Ungar writes: 'If you thought that the Obama Administration chickened out on pushing the nation in the direction of universal health care for everyone, today is the day you begin to understand that the reality is quite the contrary."
President Obama signed major healthcare legislation into law, 03/23/10. (photo: Doug Mills/NYT)
Bomb Buried in Obamacare Explodes - Hallelujah!
05 December 11
The 'time-bomb' Ungar refers to actually 'exploded' on December 2nd, the day this piece first appeared on Forbes. However, Ungar's point is not only still relevant, but the 'bomb' has been widely ignored by the mainstream media. -- JPS/RSN
have long argued that the impact of the Affordable Care Act is not nearly as big of a deal as opponents would have you believe. At the end of the day, the law is - in the main - little more than a successful effort to put an end to some of the more egregious health insurer abuses while creating an environment that should bring more Americans into programs that will give them at least some of the health care coverage they need.
There is, however, one notable exception - and it's one that should have a long lasting and powerful impact on the future of health care in our country.
That would be the provision of the law, called the medical loss ratio, that requires health insurance companies to spend 80% of the consumers' premium dollars they collect - 85% for large group insurers - on actual medical care rather than overhead, marketing expenses and profit. Failure on the part of insurers to meet this requirement will result in the insurers having to send their customers a rebate check representing the amount in which they underspend on actual medical care.
This is the true ‘bomb' contained in Obamacare and the one item that will have more impact on the future of how medical care is paid for in this country than anything we've seen in quite some time. Indeed, it is this aspect of the law that represents the true ‘death panel' found in Obamacare - but not one that is going to lead to the death of American consumers. Rather, the medical loss ratio will, ultimately, lead to the death of large parts of the private, for-profit health insurance industry.
Why? Because there is absolutely no way for-profit health insurers are going to be able to learn how to get by and still make a profit while being forced to spend at least 80 percent of their receipts providing their customers with the coverage for which they paid. If they could, we likely would never have seen the extraordinary efforts made by these companies to avoid paying benefits to their customers at the very moment they need it the most.
Today, that bomb goes off.
Today, the Department of Health & Human Services issues the rules of what insurer expenditures will - and will not - qualify as a medical expense for purposes of meeting the requirement.
As it turns out, HHS isn't screwing around. They actually mean to see to it that the insurance companies spend what they should taking care of their customers.
Here's an example: For months, health insurance brokers and salespeople have been lobbying to have the commissions they earn for selling an insurer's program to consumers be included as a ‘medical expense' for purposes of the rules. HHS has, today, given them the official thumbs down, as well they should have. Selling me a health insurance policy is simply not the same as providing me with the medical care I am entitled to under the policy. Sales is clearly an overhead cost in any business and had HHS included this as a medical cost, it would have signaled that they are not at all serious about enforcing the concept of the medical loss ratio.
So, can private health insurance companies manage to make a profit when they actually have to spend premium receipts taking care of their customers' health needs as promised?
Not a chance - and they know it. Indeed, we are already seeing the parent companies who own these insurance operations fleeing into other types of investments. They know what we should all know - we are now on an inescapable path to a single-payer system for most Americans and thank goodness for it.
Whether you are a believer in the benefits of single-payer health coverage or an opponent, mark this day down on your calendar because this is the day seismic shifts in our health care system finally get under way.
If you thought that the Obama Administration chickened out on pushing the nation in the direction of universal health care for everyone, today is the day you begin to understand that the reality is quite the contrary.
If you believe that the end of private, for-profit health insurance is some type of nefarious step towards a socialist society, then you might want to attend church this Sunday to mourn the loss of health insurers being able to worm out of covering the bills of a cancer patient because she forgot to write down on her application that she had skin acne for three months when she was a teenager.
Of course, those of you who fear the inevitable arrival of universal health care really shouldn't be too fretful. There will always be a for - profit health insurance industry for those who want to pay for it. The only difference will be that those who cannot afford private coverage will also have an opportunity to get their families the medical care that they need.
Everyone wins - except the for-profit health insurers.
I can live with that.
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Comments
We are concerned about a recent drift towards vitriol in the RSN Reader comments section. There is a fine line between moderation and censorship. No one likes a harsh or confrontational forum atmosphere. At the same time everyone wants to be able to express themselves freely. We'll start by encouraging good judgment. If that doesn't work we'll have to ramp up the moderation.
