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After months of publicly supporting health care reform, insurers are warning Congress that under the Baucus health care bill, “the cumulative increases in the cost of a typical family policy…will be approximately $20,700 more than it would be under the current system.”
The industry has issued a new report arguing that the weak personal responsibility requirement, taxes on health care providers, spending reductions in Medicare and taxes on high-value health plans will increase “the cost of coverage for both single and family policies in the individual, small group, large group, and self-funded insurance markets.”
In other words, the insurance industry is threatening to raise rates by 111% if they don’t get what they want from Congress. Granted, it’s been a while since I took criminal law, but that sort of language has the distinct, sulphurous odor of extortion to me. On the bright side, at least the insurance industry has finally been forced to show its true colors. No more feigned concern about accessibility or false assurances of affordability in the event of a catastrophic illness; Karen Ignangi, president of AHIP, has pulled off the industry’s mask of social responsibility, revealing yet another “vampire squid” greedily waving its tentacles at the prospect of unregulated mandates. Eat your heart out, Tony Soprano.
Why the not-so-veiled threat now? Maybe the industry senses a shift in the momentum for the public option and is panicking ahead of the Senate vote tomorrow. Stories like this one certainly don’t help their cause any:
Baby Alex is a happy, adorable, big baby. And now at three months old, the family’s insurance company says he’s not eligible for coverage.
Alex eats well, is growing fast and has no pre–existing conditions. But his mom Kelli says their insurance company says he’s just too big. “Insurance standards say if he’s above 95 percent he’s uninsurable.”
Because of his size, Alex was turned down for health insurance, his height and weight put him in the 99th percentile according to CDC guidelines.
Kelli says it’s ridiculous, “It’s frustrating, it’s very frustrating.”
Dr. Speedie at Rocky Mountain Health Plans says all babies are evaluated for insurance the same way. “In children it’s based on a combination of height and weight.”
Babies, it would seem, are now plagued with a pre-existing condition called “breathing.”
Luckily for the Langes, Rocky Mountain Health Plans didn’t appreciate all the attention it was getting for this denial of coverage and finally agreed to add Alex to his parents’ plan, blaming the initial decision on “the system” in place for evaluating whether infants should be covered. Never mind that the “system” is something completely within the company’s control. Rocky Mountain Health Plans got busted for its callous, inhumane treatment of its customers, so like any bully, it needed to find a ready excuse for its behavior.
As each story like the Langes’ (and ones far worse) comes to light, the health insurance industry shrinks further back into the darkness, hardened and uncaring, just like Dick Cheney’s “heart”. This country can no longer live with the system in which it has become inextricably bound. Now is the time to kill this immoral, blood-sucking squid, and a REAL public option is the perfect stake for the job.
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Will no one rid me of this turbulent insurance industry?
If the kid decides to breast feed,
why shouldn’t he face the consequences of the choice he made?
Don’t you believe in personal responsibility, WT?
We win this fight if we can get more personal stories like this on tv in front of the public.
Put the fat baby on the discard pile and tell the parents better luck next time!
Heh. You funny.
The insurance industry is now discriminating against future NFL football players and Rush Limbaugh all of whom I’m sure were large babies.
This sounds like the Eugenics movement.
Single payer now!
Insurance Industry:
Musta been an oversight. Had to be…
Dr Puma,
In a word, no. No one will rid you of this meddlesome industry. The age of chivalry is long past, and besides, only saints can be martyred. Your meddlesome insurance industry will never qualify for sainthood.
This has been another edition of simple answers to silly questions.
In the case of Rushbo, they may have a point.
the instrance companies are like the fundies – in the womb, the fetus is everything. Once it’s born, it’s on its own.
i’d love to know how much his premiums cost.
Single payer yesterday!
I say we sharpen a whole bunch of oak stakes, load up on garlic and crucifixes and lay these vampires once and for all. Unfortunately we will have to go through their Renfrews, like my senior senator Mad Max, to get to them.
According to NBC News this evening, the kid is at the 99th percentile for both length and weight. He’s close to H/W proportionate, although MetLife tables don’t exist for four month olds.
My older son was not quite that large, but he spent most of his childhood at the 96th-98th percentiles for height and the 90th or so for weight. I’m glad he’s an adult now, so BC-BS can’t tell me that he’s uninsurable.
What a crock.
AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…
Citizen watertiger and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:
Little attention is bein’ paid to the reports that Larry Summers was in the meetin’ with the insurance companies last week and essentially got rolled by what now looks like what’s left of the Wall Street movers and shakers…This whole thing is unwindin’ pretty fast and I would hope that the bankruptcy of the health insurance industry is not lost in all a this. It seems ta me that the health insurance industry is lookin a lot like the slavocracy in the old South in the 1850′s when the Northern banks stopped underwritin’ the entire system ‘cuz the money that was bein’ loaned to underwrite the bastards was not comin’ back and a new system of industrial capitalism was lookin’ like an alternative to the black hole of slavery and 18th century merchantilism.
