Paying thousands of dollars for something IN ADVANCE...

[rollingrock]

...to a private company/corporation.

isn't that what private health insurance is and how it works?

what do you think your chances are of ever seeing that money again when you need it?

are you going to simply trust the insurance company to deliver on their end of the deal when the time comes? they have your money already. and human nature being what it is, they are extremely reluctant to ever give it up, and will make the lamest excuses so they won't have to.

and when they don't give it up? you really don't have any recourse. they are a giant corporation with deep pockets and an army of lawyers. you are just an individual. they know that you cannot afford to sue them.

and that is why, private health insurance is for SUCKERS. you are better off putting that big monthly premium into your bank account every month, or under your mattress instead of donating it to your insurance executive's Yacht Club and Country Club membership fund, which is what the White House wants you to do under their mandated insurance plan. at least you know the money will be there when you need it!

[mdmc]

1. Obama says we need to

USA!USA!

[DJ13]

2. With the unrecs your post has we must have a lot of insurance agents here

[Raineyb]

3. That would explain a whole hell of a lot about the discussion about health care reform around here.

[Occulus]

10. There were reports of paid bloggers earlier this year or late last year.

Keep that in mind.

[izquierdista]

4. I always point out

That slot machines pay out 97 or 98 or 99 cents on the dollar, while health insurance only pays out 80. Plus sometimes you get comped for a free meal...err by the casino, that is. Not the insurance company -- they just comp themselves.

[RB TexLa]

5. The insurance companies do let you do that. HSA with a high ded plan. Your money can even be

invested if you choose. I've lowered what I've paid in premiums every year I've had mine.

[rollingrock]

7. You can invest the money on your own

you don't need an insurance company for that.

[wroberts189]

11. Yes but an hsa gives you a tax write off. nt

[rollingrock]

13. But why would you want to risk losing your all your savings

by gambling it in the stock market? Especially under the current economic environment?

you'd have better luck playing the slots in Vegas. lol.

[wroberts189]

14. I would not invest it ..just put it in a basic savings account. nt

[Laelth]

6. This is why we need single payer.

I can't deny the truth of this argument.

:dem:

-Laelth

[flyarm]

8. MaxTax Is a Plan to Use Our Taxes to Reward Wal-Mart for Keeping Its Workers in Poverty

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/09/11/maxtax-is-a-plan-to-use-our-taxes-to-reward-wal-mart-for-keeping-its-workers-in-poverty/

MaxTax Is a Plan to Use Our Taxes to Reward Wal-Mart for Keeping Its Workers in Poverty
By: emptywheel Friday September 11, 2009 3:41 pm

I made this point in this post, but I'm going to repeat it over and over and over until it sinks MaxTax, the Baucus health care plan.

MaxTax is a plan that will use your and my tax dollars to reward companies like Wal-Mart for keeping its workers in poverty. Here's why.

In most cases, the MaxTax fines employers up to $400 per employee if it doesn't provide its employees with health care. The fine is absurdly small (less than half of what individuals, themselves, would be fined if they didn't get insurance), but it could mean a company like Wal-Mart would have to pay up to $560 million if it refused to provide insurance to any of its employees.

The other option is to provide crap insurance for your employees. MaxTax gives very few requirements for this insurance (and it allows you to charge employees up to 13% of their income in premiums). But assume Wal-Mart decided to provide incredibly crappy insurance at a cost of $2,500 an employee. It would then pay $3.5 billion a year to meet its obligations under MaxTax.

So Wal-Mart chooses between paying $560 million or $3.5 billion right?

There is another option.

The MaxTax offers this one, giant, out for corporations.

snip: and do read the rest at the linkkkkkkkkkkk!



A $1.25 billion reward to Wal-Mart--a competitive advantage it would have--for paying shit wages.And who will be paying that reward to encourage Wal-Mart to continue to pay shit wages? Why, that'd be our taxes, yours and mine.

[flyarm]

9. Joe Wilson and AHIP Team Up to Write Max Baucus’s Health Care Bill By: Jane Hamsher

Joe Wilson and AHIP Team Up to Write Max Baucus’s Health Care Bill
By: Jane Hamsher

http://campaignsilo.firedoglake.com/2009/09/11/joe-wilson-and-ahip-team-up-to-write-max-baucuss-health-care-bill/

Friday September 11, 2009 7:06 am


There really doesn't seem to be any limit to what the administration will do to pass Rahm Emanuel's neoliberal giveaway to the insurance industry. The "author" of the plan released by Baucus (and apparently by Mike Ross) is a former VP of Wellpoint. Now AHIP is boasting about their role in crafting it:

Many of the changes to the insurance system now under discussion are the ones that have been advocated this year by the insurance companies themselves, said Karen M. Ignagni, the chief executive of America's Health Insurance Plans, the industry trade group. "The industry has been the leader in creating the proposals everyone is about to endorse," she said.

No wonder insurance company stocks shot up after the President's speech.

But now we find, per John Aravosis, that Kent Conrad and Max Baucus are changing their bill to appease Joe Wilson:

"We really thought we'd resolved this question of people who are here illegally, but as we reflected on the President's speech last night we wanted to go back and drill down again," said Senator Kent Conrad, one of the Democrats in the talks after a meeting Thursday morning. Baucus later that afternoon said the group would put in a proof of citizenship requirement to participate in the new health exchange — a move likely to inflame the left.

As John says, if Wilson's outburst turns out to be successful, it'll keep happening over and over again. And it will work every time.

If you want to stop this travesty from going forward -- and it's turning into a complete travesty -- ask these members of Congress from strong Democratic districts, all of whom have cosponsored Single Payer in the past and know better, why they aren't pledging to vote against any bill if it turns out to be nothing more than an insurance industry bailout:

read the rest at the link..........

.....................................................................

Reid Endorses Wellpoint’s Co-op Plan
By: Jane Hamsher Friday September 11, 2009 9:46 am

http://campaignsilo.firedoglake.com/2009/09/11/reid-end...

The Senate Majority Leader endorses the Mike Ross/Kent Conrad/Wellpoint authored co-op plan:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) endorsed the concept of health insurance cooperatives Thursday, siding with centrists in the House and Senate who want healthcare reform but oppose a public option.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) also hinted she could accept that approach a day after President Barack Obama delivered an address to a joint session of Congress that offered encouraging words for both centrists and liberal Democrats who have demanded a public insurance option.

I think I may have to adjust my prediction for the co-op "squeeze play" on July 20:

The easiest political path to passing health care is still running the "co-op" crunch. Regardless of what the House does, the Senate can pass Conrad's shitty fake co-op. The Blue Dogs band together and refuse to vote for anything else, and that's what comes out of conference. There's a PR blitz to sell it as a "public plan" (which is why we've worked so assiduously to define it as NOT a public plan), and in a rush to get something passed, Rahm starts twisting progressive arms -- which have been historically very easily twisted.

Blue Dog Mike Ross presciently submitted virtually the same co-op plan in a July 31 amendment that finally emerged this week in Max Baucus's Senate plan. But since it now looks like Pelosi is on board with co-ops, that means the Blue Dogs aren't going to have to take the hit.

[girl gone mad]

12. Insurance companies like to keep people dumb..

when it comes to the real costs of treatment. Most people probably have no idea what they are actually paying for and how much the insurance company is paying health care providers.

We really need price transparency and reform to prevent hospitals from charging the uninsured significantly more than they charge the insured. Most basic services should have standard pricing. More complicated procedures can vary, but the costs shouldn't be determined based whether or not there is an insurer involved.