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This is long over due.
NEVER EVER VOTE REPUBLICAN!!
You know, I have been thinking that there was some strong reason Obama might have been "waiting in the weeds" till just the right moment. It was like he was playing chess: he laid out the board, sat patiently, knowing that he had strategically placed just the right knight (HHS) in just the right position to knock-out the black corporate opponents! And wham...they snapped them up!
In a climate where we have young people in the streets, yelling for corporate greed mongers to be taken down, we all wondered, why Obama had not aligned himself with that effort, or why he had not said something strong that would help the people to be heard, to help them take down the corps.
Meanwhile, he had. And the Repubs knew it! They have been screaming out their propaganda and trying to get the Supreme Court to overthrow "Obamacare" because it would require everyone to BUY insurance, when all along, the bill outlines a path to health care for all.
If this leads to the death of the insurance system we have and to the birth of universal, single-payer, health care for all, I say December 2, 2011 will be a day I will NEVER forget!
Wahoo! Fingers crossed!
OUST THE BUMS!
YIPEE-KI-YEA HEALTH-INSURERS!!
(Besides, maybe Obama will grow a pair big enough to match his campaign rhetoric when he's a lame duck.)
I am sure Obama will be much better in a second term.
He is sure to end all the wars and bring our troops home.
He is sure to stop this war on terror against the American people.
He is sure to end the phony drug war.
He is sure to stop the Federal Reserve from giving our money to foreign banksters and leaving US taxpayers on the hook.
He is sure to stop the rape of homeowners by unscrupulous mortgage companies and banks.
Naaaaahh. Not a chance.
Ron Paul would try to do those things.
Obama has no change I can count on. He takes to many campaign contributions from the 1% for any REAL change to happen
Quoting Bruce Willis from the movie Diehard: "YIPPIE-KI-YEA, ONE PERCENTERS!!!"
Hip-hip-hooray they passed a LAW ? You mean like a governmental financial regulation ? One that Big Insurance will *always* obey to the letter and will *NEVER* be able to create a "work around" for, even as said new law eats into Big Insurance PROFIT ?
Silly, silly, countrymen, these clowns and criminals have *always* figured out how to "beat" any regulation long before it becomes law.
They pay very bright accountants, lawyers and lobbyists very large salaries to work on nothing else 24/7.
Even if this law did have "teeth", the tooth decay has already begun in the offices of K Street Lobbyists.
Yes, a new law is better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, but it is certainly no harbinger of anything remotely resembling certain change.
Sorry to rain on the popular parade, but please - if we don't work in the "real world" the game is over before it begins.
I am nervous about the big insurance companies: if all of them drop health care coverage, who will we be able to buy it from, and at what cost? This isn't a rhetorical question, but my ignorance of the law: will the government be able to step in? It is urgent that I know these details, because my husband is being treated for cancer.
Supremes WILL overthrow the Affordable Care Act. The vote will be 5 to 4 (The Fab Four Plus One - Kennedy.) Take it to the bank.
They also will realize their could be a law made to impeach the Supreme court if they continue to be so one sided.
Not if Clarence and his buddy re-cuse themselves. If the Affordable Health Care Act IS dumped, then the insurers will go their merry way, and raise insurance rates to an intolerable level. The whole system will collapse.
Never vote Republican, the party of the Greedy/
We will hope all the best for you and your husbamd.
If A has stocks in a company that isures B, it is to A's advantage that B is refused the operation, that will save his life. That is plain disgusting.
I am so glad that we may finally get back to sanity. Of course people working in health care should make a good living, but it should NEVER have been for profit.
I do not get any of those eams cause you know I do not need them.
I take a 75 B Complex which includes all of the B ingredients. Not just B12. Why just take a portion of a good vitamin when it has so much more in it.
I take vitamine E-alpha not the E dl which is a manufactured E and not half as good as the Alpha
I take a C 1000 mg.
A & D Pantothenic Acid (acomponent of the B vitamin for my allergies) so I have no allergies.
I take these with my breakfast and dinner, twice a day.
Also once a day I take selinium, and Zinc
This for 30 years has been my routine.
I take no drugs, I have no pain, I have no arthiritis and I line dance 5 hours a week with 50 and 60 year old who call me their inspiration and hope to be line dancing like me in their 80.
