How private health insurers just blew their cover - Dallas Dance Music - Dallas nightlife, music, tickets, and more

Hey Bubu · 10-14-09, 03:02 PM

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature...ers/index.html

Background: The industry hates the idea that's emerged from the Senate Finance Committee of lowering penalties on younger and healthier people who don't buy insurance. Relying on an analysis by PricewaterhouseCoopers, insurers say this means new enrollees will be older and less healthy -- which will drive up costs. And, says the industry, these costs will be passed on to consumers in the form of higher premiums. Proposed taxes on high-priced "Cadillac" policies will also be passed on to consumers. As a result, premiums will rise faster and higher than the government projects.

It's an 11th-hour bombshell.

But the bomb went off under the insurers. The only reason these costs can be passed on to consumers in the form of higher premiums is because there's not enough competition among private insurers to force them to absorb the costs by becoming more efficient. Get it? Health insurers have just made the best argument yet about why a public insurance option is necessary.

Right now they run their markets and set their prices, and pass on any increased costs directly to consumers. That's what they're threatening to do if the legislation attempts to squeeze, even slightly, the colossal profits they plan to make off of 30 million new paying customers.

They want every penny of those profits. They demand every cent. And if the government dares raise their costs a tad higher than they expected when they first signed on to support the bill, they'll pass those costs on to consumers in the form of higher premiums. They can carry out their threat only because they have unaccountable, untrammeled market power.

But they've now hoisted themselves on their own insured petard. They've exposed themselves. If they had to compete with a public insurance plan, they couldn't get away with this threat. They couldn't pass on the extra costs. They'd have to compete with a public insurance option that forced them to give consumers the best deals possible.

Now's the time for Senate Finance Committee and the White House to say to the insurance industry: You want to play hardball? OK. We'll play it, too. You didn't want a public insurance option. That was one of your conditions for supporting the bill. You wanted gigantic profits from having 30 million new paying customers and the market to yourself. We agreed because we wanted your support and were afraid of the negative ads and hurricane of opposition you could finance. But you're even greedier than we imagined. And now you've demonstrated that greed to the American people. They don't want to turn over even more of their hard-earned money to you. So, insurance companies, we've got news for you. We're going to make sure Americans have the freedom to choose a public insurance option that's cheaper and better, and you're going to have to work hard to keep them your customers.

HomoSexualPredator · 10-14-09, 03:31 PM

My sis is a vp of finance for an insurance company.

I really dislike her right-wing, backwards ass personality.

maybe I should fake a gay wedding and send her an invite to brighten her week?

vinnie97 · 10-14-09, 04:02 PM

^Yea, scorn your sister for her political ideas...I wouldn't invite you over for Christmas.

Quote:

We're going to make sure Americans have the freedom to choose a public insurance option that's cheaper and better, and you're going to have to work hard to keep them your customers.

Once they discover the "quality" of healthcare that provides (hello Canada), the public will be crawling back to the insurance industry on their hands and knees (if it still exists), lol.

johnny861 · 10-14-09, 04:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vinnie97

^Yea, scorn your sister for her political ideas...I wouldn't invite you over for Christmas.

Once they discover the "quality" of healthcare that provides (hello Canada), the public will be crawling back to the insurance industry on their hands and knees (if it still exists), lol.

Then the private insurance companies have nothing to worry about.

HomoSexualPredator · 10-14-09, 05:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vinnie97

^Yea, scorn your sister for her political ideas...I wouldn't invite you over for Christmas.

Once they discover the "quality" of healthcare that provides (hello Canada), the public will be crawling back to the insurance industry on their hands and knees (if it still exists), lol.

Personality... not political ideas. She can be a right wing republican nutjob on her time all she wants, but when she starts trouble by "banning" me from her house.. that's when it's personality vs political ideals.

And as far as quality... the quality of the healthcare in the US isn't driven by insurance company profits. And the "non-profit" industry sure does make a lot of $ for her to go on exec junkets with.

vinnie97 · 10-14-09, 05:20 PM

Since we're throwing out hateful banter, better than a leftwing loonybin.

