Robert Reich: The National Anthem - and Why We Need Health Care Reform So Desperately

[babylonsister]

And fyi, this is Reich's insurance plan; he's not a happy camper.


http://www.truthout.org/the-national-anthem-and-why-we-...

The National Anthem - and Why We Need Health Care Reform So Desperately
by: Robert Reich

snip//

Anthem says it has no choice. It says the recession has forced many policyholders to drop coverage because they can’t afford it. So Anthem has to spread its costs over a much smaller pool, which ratchets up the cost of each. In addition, says Anthem, too many of those remaining policyholders have greater medical needs than the average. So Anthem is just doing what it has to do to survive.

This argument sounds logical until you look more closely. First, Anthem and its corporate parent, WellPoint, are enormously profitable. WellPoint’s profits rose to $2.7 billion last quarter. Even if you subtract one-time-only financial maneuvers, WellPoint is still fat and happy, which makes Anthem fat and happy. Everyone is fat and happy except Anthem’s policy holders, who are being skewered.

Anthem’s argument is even more questionable when you consider that Anthem has been among the most aggressive opponents of the health-care bills passed by the House and Senate. If Anthem were sincere about why it’s raising its rates, it would be embracing the legislation. The Senate and House bills would add tens of millions of Americans to insurance pools – thereby spreading the costs over more people and avoiding the very problem Anthem says is now forcing it to raise its rates so much.

snip//

Anthem is a microcosm of what ails our private for-profit health insurance system – the most expensive in the world, whose costs are rising faster than anywhere in the world; a system rapidly becoming unaffordable to more and more Americans, in which insurers are rapidly consolidating into behemoths that have almost no competitors. And a system in which the biggest health insurers are lobbying like mad against reform because they like things just the way they are. They can squeeze the public and the public has no alternative but to pay up.

All this makes Anthem one of he best arguments for reform — which is probably why the President mentioned Anthem today when he emerged from what was billed as a “bipartisan” meeting to talk about health care and jobs.

Obama says he’s open to any new ideas from Republicans for how to control health care costs and expand coverage. The problem is Republicans don’t want to play this game. They don’t care about controlling costs or expanding coverage. They care only about taking back the House and/or the Senate next November. And they believe a means toward attaining this goal is to prevent Obama from achieving a victory on health care. The sooner the President accepts that undeniable fact — and gets the House to pass the Senate’s bill, and then uses the reconciliation process (that requires only 51 votes in the Senate) to deal with any remaining irreconcilable differences between the House and Senate — the better.

In the meantime, next chance I get I’m switching to another insurer — if that makes any difference at all in what I pay or the service I get, which seems increasingly doubtful. I’m also joining any Tea Party of mad-as-hellers fed up with how Big Insurance, Big Pharma, Wall Street, and much of the rest of corporate America have taken over our democracy.

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Can you honestly say you think this is going to happen?:

"The sooner the President accepts that undeniable fact — and gets the House to pass the Senate’s bill, and then uses the reconciliation process (that requires only 51 votes in the Senate) to deal with any remaining irreconcilable differences between the House and Senate — the better."

I mean, Jeez, I hope you're right, but I don't think you're going to like anything the Senate passes if you're looking for lower premiums or better coverage or smaller profits for the HC industry. We lost most of what was worth having when they threw away single-payer, and lost the rest of it when the public option died. Oh, we may get something called a "public option," but it won't threaten industry profits. At best it'll be a sinkhole for the "uninsurables" so the industry doesn't have to carry them on the books.

[babylonsister]

3. It's possible-from yesterday:

For me, even getting companies to not be able to consider pre-existing conditions would be a huge thing.

Pelosi Makes Her Case (HCR): A Majority Is 51 Votes



http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[Jackpine Radical]

4. But it looks like they will be able to use age as a proxy for PEC.

All they have to do is really jack up the rates for older insurees, and afaik there is nothing the legislation to prevent that.

[babylonsister]

6. How do you, me, or they know anything when nothing has been

even agreed on yet, much less passed? This is what bugs me; everyone has an opinion, I get that, myself included, but until there is a final version of something, we're all speculating.

It's damned frustrating.

[NanceGreggs]

2. Only a paltrey $2.7 billion?

Looks like sales of Caviar Helper will skyrocket in the coming months.

and REC'D!!!

[Jackpine Radical]

5. Caviar Helper and downscale Ferrari models.