Read, look inquire and you will find a better life and a healthier body.
I saw what it did to my husband, destroyed his muscels, and I refused, also because many doctors say that when you are an older woman, the cholesterol is not a danger.
Another time when I had a minor ailmnent, he wanted to put me on blood preassure medication. My blood preassure is just fine, but when you are under the weather, it can be a little elevated.
So I said NO. ....It is just fine. Had I started the medication, I bet I would be on it the rest of my life.
I am 78 in general good health, and I take .......absolutely NO medications.
There is one vitamin I don't know if you take, vitamin D. It is VERY important as you age, you should take 3-5000 IU
(international units) daily. They are tiny 1000 iu capsules.
I am never sick, do not get colds and flues, and I haver never had a flue-shot.I read in medical journals, that there are too many things, that are bad for you.
You are certainly an inspiration, I am looking forward to the eighties.
He is not God. There is a lot of information a person can find out on their illness to know what is what, also read the Warrior Woman. She was smart and that is how all people should be.
However it just squeeked through so as the Lady above sais and I totally agree
Never vote Rep. Vote Democarat so we can get more good stuff in and get rid of some of the lousy laws they have put through.
Is it possible that Obama was secretly a DEMOCRAT all along? I hope so. He seemed smart, but I didn't think he was that honest to us (enough to be dishonest to the right and actually have a trick up his sleeve).
My little brain's befuddled. Oh well, I've often fantasized about how I'll use my lottery winnings before the actual numbers came back as well. It's fun!
Let's hope this isn't just a fantasy.
and a lot smarter than most realized.
yeeeppeeeeeeee
"Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far."
Someone asked "how did this get past the GOP" -- They have their heads....
President Obama makes mistakes but the 99% should give him a "hip-hip-horrah"
Register early + mail-in ballots and please take time to get the 18-21 year olds, old, minorities (the DEMS who need to vote) registered/Mail-in ballots.
Go OWS, GO WI, GO OH -- GO USA!
The dog/pony show (ala Trump/Newt) is better than a reality show - except I cannot watch without getting sick to my stomache. But I enjoy SNL, Cobert, Stewart, Leno, etc. making fun of these "debates"
I think we will make it - -but we have work to do. Get the $$ out of our elections/ governmant (Las Angeles has begun a move to make Congress Act on this) --- Scalia/Thomas MUST resign (and go to jail)
I like all your advice to voters, and your optimism. I too love the late night guys take on the stupid republican circus. It is a long time since we saw that many fools together in one arena.
Gives you hope for 2012.
Thank you for yor goof comments
When you get to the polls, if the address on your photo ID does not match where you live, you might only be able to get a provisional ballot, which disenfranchises you (your vote isn't counted). It isn't hard to change addresses if you have a previous driver's license (for example). Also, some states do not take other ID such as military, etc. It would be a good idea to overturn these new voting laws, but at present, the best we can do is to try to make sure people have their IDs.
WoW ! It is obvious that you haven't spoken to many Veterans dealing with the VA System, the funding for which was cut in half TWICE under Bush/Chaney.
VA care has always been "bare-minimum" care, using the oldest procedures they can possibly get away with.
The care I received while serving in the U.S. Navy was likewise nothing to write home to Mom about either.
If Military health care seemed to you to be "the best", I wonder if that might mean that you never had an experience with truly good private medical care to use as a comparison during your 23 years of USAF care.
I love Jon Stewart, and his question was one that a Republican would obviously have to "choke on", but in truth, Republicans only "Rah-Rah" the troops when they don't have dig deep into their pockets to truly support the troops. It's bumper-sticker support, not legislative or financial support.
@ Charles3000
As a veteran who has wrestled with the VA System for many years, all I can say is to be careful what you wish for !
We can't get Medicare because we are in our 50s, but I went to a Medicare seminar... part A,B,C,D,... I couldn't figure it out myself. They said to look at the drugs you take to see which plan would be best, but they keep changing the drugs... how would we know? It is cruel and unusual punishment of innocent American civilians. Yes, replace all this alphabet soup Medicare for real Medicare. And replace the soup of evil insurance companies with Medicare for all.
Thay have no idea what they are talking about. Denmark, the country I came from has excellent madical care. I should know. When my parents were young, in 1940 they both had TB and were in a sanatorium, my mom a year, my dad two years. Later when I was 15, I also got TB, and was in the sanatorium a year.
