In today's WaPo, it is revealed to the masses that for-profit health insurance companies are proposing to cut their expenses by 1.5%/yr. Such a deal.
***
The groups aim to achieve the proposed savings by using new efficiencies to trim the rise in health-care costs by 1.5 percent a year, the officials said. That would carry huge implications for the national economy and the federal budget, both of which are significantly affected by health-care expenses.
***
"I don't think there can be a more significant step to help struggling families and the federal budget," a senior administration official said in a conference call with reporters. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the offer remains tentative.
The White House projects that the savings after five years under the proposal would mean about $2,500 a year in lower health-care bills for a family of four. Within 10 years, the savings would "virtually eliminate" the nation's budget deficit.
(emphasis added)
An anonymous (why?) Obama staffer is breathless, so struck s/he can't imagine a more significant step than highly profitable health insurance corporations voluntarily cutting expenses by more than one per cent.
We can. Easily. Can you say "single payer"?
In fact, our past 25 years' worth of experience with these greedy fucks is telling me to be scared shitless by a health insurance corpo wanting to cut even more expenses. See, we know what they really mean when they say that. They mean they're going to cut more "unnecessary tests", maybe a few "undesirable" (translate: actually sick and therefore more expensive) patients, cut some nursing positions, and so on. That's what they always do - the only "sacriifice" they ever make is in the care of their patients. What they for sure don't mean is that they're ever going to sacrifice 1.5% of their profits. In fact, so far they haven't hinted exactly what they do mean.
In addition, White House officials said, there is no mechanism to ensure that the groups live up to their offer, only the implicit threat of public embarrassment.
(emphasis added)
Yeah, that'll work. Certainly the players are trustworthy. It's not like any of these people have lied to us or anything.
What's SEIU doing in that mix?? Disturbing.
And the industry doesn't want much in return, just for everybody to take national health off the table and replace it with a requirement that every American has to buy health insurance.
***
The prospect of millions of new customers has been a major enticement for other industry players as well. Drug manufacturers, suffering declining profits as consumers switch to cheaper generic medications, have put money and lobbying muscle behind universal coverage, expecting that the newly insured will become new customers.
They'll go along with "health reform" but only if the govt offers us up on the insurance corpo's altar for sacrifice. Nice of em.
Of course, the real deal is an attempt to kill single-payer govt health insurance, as lambert notes at Corrente.
The quid pro quo? I'm sure you can guess:
"Insurers, for example, want to avoid creation of a government health plan that would directly compete with them to enroll middle-class workers and their families."
The elimination of the public option!
If the insurance companies say they'll suck less of our blood, that's great. But the real solution is for them not to be sucking our blood at all. Now is not the time for us to negotiate with ourselves or concede anything. Rather, that they're rolling out this fakery this early means not only that they're running scared, but that they're completely out of touch with public opinion. Why on earth would anybody trust anything that they say?
Good question, don't you think? Why would we?
You know, this is clearly a bribe but it's nickels and dimes. 1.5% over 10 years? Pretty lame-ass bribe, if you ask me.
TIP:
Enter the amount, and click "Tip" to submit!
Robert Young
Phillip Lance Weir
Public D
Norwonk
Noni The Intern
MW Louie
Salon.com
Comments
Preexisting conditions are only one problem. We have health plans with ridiculous deductibles and out of pockets limits. We have health plans that exclude basic services (mine doesn't cover "injections." Yes, that's right, any time a physician approaches me with syringe in hand, that's not covered.) We have health plans with ridiculously low maximum annual payments. Some employers have long waiting times before employees can even qualify for health insurance. And then there is the problem what happens when you lose your job and have to pay for insurance yourself.
There are many problems that need to be addressed, but it sounds like the insurance companies don't want to go there. A few million in campaign contributions should get them what they want, and we'll end up with a marginally better health care system that will be touted as "major reform."
Were we really interested in the truth, this proposal would be exposed as a scam. But apparently there is a prevailing agenda of "we're on the right track" to uphold, even if we aren't. How does anyone expect to fix anything without facing the truth?
As for the role of the SEIU in all of this, I suspect it may be something similar to the role the UAW has been playing in the auto industry lately - i.e., selling out its membership under the guise of keeping their employers alive. This is what unions have been reduced to as a result of their bureaucrats' decades-long love affair with the Democratic Party: just another instrument of the ruling class's oppression and exploitation.
This is, after all, the same SEIU that put one of the most militant, active, successful local unions in the country under trusteeship in order to try to break it down. Here's an indy news story and here's a (partisan) link for those who may be unfamiliar with this particular tale of betrayal.
Monte
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Phone Numbers
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461
TTY/TDD
Comments: 202-456-6213
Visitors Office: 202-456-2121
I'll only add, "Harry, they're not at all interested in "fixing" what is. They only want things "fixed" that don't agree with their silly socialist political concept of 'what ought to be'. Doesn't matter who dies if all is 'politically correct'.
unbelievable.
The health insurance industry has no right to exist. It is legalized gambling on the misfortune of others. Single payer is the only REAL option on (i mean off) the table.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/09-5
1. Patients
2. Providers
3. Insurers
Answer: TAKE A GUESS
I'll let you all know if I get an answer other than an Autoreply. Not holding my breath, mind you - I can't afford to if it means passing out and having someone call me an ambulance.
Did you know that the insurance execs gave themselves huge pay raises before the elections to cover this so-called saving?
DOWN with insurance companies and their huge profits.
If the single payer plan was a government plan instead of ME, a government/family of two, my rates would lower; my benefits might even rise.
This whole thing repulses me. Why would anyone negotiate anything with them? You know they're just going to harm the patients, take away from the patients. It's disgusting. If this goes through, we'll never get health insurance that's universal in any way whatsoever. In fact, I can see a scenario where the insurance companies have Americans even more by the balls because we'll be required to have insurance or not get much health care at all. And they'll offer even worse plans than before.
Is that crazy and hyperbolic? God, I hope so.
Health Care Comparison Part I
Health Care Comparison Part II
What's behind door number two?