader. I'm from Alberta, retired, and count my blessings. In the 'oilpatch' we meet a good number of individuals with dual citizenship who've come up from the States and worked in Canada for years. A good friend is initially from North Carolina, and had wanted to take early retirement and move back there, until she found out that because she has hypertension, she would virtually be "un-insurable!" The insurance lobby puts out so many lies about the Canadian and European health systems. My grand-daughter did not wait for a liver transplant shortly after birth, nor was there any argument with any insurance company about her care. The "wait time" for my own hysterectomy was 10 days, the wait time for foot surgery was about the same. For a hip it might be a bit longer, but at least I'll get one...I'd rather wait a bit and know that it won't break the bank. I don't know why Americans get so hung up on the wait times for ELECTIVE surgery; emergent surgery is dealt with immediately. Our system is not perfect, but I would think that Americans would be able to look at other national health systems and develop one that is even better. An important aspect of a national system is that it is more cost effective to prevent disease than treat it. Which is one reason, I believe, that Canadians live longer! And might even be a little happier!
those who can afford health coverage go on medicare and those who can't go on medicaid..
The fact is that the US spends way too much on healthcare administration costs - more than the defense budget. This has to end. The answer is simple: extend Medicare to everyone. Even if it means higher taxes, its worth it.
Good bye insurance companies - I'll sure miss writing out those checks to you each month.
Make no mistake, this will be out-and-out war between the insurance companies and the rest of the country. It is a war we must win if we don't want to see health care become something only the wealthy can have. With Obama on our side, we now have an opportunity to win. But we have got to do our part. We've got to keep writing letters and e-mails to our congressmen and women. Not just one letter - a letter every month or every week. We've got to keep up the pressure. Let's get in their faces and let them know that we will not back down on this issue!
Insurance, which rewards those who fail and penalizes everybody else, is the worst scam ever invented - well, except maybe for the Stock Market. But both are reaping what they have sown. Too bad they are viewed as "too big to fail" and are being bailed out.
Anybody tell me how we can assiat in making the health insurance change happen and I will join you. In my State Blue Blue shield has sent out their annual request for 18% premium increase which the government always grants them. The govt sponsored health insurance cannot come soon enough because I will buy into it pronto even if it is more expensive than my current premium I will rather go with the Govt cause now that I am not using it will continue into medicare. I am tired of financing the lavish lives of all those insurance executives and believe it or not medicare is easier to deal with than the commercial carriers agreed most times they pay out more to the physicians but medicare provides more service with less hassle and as a health care worker I had rather deal with medicare with their less pay.
Insurance is a great idea when it spreads a relatively rare risk among many insureds. Think Merchant of Venice. It should never have expanded into health care.
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