All this was paid for in our taxes. So we here should be so lucky to have socialized medicine.
If some want more gold plated treatment they can take out additional insurance.
I have never had a recurrance, and I am now 78 and in good health. No medications.
How did this ever get by the Republicans? "
---------
I didn't "get by" the Republicans. They just couldn't stop it, even though they fought tooth-and-nail to try to prevent government from helping everyday Americans.
Don't think for one minute that insurers are on the losing end. Congress will look the other way when insurers do what is in their best interest, and Congress always leaves loopholes b/c those lobbyist $$$ - you know how that works.
Could be that Ungar doesn't have a clue how Obamacare works if he thinks it's going to take us to single payer. This scheme goes in the opposite direction and will not provide access to affordable care for all.
It will cause many much harm. You will be told how much you can afford to pay based on prior year income including tax exempt interest accrued or rec'd in the taxable year. The gov't doesn't care how much you pay for lodging, food, property taxes, heat, school loan, etc. You must pony up or pay an IRS-enformed tax penalty.
If you are found eligible for expanded Medicaid, that's what you get. No other choice unless you can afford to buy on the open market. Medicaid has an estate recovery program for those who use benefits at age 55 and up. Congrats! You just got a mandated collateral loan.
This is just the tippy top of the iceberg. Fasten your seatbelts.
Read the law. Then find the many changes that have been and are being made since it became law. It is regressive, oppressive and WILL NOT provide affordable access to care for all with decent benefits. It is the failed MA plan on steroids. btw: Ted Kennedy, whose HELP committee wrote one of the senate bills, was deeply involved with the MA plan with Romney, but people don't realize that. The 'ole bipartisan spin. The MA plan was used as the marketing tool for Obamacare. It didn't become the nat'l plan b/c it works.
btw, my comment talks about Medicaid, not Medicare. I must inform you that Medicare is not good for many seniors. It is expensive for people on a fixed income and not affordable to use plus it doesn't cover many necessary items. I unenrolled in October. Glad you can afford it and like it.
As for Obamacare, I've mentioned a few items b/c no space here for all the ugly details. Re the MA plan, there are facts and figures available on its failure which MA state and national politicians don't want you to know.
Sadly, there is not a single commenter who absorbed what I wrote. One would think that they would be concerned and want to find out more so they can figure out how to save their butts from what's coming at them.
Personally, I could care less. It's not my problem, but it will be theirs.
Medicaid is for people who have NO income and NO savings, like my elderly parents, who used up every cent on nursing homes, and had to go on Medicaid so that they could have a safe environment for their dementia. I cry when I think how this program has been cut by Republicans; my parents' nursing home has had to cut staff this year. You are listening to people who have no pity on their fellow human beings.
Do not be disheartened by all of the "thumbs down" attached to your comment. It is simply and indicator of the number of people who have no interest in any truth that has not been thru the blender of sugar-coated pablum.
Many of them style themselves as "activists". However, true activists, like good generals, deal with the battlefield as it truly exists, not the way they wish it existed.
As to the nay-sayers - their minds are already made up - they hate becoming confused by the actual facts !
I agree with you, chick; THE STENCH IS NAUSEATING!
someone tries to give you important info and the best you can do is make childish remarks about what you smell.
do you ever stop blabbing nonsense long enough to realize what's happening to we the people perpetrated by both Repukes and Democrats?
reading the comments on this site has become a waste of time b/c most have nothing intelligent to offer. you all just dis Republicans and complain.
for your info, i'm not a Repuke.
Glad you get it, and I don't feel bad at all. People love to rant and rave but what else to they do about all that is happening to us?
I just replied above to Wildsingingbird who said I didn't give my source in case you want to read this.
I've noticed during the 4 years that I was heavily involved with so-called health care reform that people slide past anything that scares them and are quick to criticize or make silly remarks.
Ignorance is bliss. Knowledge is power.
I must add that the commenters who write DON'T VOTE REPUBLICAN everywhere on this site ad nauseum are asleep at the wheel. Democrats dine at the same trough and will not save us. The two parties play good cop, bad cop. It's all smoke and mirrors.
OR, will some prefer to maintain their mistaken judgement of what this Administration is actually doing for the 99%?