BTW, that kind of waste is present at the highest levels of government, so I fail to see how doubling it up with wastefulness and inefficiency is a good thing.

johnny861 · 10-14-09, 05:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vinnie97

Since we're throwing out hateful banter, better than a leftwing loonybin.

I dunno about that. This rightwing loonybin seemed to take it a little personal when their left-wing family members banned him from Christmas at their house.

Quote:

A man stabbed and bludgeoned his sister and her husband to death in El Cerrito in 2006 because he thought the couple were too liberal, were raising their children wrong and because they hadn't invited him over for Christmas, a prosecutor told jurors Tuesday.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...#ixzz0Tws6V3Ku

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...BAL81A4SU0.DTL

at least he was a considerate right-wing looney:

Quote:

Although Wycoff was also armed with a gun, he didn't use it because he didn't want to boost the cause of gun-control supporters, the prosecutor said.

vinnie97 · 10-14-09, 05:53 PM

I don't know if you've noticed but SFgate thrives on news stories that paint Conservatives (especially those on the lunatic fringe) in a bad light.

tricky · 10-14-09, 06:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vinnie97

I don't know if you've noticed but SFgate thrives on news stories that paint Conservatives (especially those on the lunatic fringe) in a bad light.

world news daily was all out of stories...

ps

did you see the fox news coverage of the gay rights protests this past weekend...oh yeah, that's right...they didn't even bother. Those 12 teabaggers in bumfuck, montana and everywhere else sure did get coverage though a few months ago.

75k people in DC...not a bit of coverage.

Fair and Balanced: only if you're a conservative xenophobe

vinnie97 · 10-14-09, 06:03 PM

Because there's nothing mainstream about a group of fairies marching on Washington, DC and Fox knows it.

Anyhow, that total didn't come close to the teabagger march last month.

tricky · 10-14-09, 06:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vinnie97

Because there's nothing mainstream about a group of fairies marching on Washington, DC and Fox knows it.

Anyhow, that total didn't come close to the teabagger march last month.

Really...? Those "fairies" were about the same in # to those gun toting anti tax free fire department using idiots...

ABC News Was Misquoted on Crowd Size

ABC News Reported D.C. Rally Size in Tens of Thousands, Not 1M to 1.5M as Activist Said.

Sept. 13, 2009—

Conservative activists, who organized a march on the U.S. Capitol today in protest of the Obama administration's health care agenda and government spending, erroneously attributed reports on the size of the crowds to ABC News.
Matt Kibbe, president of FreedomWorks, the group that organized the event, said on stage at the rally Saturday that ABC News was reporting that 1 million to 1.5 million people were in attendance.
At no time did ABC News, or its affiliates, report a number anywhere near as large. ABCNews.com reported an approximate figure of 60,000 to 70,000 protesters, attributed to the Washington, D.C., fire department. In its reports, ABC News Radio described the crowd as "tens of thousands."
Brendan Steinhauser, spokesman for FreedomWorks, said he did not know why Kibbe cited ABC News as a source.
As a result of Kibbe's erroneous attribution, several bloggers and commenters repeated the misinformation.
In his blog, Kibbe apologized Sunday for the mistaken attribution of the crowd-size estimated to ABC News.
"With a dead IPhone, I had been shown tweets from a number of different folks behind the stage citing the ABC estimate," he wrote. "They didn't say it. I regret misrepresenting the network, as their coverage that day was fair and honest."

Copyright © 2009 ABC News Internet Ventures

factcheck....keeps you from looking even more stupid

vinnie97 · 10-14-09, 06:14 PM

fatcheck, and just who is it that maintains the facts? No thanks but you can keep believing.

johnny861 · 10-14-09, 06:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vinnie97

I don't know if you've noticed but SFgate thrives on news stories that paint Conservatives (especially those on the lunatic fringe) in a bad light.

Oh, I don't doubt that!

However, I don't deny that the murder happened, nor do I deny that the guy gave those pointed statements in court.

