The America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) trade group issued a report over the weekend claiming that the Baucus Bill will cause health care costs to rise faster than if no legislation is passed at all. Up until now this group has been trying very hard to give the appearance that they were all for reform. That is as long as that reform looked like what they wanted it to look like. If you’ve ever wondered where the idea of penalizing people for not purchasing health insurance came from, then you need look no farther than the AHIP.
This was something the auto insurance industry got through state by state some time ago. And when I hear folks on the Right complain about the government forcing people to hand over their money, I wonder why they so willingly rolled over for this. I’m still amazed that a privately held industry was able to get laws passed making it a crime to not purchase their services. And it turned out the only effect of these laws was to turn otherwise law abiding citizens into criminals.
My state commissioned a study 10 years after passing it’s mandatory auto insurance law. That study revealed that the number of uninsured drivers did not change at all. The study concluded that passing a law does not change the fact that people who could not afford insurance before, still cannot afford insurance. This placed the poorest in the unenviable position of being forced to become law breakers. Landlords still wanted their rent. Utility companies still demanded the bill be paid. Families still needed to be fed and clothed. So off to work they go insurance or no.
This “individual mandate,” ladies and gentlemen was what the AHIP wanted for health insurance too. But provisions for penalties in the Baucus Bill are too weak and the AHIP is pushing back with this report from Pricewaterhouse. The report claims that if this bill passes, premiums will rise significantly faster than if no bill is passed at all. AHIP plans to take out ads promoting the report. But the report has already come under fire from numerous critics that say the methodology used and the assumptions made by Pricewaterhouse were disingenuous and extremely biased. Gee, what a surprise that the industry this reform will effect most would lie to get their way.
This may seem very complicated, but the simple truth is that the AHIP is trying to punk us into capitulating to their will. It’s nothing but a threat like you’d expect from a street thug. “Pass this bill and we’ll spike your premiums” is what they are really saying. But it is already backfiring on them. Health care reform advocates say this move by the AHIP only reinforces the need for reform. In fact some Democratic Senators and House members are signaling that they plan to use the report during the debate period on their perspective floors as evidence of the extremes the AHIP is willing to go to kill this desperately needed reform.
What this amounts to my friends is the health insurance industry showing it’s true colors. And those colors are that of an out of control corporate culture that seeks to control markets, not compete in them. A culture where profit margins and obscene executive salaries enjoy a higher priority than human beings. A culture than can’t see past the next financial quarter. A culture that would gleefully destroy the very environment that supports our existence for a little profit.
I think this clash between the desires of the corporate culture and the needs of the people is soon coming to a head. The share of the pie the working class receives keeps getting smaller and smaller. Everything has a breaking point and if we don’t act to rectify this rift between the corporate and working class, starting with health care reform, I fear what the result may be.
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Devin Barber, Politics Correspondent
Devin’s column, “Left Of The Right” published weekly or more to Gather Essentials: Politics is a Blue Collar Democrats take on current political news.
Devin was raised by proud Roosevelt Democrats. Being the son of parents counted among the throng of Americans displaced by the Great Depression has given Devin a deep rooted passion for causes dealing with the poor and the working class.
You can find all of Devin’s columns at LEFT OF THE RIGHT
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Comments: 69
-- and health insurance is a rip-off
~~~
We have been victim of this ever since the deregulation movement began under the auspices of the Republican Party. If President Obama and our leadership do not stand up to the status quo, things will not change. So, many people with insurance get denied as soon as a major catastrophe happens. Yet, we still have people in this country who defend this practice. I remember in the 1980s when the Human Resources professionals began informing employees that health insurance was a "product." They reduced the health of the average person to a purchase that could be satisfied at the checkout counter of Wal-Mart. That was the beginning of the "dumbing down" of Americans. It worked. Now, most people are just very confused. If we allow the health insurance industry to determine the parameters of reform, we will all pay for our ignorance.
We, the people, must be the deciders. We tried giving free reign to another "decider" and it was not successful.
"The share of the pie the working class receives keeps getting smaller and smaller. Everything has a breaking point and if we don’t act to rectify this rift between the corporate and working class, starting with health care reform, I fear what the result may be."
The pendulum always swings slowly. Maybe too slowly before people wake up.
To boldly steal a catch phrase from Sherlock Holmes, we should offer insurance
companies a "7 % solution". An insurance company that makes more than 7% in
profits will be taxed for the overage, and those making less than 7% will
receive a tax break, or a subsidy. Profits of 7 % across the board would bend
the curve from the double digit increases over the past decade, while putting
none of the reduced number of insurance companies out of business. Start-up
insurance companies would not receive tax breaks until they can prove a 7 %
profit margin.
So, that's my wage and price control example for today. Other ways need to make
it to the bill as well. Concentrating on insurance will not be enough.
That is why a Public Option or the best solution would be Universal Coverage but too many call that socialism when it is not. Get rid of the insurance companies all together. They do not care about anything other than profit. The reason they want all people to be made to get their policies is then they would have a majority of healthy people paying into their pockets and those who do not have the money for insurance would be subsidized by the Government that is where the billions of dollars that the bill just passed in the Senate comes from.
:O\
So... have they made US an offer we can't refuse, or are we going to require our representatives (House and Senate) to grow a pair and "just say no" to the insurance industry's attempt at extortion?