I had to "re-evaluate" what the media and pundits were saying but rather watch a master plan unfold.
It will be intriguing to see how the Public Option and the Mandate( which sent off warning signals at it's announcing) will somehow coalesce into what will equal affordable health care for all.
Why is Forbes reporting this??? Good question. But "Hallelujah" is not a word one would find coming out of Forbes either.
1) This article was published by Forbes. They are not a friend to the 99%. They are the 1%.
2) A real (GOOD) agent or broker is on the clients side - explaining what the policy REALLY says and covers. True, there are some that are crooks, fortunately there are some that are good, caring, hard working folks - members of the 99%. The clients really need to know what they are getting, and therefore unless they want to go through the licensing process and work a few years studying the products offered by the Insurance Companies - they need their agents.
3) Agents and most brokers did NOT lobby to have their commissions included as part of the medical cost! It is the Insurance Companies that have cut the commission rates for agents and brokers.
4) Insurance Companies would prefer to NOT have agents and brokers. If you don't understand the product they can sell you anything, then later come back and tell you what you thought was covered isn't.
I smiled when I saw that. Sure, it's nice PR, but that isn't reality.
To understand the difference, to actually have the agent or broker on the client side, ALL MONIES earned by the agent would have to be strictly from the client. Period. No commissions from insurance companies (because then agents are influenced by the rates).
People need to understand that under capitalism, no matter how nice the person may be (including myself - and I'm a very nice person), business people are out to make a profit. Sure, they may be nice, but at the end of the day, what puts bread on our table is profit.
If everyone keeps in mind the simple rules of capitalism, it makes it better for all of us. We are trying to sell you product and make a profit. End of story.
This is the problem people have when they don't want to admit the truth - that under capitalism the guiding principle is to make a profit. Everything else is just PR.
This is why I personally prefer a single-payer system. It gets rid of the desire/need for profit.
The sentence in question: "I have long argued that the impact of the Affordable Care Act is not nearly as big of a deal as opponents would have you believe."
The word "of" in the phrase, "as big of a deal" is not necessary and in fact changes the meaning of what Mr. Ungar intends to convey. This error is made by broadcast journalists, television and radio professionals, reporters, politicians, pundits, experts from any given field, etc.
I am fortunate to have learned grammar in Texas elementary school in the 1940's.
QUOTE: "I am fortunate to have learned grammar in Texas elementary school in the 1940's."
You might have learned grammar but your spelling leaves a little to be desired if you want to nit pick? dumbing not dumming
Maintaining a private, corporate-profit-based insurance system creates costs to businesses, doctors, and hospitals that far exceed the costs of insurance overhead. Here's how it breaks down: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsa022033#t=articleResults
I'll celebrate when we really get single-payer. As it stands, the higher the insurance companies run up premiums, the bigger that 20% turns out to be. Is it any wonder that they've been jacking up premiums in the last year?
You can rest assured THAT HE DOES!!
A main criticism of the Affordable Care Act was that it didn't actually address health care costs. Is there something to stop the insurers from raising their premiums (as if they were not high enough already)? From what I understand, this is the biggest reason a single-payer system is necessary.
I heard that HHS has been issuing waivers, allowing some companies up to retain MLRs of up to 40%!!!!
Obama put it in as his own safeguard. A facade he can point at when the easy questions come. With noone digging or following up, he gets away with it. Forbes is just doing its part to help (and laugh) all the way to the bank.
Whalegurl has it right. Universal health care is the correct answer and is already demonstrated. Twice at that, military/VA and Medicare (prior to the Part D pharma giveaway, of course).
I knew about this provision and have been waiting for the definition of health cost before I got excited.
The Obama admin did what they promised, they just had to go through the back door to do it. Now that insurance profits will be significantly reduced and pre-exiting conditions are gone they will stop fighting the Medicare for all and go into supplemental & Part D policies for their profits.
As long as we insure that all income, including those "secret bonuses" the high rollers get, this would fly because no one even realized when the cap was raised to $106,000. And as Pelosi said, "lets pass 'Obamacare' so we can read what it says" seems to be as good as it gets for people understanding proposed legislation. Getting unemployed back to work will quickly refurbish any Social Security/Medicare fund shortfall by cutting payroll taxes. Getting money into the pockets of the 99% is what is needed to bring this country off its knees and back into being the great country it really is before the greedy 1% took over. Just remember the GOP is NOT the grand old party your Daddy remembers.