BradH · 10-14-09, 08:10 PM

lol the teabaggers used fake photos to show the size to be larger than their rally was. all other sources quoted around the same estimates... "tens of thousands" not "hundreds of thousands"

vinnie, you're disgusting.

molecule · 10-14-09, 11:34 PM

ask your sis what kind of profit margins her health insurance company runs at.

health insurance cos
2-4%

pharm cos
19-20%

10-14-09, 03:02 PM	#1 (permalink)
Hey Bubu Funky Spunk Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: take a left at the cow Posts: 17,133	How private health insurers just blew their cover http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature...ers/index.html Background: The industry hates the idea that's emerged from the Senate Finance Committee of lowering penalties on younger and healthier people who don't buy insurance. Relying on an analysis by PricewaterhouseCoopers, insurers say this means new enrollees will be older and less healthy -- which will drive up costs. And, says the industry, these costs will be passed on to consumers in the form of higher premiums. Proposed taxes on high-priced "Cadillac" policies will also be passed on to consumers. As a result, premiums will rise faster and higher than the government projects. It's an 11th-hour bombshell. But the bomb went off under the insurers. The only reason these costs can be passed on to consumers in the form of higher premiums is because there's not enough competition among private insurers to force them to absorb the costs by becoming more efficient. Get it? Health insurers have just made the best argument yet about why a public insurance option is necessary. Right now they run their markets and set their prices, and pass on any increased costs directly to consumers. That's what they're threatening to do if the legislation attempts to squeeze, even slightly, the colossal profits they plan to make off of 30 million new paying customers. They want every penny of those profits. They demand every cent. And if the government dares raise their costs a tad higher than they expected when they first signed on to support the bill, they'll pass those costs on to consumers in the form of higher premiums. They can carry out their threat only because they have unaccountable, untrammeled market power. But they've now hoisted themselves on their own insured petard. They've exposed themselves. If they had to compete with a public insurance plan, they couldn't get away with this threat. They couldn't pass on the extra costs. They'd have to compete with a public insurance option that forced them to give consumers the best deals possible. Now's the time for Senate Finance Committee and the White House to say to the insurance industry: You want to play hardball? OK. We'll play it, too. You didn't want a public insurance option. That was one of your conditions for supporting the bill. You wanted gigantic profits from having 30 million new paying customers and the market to yourself. We agreed because we wanted your support and were afraid of the negative ads and hurricane of opposition you could finance. But you're even greedier than we imagined. And now you've demonstrated that greed to the American people. They don't want to turn over even more of their hard-earned money to you. So, insurance companies, we've got news for you. We're going to make sure Americans have the freedom to choose a public insurance option that's cheaper and better, and you're going to have to work hard to keep them your customers. __________________ "We're so engaged in doing things to achieve purposes of outer value that we forget that the inner value, the rapture that is associated with being alive, is what it's all about." --Joseph Campbell,

10-14-09, 05:20 PM	#6 (permalink)
vinnie97 Join Date: Aug 2001 Posts: 1,057	Re: How private health insurers just blew their cover Since we're throwing out hateful banter, better than a leftwing loonybin. BTW, that kind of waste is present at the highest levels of government, so I fail to see how doubling it up with wastefulness and inefficiency is a good thing.

10-14-09, 05:53 PM	#8 (permalink)
vinnie97 Join Date: Aug 2001 Posts: 1,057	Re: How private health insurers just blew their cover I don't know if you've noticed but SFgate thrives on news stories that paint Conservatives (especially those on the lunatic fringe) in a bad light.

10-14-09, 06:03 PM	#10 (permalink)
vinnie97 Join Date: Aug 2001 Posts: 1,057	Re: How private health insurers just blew their cover Because there's nothing mainstream about a group of fairies marching on Washington, DC and Fox knows it. Anyhow, that total didn't come close to the teabagger march last month.

10-14-09, 06:14 PM	#12 (permalink)
vinnie97 Join Date: Aug 2001 Posts: 1,057	Re: How private health insurers just blew their cover fatcheck, and just who is it that maintains the facts? No thanks but you can keep believing.

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10-14-09, 11:34 PM	#15 (permalink)
molecule Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 3,360	Re: How private health insurers just blew their cover ask your sis what kind of profit margins her health insurance company runs at. health insurance cos 2-4% pharm cos 19-20% __________________ DETOUR - every wednesday at the Cavern vinyl digital

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