Things are not going to get better unless WE make it better.
http://www.standupforhealthcare.org/pages/about/
The current "damned if you do, damned if you don't" insurance paradigm is bankrupting Americans and enriching insurance companies. I often wonder: how much of my premium goes towards their efforts to prevent us from changing the status quo?
Way to go, Congress! Making history again.
Regulation is going up to balance capitalism, even if you don't like it.
Welfare is going up to balance unemployment, even if you don't like it.
Taxes are going back up to balance spending, even if you don't like it.
As for knowing someone on welfare--I'm sure that day has already arrived. Although I never collected one unemployment check during the forty-five years I "WORKED" starting at 15, I knew people on welfare and others that collected unemployment at one time or another. My dad worked in construction and collected unemployment between jobs so did my brother and his family. Heck my brother's family collected food stamps at one time.
Some form of "watchdog" regulation should be in place to counter greed gone crazy. Of course, who watches the "watchdogs" to make sure they do their job instead of selling out to special interests. The crazy thing is that most of the government watchdogs once worked in the industries they watch and if they leave government, they usually go right back to that industry they helped protect against government regulation--a major reason why we had this recent economic collapse and that guy on Wall Street that ran the fifty billion dollar ponzi scheme. What was his name?
For sure, forms of welfare will replace unemployment insurance, since unemployment runs out after a year or so (not counting extensions). Since there are so many people out of work, this is a sure bet to happen. Unemployment benefits do not last forever. Food stamps probably come next.
Yep, taxes will have to go up for sure. After all, during Bush Two's years, the administration/government was spending more money than they were taking in through taxes -- a trillion or two. How long can one spend money they don't have? Under Bush, military spending sharply increased. Under Democrats, the spending usually shifts to other things but still keeps increasing. The problem is that too many people want too many things and congress and the senate and the president buys votes by spending so they can survive and stay in power. What's that called? Pork barrel politics... However, the current jump in spending started near the end of Bush Two's presidency when he decided to start the ball rolling to bail out Wall Street and GM without any way to see how the hundreds of billions being handed out was going to be used. A lot of the Bush handout vanished and no one seems to know what happened to that money.
I also started work, around age 7, until I was laid off last November. I never was unemployed for even a minute, but things are different now. No one is hiring, just one interview in nearly a year, and the want ads are just getting smaller.
I predicted several years ago, that the economy would not need the labor it has always needed, because labor itself has automated. I predicted this from a position of being an advocate of automation, and I think I was right.
What we need now is a change in attitude towards unemployment, I hope we get it soon.
I actually regret that I paid into the system for 45 years and never had a chance to collect even one unemployment check. I almost did. I was laid off from one job and filed for unemployment but found another job before I could collect that first check. That disappointed me. I wanted to collect at least once in my life.
My dad had a lot of paid time off between jobs. Since my parents both lived through the Great Depression, they never ran up credit card debts like many today do. They lived on cash and paid off the 30 year note on their house in half the time so they were debt free most of their lives. If they didn't have the cash, they didn't go spending. That meant that the smaller unemployment check was always enough.
We ate a lot of spaghetti and chili when my dad was off work. We didn't go out to eat. I hate liver and onions. I think liver was a cheap cut of meat back then.
Well, now I'm collecting from CALstrs retirement. I taught in the public schools for thirty of those forty-five years and paid into CALstrs. All I have to do is live at least thirty more years to make it count. It's nice getting paid each month and not going to work.
As long as some money is coming in to feed you and yours, enjoy the time you have off. Hopefully, a job will surface before that money runs out or stops.
Hopefully...
Rates are still and have been going up for years and they threaten MORE of the same no matter what WE want? Let's hope they shot themselves in the foot with that obvious Chicken Little crap! We just HAVE to be smarter than that! Don't we??
:O\
Seems like it's all about minimizing risk for insurance companies.
It was this new dynamic that sparked a period of inovation and economic growth unprecedented in human history. It also fueled a period of opportunity for those who sought great wealth to do so. Today there are more millionaires per capita than ever before.
That's why it's so puzzling to have witnessed the push back by the wealthy againt regulation and taxes that has been talking place for the last 30 years. They've spent the last 30 years undoing everything that set the table for the United States becoming the biggest economic superpower in history to the point where the Middle Class on which they depend has become so deminished they can no longer support the appetite of the super wealthy.
All I can do is shake my head in wonderment.
The private sector were very good economic citizens, up until the tax cuts in the 80's. Since then we have potential capital-building going in all sorts of directions.
The failure of the tax cuts are the economic bubbles all around us.
This is war right now, and the people are doing nothing. Their real voice is either being hijacked, muffled or fooled with in some way in my opinion.
This is fascism pure and simple, and knowing what is going on and what the results have been to cut social programs and continue it is nothing more than just genocide on the American people. Somehow they show enough minority faces and they coopt white into back this on the mistaken assumption it is good for them.
The health insurance companies know what unable to refuse coverage, with no cap on costs will mean to them ... even if people do not realize what it will mean to themselves.
What is the point of telling people they have to buy health insurance or be fined, and then not telling the health insurance companies they have to have reasonable prices.
Only a public option with end this ripoff of the public, and once we see how well it works it will be good-bye to the health insurance companies unless there is really some value-added they can add to the product at a reasonable price.
It really revealed just how arrogant and pompus these corporate thugs are. The guy actually seemed perplexed that anyone would dare question him like that.
With that as the standard business format: a 40% tax will be passed on to all the consumers of all products or services provided by the business.
Fact of life folks, deal with it.