The provision that protects consumers is the requirement that health insurers HAVE to use 80%, (85% for large group insurers) of premiums collected on actual medical care, RATHER THAN overhead, marketing expenses and profits. It is this aspect of the law that represents the true ‘death panel' found in Obamacare - but NOT one that is going to lead to the death of American consumers. The medical loss ratio will, ultimately, lead to the death of unconscionable levels of profiteering by the health insurance industry!
"Obamacare" is not only good, it is a GREAT triumph for American citizens and is what makes Democrats the party to protect working-class Americans from unscrupulous corporate greed and corruption!
LET THE 99% MOVEMENT GROW!
How can anyone actually believe that the industry and its politician-stooges overlooked this "bomb?" The industry largely wrote the bill.
Everyone, including the insurers, knows that for-profit health care is artificially sustained on political life support, until the costs finally drive us, like the Swiss, to an NFP system.
In the meantime, obama and the insurers are laughing all the way to their next million.
The whole concept of medicine needs to be reversed to focusing on causes of sickness ( not symptoms)and what promotes health?
If you review carefully services of today's medicine: It is promotion of ILLNESS!Another problem is that Doctors make people falsely believe they have a illness to justify the use of totally wrong medication/ treatment. Transferring profit to treatment invoices is an Evil in a Sheep disguise. This is not solution at all!
The medical profesion has pooh poohed vitamins that keep you healthy.
Just eat a good meal and it will contain all the vitamins your body needs.
I say baloney. No matter how good you eat you can never get enough nutrition in your body that it needs.
Learn, inform yourself. and you just might become a healthy senior.
When you speak of greed, you should also pause to think that their "greed" is also keeping many folks gainfully employed.
Such a change to a public system will also help most small businesses stay competitive with international competition-- not have to lay off employees due to the increased cost of healthcare plans.
It's like a card I saw yesterday. "I would boycott Wall St., but they don't make anything."
Same thing with these insurance people whose job it is to find some loophole that allows them to deny payment for claims. Their "function" is a detriment to society, something like a scam artist. It would be much better to force them to take some sort of productive job.
The way to get rid of over payments to doctors is to return to high marginal income tax rates because the excess income would be taxed away. Then also there would be sufficient tax revenues to for government facilities and services which are required to stabilize and develop the economy. Business would benefit enormously. The extra taxes the rich would have to pay would be more than made up by the increase in the value of their assets.
I blame the religious right for all the stupidity going on. They have persuaded people that you can believe in anything if you have faith - junk geology, faith based biology - just make sure evidence has nothing to do with it.
Shared risk IS socialism.
Insurance is socialism with a profit.
Insurance without profit is single payer.
I call it "Capital Democracy".
Assuming Obama's reelection, can we expect to see this happen in the next five years? Will Obama be resistant to industry (and sympathetic congressional) attempts to delay and prevent these adaptations as long as possible?
In the shorter term, if he signals that he is on the public's side in this matter, expect a massive outpouring of private healthcare dollars against his reelection. Will Obama risk this fight?
Some of his true sympathy may be revealed by the nature of administration responses to the request by Vermont to introduce a comprehensive single-payer system.
Stay tuned.
So what would be so wrong for that?
[Quote]"Of course, those of you who fear the inevitable arrival of universal health care really shouldn't be too fretful. There will always be a for - profit health insurance industry for those who want to pay for it."
One thing that the owner media, in their wild panic and condemnation NEVER lets out, is the fact that in all countries which have a sane and universal health-care system, also allow anybody who desires such, to have either wholly private health coverage or to pay a small premium for everything from a private room or other peripheral "luxuries" and extra treatment.
So it is much more free and wider in scope of choice than the constrictive and criminally over-stuffed non-system which everybody is stuck with here (and the main reason I've never become a citizen).
And to "Dennis"; The employee loss you speculate upon would be more than compensated for, if the small business community didn't have to worry about the cost of providing some (usually inadequate if anything) measure of medical coverage, they could hire more people and pay them decently, and provide them with closer to a living wage.
Look on the bright side bro'.
Unfortunately Congress took the weak way out. A simple Medicare-for-All option available for all Americans as a base plan would have been simple and easily defensible politically. Then for-profit insurers role would be as Medicare supplements for things Medicare does not cover.
