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One of the aspects of healthcare "reform" that is particularly dangerous is the existence of "mandates." In plain English, this will result in huge fines for people who can't afford astronomical health insurance premiums or HMO fees.
I lived in California when a state law was passed mandating auto insurance. It sounded like a good idea at the time, but it had a terrible result: enormous increases in car insurance premiums. Now, it was sold to the public as something which would cut premiums by getting uninsured drivers on the rolls, but rates went up anyway. Why?
Auto insurance premiums are not related much to costs at all. Insurance companies could cut them drastically and still provide the crappy coverage they give, while making a fair profit. What really sets the rates is what the market will bear. When it was illegal to drive without insurance, people couldn't walk away, and the insurance companies hiked their rates.
The same thing will happen with health insurance and HMO mandates. It already costs the HMOs and health insurers a whole lot less money to provide the services they do. If you make it mandatory to be one of their customers, they will jack up the rates big time. In California, the health insurers manufactured a phony "insurance crisis" to cover their tracks. It wouldn't be at all surprising if they did the same thing on a national scale with healthcare reform.
In the real world, nothing will ever reform the bahavior of the corporations opposing the public option. The only real solution to the healthcare problem is to get rid of the HMOs and health insurers. The public option is a good first step, and that's why corrupt politicians who are bought and paid for by those deadly corporations are fighting it so hard. Any healthcare bill that doesn't include at least the option for public health insurance is not a reform bill. It is a dangerous step backwards.
Ultimately, we need single payer. Any politician that opposes single payer is saying that she or he couldn't care less whether or not you live or die.
Psycho Woman Throws Knives At Children
13 years ago
Any healthcare bill that doesn't include at least the option for public health insurance is not a reform bill. It is a dangerous step backwards.
Indeed! In fact, clear movement toward a return to not-for-profit health care or, better still, a full single-payer system, will be the death of American competitiveness.
I bet China and the countries of the EU are laughing their asses off.
Insurance is a scam. What you are doing with car insurance is betting that you will get in an accident. The insurance company is betting you won't, because the majority of drivers rarely do.
The health insurance industry is a similar scam. They are betting you won't get sick, and just to hedge their bets, they raise your rates if you are overweight, a smoker, or engaged in any other activity that pose a serious threat to your health. And if you do get too sick, they find a way to drop your coverage so they don't have to pay you a dime. They need to be done away with, not controlling the debate on health care reform.
Libhom,
I share your feeling about the HCR reform bill, you were exactly right in your comments at Mauigirl.
I think it was Glen Greenwald who was saying this bill is pretty much what Obama wanted all along.It gave his health care lobbyists their $ worth while appearing to have accomplished something using for the Obama legacy and the 2010 elections.
So your comments about the Repubs having to be against a Repub wealthcare bill are to me exactly right.
OTOH what the hell do I know I'm a product of the Los Angeles Unified School District.
While I fully agree that Single Payer is the way forward, why won't the provision that insurance companies who jack up premiums will be excluded from the exchange help curtail rate increases?
I think OSO is a pretty sharp dude.
Anyway, you're on the money with your prediction of a "health insurance crisis" Libhom. Enron manufactured an energy crisis years ago. There is money to be made in crisis'.
No wonder Obama met behind closed doors numerous times at the White House with executives of the health insurance industry.
These cats helped Obama, Nanny Pelosi and Wussy Reid, write the reform bill which favors the industry at the expense of the American people.
It's outrageous to me that under Obamacare, you will be forced to buy a plan or risk financial penalty up to and including, having your Federal income tax returns seized by the IRS and turned over to HHS.
This draconian measure is un-American and frankly, I think will result in the Dems losing the House and Senate in 2010 and Obama, the presidency in 2012.
Kvatch: China won't be laughing so hard when Americans can't afford to buy as much of their cheap plastic crap, but we certainly making ourselves into global laughingstocks.
Lew: Insurance is supposed to spread risk so that individuals can function economically in society. Sadly, unregulated insurance corporations have been corrupted just as much as the banks, brokerages, and Big Oil.
Oso: Yep, the Republican opposition to the bill is so WWE, it isn't even funny.
TomCat: That's a reasonable question. I can think of at least two ways that they can get around the rate caps via collusion. First, they can, as a group, decide to drop out all at once from the exchanges until they get their way. Second, they can create a phony healthcare insurance crisis similar to the fake auto insurance crisis they invented in California years ago and threaten to stop all health insurance coverage immediately, with no government program set up to handle all the uninsured people.
TRUTH: Good on you for remembering the phony energy crisis. Corporations remember their crooked tactics. We need to remember them too.
Christopher: It's so reprehensible. We will be forced to fight so many battles to try to reform the "healthcare reform." The Green Party is definitely getting most of my votes in 2010.
I generally stay away from stats when commenting Libhom. My memory for them sucks. But I do remember screwings.