Healthcare insurers get upper hand Obama's overhaul fight is being won by the industry, experts say.

[kpete]

Source: Los Angeles Times

Healthcare insurers get upper hand
Obama's overhaul fight is being won by the industry, experts say. The end result may be a financial 'bonanza.'

Reporting from Washington - Lashed by liberals and threatened with more government regulation, the insurance industry nevertheless rallied its lobbying and grass-roots resources so successfully in the early stages of the healthcare overhaul deliberations that it is poised to reap a financial windfall.

The half-dozen leading overhaul proposals circulating in Congress would require all citizens to have health insurance, which would guarantee insurers tens of millions of new customers -- many of whom would get government subsidies to help pay the companies' premiums.

"It's a bonanza," said Robert Laszewski, a health insurance executive for 20 years who now tracks reform legislation as president of the consulting firm Health Policy and Strategy Associates Inc.

Some insurance company leaders continue to profess concern about the unpredictable course of President Obama's massive healthcare initiative, and they vigorously oppose elements of his agenda. But Laszewski said the industry's reaction to early negotiations boiled down to a single word: "Hallelujah!"

The insurers' success so far can be explained in part by their lobbying efforts in the nation's capital and the districts of key lawmakers.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/healthcare/la-na-healthcare-insurers24-2009aug24,0,6925890.story

[CurtEastPoint]

1. "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that...

our side not tell the story right... and repeatedly.

They gots the bucks, we gots the truth, and sadly, they are winning.

[pattmarty]

2. If it comes down to a shit bill, I am calling my Congressman and...................

..............both of my Senators (all Dems by the way) and will urge them to vote against the bill. We'll be just like some 3rd world shithole and have to wait ANOTHER 15 yrs for "reform". I do not believe as some have said that something is better than nothing. My opinion is we now have shit and the bill that will be passed is going to be worse shit.

[happygoluckytoyou]

3. HOLD ON---> thought we WANTED everyone insured.... the question is...---> --->

WILL THERE BE COMPETITION IN THE INDUSTRY..... will there be a "government" option which will FORCE prices to be fair ? ? ?

There is NOTHING WRONG with adding all the POOR onto the insured list.....

----------and if the GOV'T pays for a lot of it, that is a FINE METHOD OF REDISTRIBUTING WEALTH AND ACCESS TO MEDICAL CARE......

so i think we need to hear and see the COSTS and BENEFITS before this bothers me

[John Q. Citizen]

10. Where would you expect to find "competition" in an industry that is exempt

from anti-trust?

As costs keep going up, benefits will keep going down.

Where will we get a government option. Somebody would have to introduce a bill for one and since that hasn't happened yet. why do you think it will?

The cost is a trillion + a decade in tax dollars (and a bunch of mandated private dollars) and the benefits are Dems get fat contributions from the criminal insurance companies and Repos don't.

Such a deal.

[pattmarty]

22. I agree. If it's a "shit" bill, vote it down.

[pattmarty]

21. When I say "shit" bill, that is the MAIN thing I was talking about................

...............The so called public option. Without that it is almost a sure thing to be a piece of crap and not worth passing, even if there may be a "few" (crumbs) good things in the bill. My opinion is what we need (other than the excellent "not on the table" option of single payer): Public option, caps on out of pocket expenses, do away with "lifetime caps", low deductibles, low co-pays, drug cost containment, and maybe a couple of things I missed. I have heard the Senate finance committee's version has in their bill a 65-35 co-pay. I guess bottom line, my opinion is that the bill should not pass if it doesn't have at the very least what I listed above. AND, I will not be for any bill that doesn't have these bare MINIMUMS in it. If not, what's the use?

[bjobotts]

4. "Industry experts"?? "One" industry expert. Who at theis point can only hope

[bjobotts]

6. I the plan mandates everyone into priv. ins and susidizes those who can't afford it then Yes

[bjobotts]

7. But if we get the Public option and no mandates then No. This article doesn't know what it's talking

about.

[bjobotts]

8. Propaganda HIT PIECE indeed. Why would anyone believe this crap

[badgervan]

9. I Agree....

... this is a strangely rightwing type of article, with no real evidence in it... just conjecture and guesswork. Wonder who wrote it?

[John Q. Citizen]

12. It could have been Obama Here's what he said in Belgrade MT

"Now, one point I want to make about insurance: Some of the reforms that we want for the insurance market are very hard to achieve, unless we've got everybody covered. This is the reason the insurance companies are willing to support reform, because their attitude is if we can't exclude people for preexisting conditions, for example, if we can't cherry pick the healthy folks from the not-so-healthy folks, well, that means that we're taking on more people with more expensive care. What's in it for us? The answer is if they've got more customers, then they're willing to make sure that they are eliminating some of these practices. If they've got fewer customers, they're less willing to do it.

So it's important for people -- when people ask me sometimes, why don't you just do the insurance reform stuff and not expand coverage for more people, my answer is I can't do the insurance reform stuff by itself. The only way that we can change some of the insurance practices that are hurting people now is to make sure that everybody is covered and everybody has got a stake in it, and then the insurance companies are able and willing to make some of these changes that will help people who have insurance right now. But thank you for the question. I appreciate it." (Applause.)

http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2009/August/14/transcript-Obama-Montana.aspx

[rocktivity]

5. HIT PIECE ALERT!!!

"Experts say" that Obama no longer has the upper hand? As in--say--experts in health insurance?


rocktivity

[John Q. Citizen]

11. It's not a hit piece. The insurance industry has been working hand in glove with the whire house

since day one. If you want I'll find the transcript for the town hall in Montana where Obama explains that the insurance companies and he have an agreement that means the insurance industry get millions of new subsidized customers in return for them getting rid of pre-existing conditions.

[SpartanDem]

17. The same insurance industry that is out astroturfing?

[John Q. Citizen]

18. They oppose a strong public pool but they love the rest of the bill. The teabaggers

are right wing ideologues.They don't care about health care they just hate Obama. And he wants to pass a bill. So they are against it.

The Insurance industry is polite at meetings and they ask questions that promote their interests.

Their main interest is getting this bill passed as it's written right now, or they wouldn't mind if the very weak public options were removed.

Go check the stock markets. It's a pretty good indicator that investors using their real money believe the health insurance industry is going to do very very well.

Would you invest in health insurance stocks if you thought the legislation in congress was going to hurt them?


Have you read the legislation? It's available on the web. Go look at it and tell me what the insurance industry wouldn't like about?

And look up thread at post #12. that's where Obama is quoted saying the insurance industry and he are working together, they get a bunch of new customers out of the deal.

[bvar22]

13. Obama invited them to the table.

"When you invite them (Health Insurance Industry) to the table, they eat all the food."

"I think you have to take them on, you have to confront them, and you have to fight them, and they have to be beaten.” ---John Edwards

[PSPS]

14. dup

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4029305

[MarjorieG]

15. Why do we get this posted daily?

[xchrom]

16. recommend

[QC]

19. BLASPHEMER!1!!!! INFIDEL11!!!!

ALERT AND IGNORE!!!!1

[TankLV]

20. So, obama cultists, tell us again why we should support "obama's" bill?

this should be good...

BREAKING NEWS!!!: It's Single Payer Universal HealthCARE or NOTHING...

sorry to break it too you...