Exactly how AIG got out from under the scrutiny of bank regulators...by buying some Savings&Loans.
So they can survive quite nicely, but not in the manner to which they have now become accustomed.
I remain extremely skeptical of this Act. I hope my skepticism is misplaced; however, I believe the only bomb that will go off is an explosion of litigation and lobbying, followed by ever increasing premiums and co-pays.
Medicare works wonderfully and medicare for all is, I believe, the ony way out of this morass.
The impatient ones want to see immediate results. When things do pan out down the road they say, "Those grapes were sour anyway." They should stop playing Eeyore and believe that good things can happen. Even if they love to hate the man who makes them happen.
And, sorry for the redundancy of posting this on numerous sites, but being that it's such an insightful, well-written, article I really want as many people as possible to experience it. The article sheds much light on where the political parties of our country are coming from, and just how bad it is. So, if you truly care about the US and the world, please check out the link and read this article. Thank you in advance.
The author, with many, many, years of inside experience, feels BOTH THE DEMOCRATIC AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTIES ARE ROTTEN, and presents his case in a very: clear, factual, thorough, manner.
http://www.alternet.org/story/152305/confessions_of_a_gop_operative_who_left_%22the_cult%22%3A_3_things_everyone_must_know_about_the_lunatic-filled_republican_party?page=entire
The author, with many, many, years of inside experience, feels BOTH THE DEMOCRATIC AND THE REPUBLICAN PARTIES ARE ROTTEN, and presents his case in a very: clear, factual, thorough, manner.
http://www.alternet.org/story/152305/confessions_of_a_gop_operative_who_left_%22the_cult%22%3A_3_things_everyone_must_know_about_the_lunatic-filled_republican_party?page=entire
Good news for the American working poor...
Good news for the remaining American middle class, too. Good news for anyone who depends on health insurance for their essential care, in fact. The insurance industry care deniers must truly hate it.
For those who knock the VA, you should remember that it provides adequate care at an affordable price, especially since the Veterans Affairs Administration can negotiate drug prices. Those who want something better can also pay more for it, but don't ask the rest of us to subsidize medical procedures that most doctors would consider unwarranted.
Incidentally, the fact that WEAIT was able to return 93 cents on the dollar to subscribers in paid claims was the chief reason that the Republicans have continuously tried to put them out of business. It's SOCIALISM, don't you know, and what's the point of having health insurance if you can't soak the subscribers and make a huge profit.
THIS is NOT enforceable - couple lawyers make 6 figure income - and hundreds will get $1 check.
I am getting these $2 checks from class actions - most likely scam to get personal info.
Obama did NOT:
1 - get public option
2 - did not STOP Bush "tax cuts" - money for the rich
3 - he DID start couple more wars and increased $1.3 trillion / year military waste
I have over 30 years in the health care financing and delivery systems and know the health insurers better then they know themselves. There has got to be an insurer loophole in this legislation for them.
Mark my words "the health insurers will NEVER voluntarily exit the health insurance market" because there is huge profits in the industry for them.
Again, the health insurers would have never let legislation get passed if it really threatened their bottom liner.
Lets sue or challenge the Constitutionali ty of the FB. WE the people need to make sure that there is only an up or down vote for all Bills.
So This was supposed to be the most transparent administration - open and honest - and your celebrating their deception. And it is a purely fascist notion of controlling the minutia of what percentages a company is allowed to spend on what.
I am almost surprised.
'for profit" Hospital Medical Industrial Complex? Do "THEY" think that
'we the people" are incapable of rendering the facts that this is unconstitutiona l as in taxation to support the too big to fail and is it that since the banksters who have sucked the life out of our national got theirs by robbing the working class blind that we have yet another such "Madeoff" type ponzi scheme for a privately owned and wall street stock-holdings monolith "for profit" that is schemed to do the same?
It is bad enough that "we the people" for all our lives have been pretty much left in the dark about our IRS who is the TAX COLLECTOR that was drummed up by the central bankers to suck up taxes to pay the interest accrued by said federal reserve and that has it now become the private sectors business for one as in insurance companies to be the TAX COLLECTORS for their partners in crime the privately owned "for profit" Hospital Medical Complex. BTW Bill Frist is the only Republican pushing this agenda; IMAGINE THAT?.
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