Let’s watch closely because it’s Wall Street that’s callin the shots here and it’s Wall street that’s got the Obama administration in it’s pockets (along with the US Treasury).
KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION,SAME OLD BAD GUYS!!
I knew a Dr Speedie once, but he was not in the health insurance industry.
[chortling]
I’m down to join you, Dick. Has the Gilroy garlic crop been harvested yet? We may need all of this year’s crop to do the job.
ahip is a lying sack of shit.
but if denial of care/insurance regulation is effective, then premiums (and/or copays, deductibles and coinsurance costs) are going to go up. this is not a bad thing, but it comes with a price. obamacare will cost more.
Pregnant Moms don’t you work at McDonalds no more your baby will be born to fat! Pregnant Women with cravings surrounded by Big Macs well you can guess what happens.
I’ve seen 2 teen moms do a Pregnant Mom version of the film ” Super Size Me” I don’t think its healthy but poor women working at a fast food place have to eat.
Norskie,
I have but one quibble: Summers couldn’t be rolled by the Wall Street vampires, because he’s already in their pocket.
This is why we need to repeal McCarran-Ferguson and prosecute the heck out of these crime syndicates. Senator Leahy introduced the Health Insurance Industry Antitrust Enforcement Act of 2009 in September. The act would repeal the part of McCarran that gives the insurance industry immunity from Federal antitrust action and, actually, virtually any other form of oversight. They need to be made to understand that if they continue their obstruction and intimidation we will throw our weight behind McCarran repeal. We will pass Leahy’s Act (which does not yet have a bill number) and then we will fight until the Justice Dept moves to educate the insurance industry about the RICO statute.
Calamari for everyone!
Gonna need a whole bunch of really big oaks, too.
Those darn “systems” always making the nice insurance companies behave like vampire squid! And how many other families have gone without health care because their kid was over-’weight’ but weren’t radio talk show hosts?
Has the company pledged to review all its cases incorrectly turned down by the flaw in their “system”?
I thought not.
Agreed
Still I want to hear Rush defend an insurance policy that would have killed him as a child.
LOL!
Insurance companies don’t like ‘em in the womb, either. Pregnancy is a preexisting condition.
Not their fault, their computer denied him.
Hey!
I like calamari.
If the insurance companies had their way, “life” would be a pre-existing condition.
Summers got rolled but he is their guy! This is not good.
Yep. Why do people try to spoil everything for insurance companies by expecting them to pay for stuff?
scribe, are you out there?
Citizen BarginCountertenor:
There must be an echo in here…gee didn’t I say that…oh well, what’s important is that the health insurance industry is a ponzi scheme which has been shorin’ up what’s left of the financial services industry and if the insurance industry goez belly up too soon after healthcare reform, the entire house of cards that ObamaRahma is callin’ a recovery plan will come fallin’ down faster’n the Twin Towers.
Rushbo doesn’t care anything about that as long as they are paying his freight now. The boy is a full on crack whore. He will do or say anything for anybody that will pay his price.
Just don’t eat the lobster.
Rushbo’s “freight” requires a whole freakin’ train.
Oh, you funny.
Well, not that lobster, anyway.
That’s a frightening thought, Norskie.
Full disclosure: Rush, how much did you weigh as a baby? Did your mother breast feed you? If not, why not and shouldn’t that be a pre-existing condition? If so, why are you so fat, and shouldn’t that be a pre-existing condition? Inquiring minds want to know why you have:
The fat gene
The addiction gene
The stupid gene
And why should we pay for your fat, addicted, stupid genetic conditions?
from Leahy website on his bill for McCarran repeal:
http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200909/091709a.html
There is a corresponding Waxman bill in the House already.
The only way this nightmare is going to end is if we break the back of the insurers. If the threat of competition won’t do it, then maybe the threat of jail will.
Is Wall Street vampires redundant?
Given Rush’s weight anything he says against the baby will probably be the title of Al Franken’s next book.
One can always hope. Better still, his next bill before Congress.
Breaded with seasonings and deep fried?
Floured and egg’ed and pan sauteed?
Deglaze with Sauterne, fresh lemon juice and butter with capers and parsley for sauce?
I wanna be there, then!
Insurers overplaying their hand is the best thing that could possibly happen with health care.
Let’s just hope that pharma bolts ship as well.
At this point, the public is ready to put the kibosh on the insurers and to negotiate with pharma.
This is happening because Wall Street, the Finance, INSURANCE and Real Estate sector, feels that the insurers will not suck enough money out of us to satisfy the “investors.”
The question now remains: will Barack Obama stand up for us against Street operating through the insurers and pharma the same way he stood up to them earlier in his presidency, bearing the bailouts?
Many politicians who I know would go ballistic over being publicly screwed on a deal like this, and would exact significant revenge on those who defamed them in public. Is Obama too chickenshit for this?
Insurance cash is invested so if the market goes down again and stays down the insurance companies with the banks and investment firms will all be looking for another bailout.
Which would be very unpopular to get the cash we could stop the war or borrow the cash. I assume we will borrow the cash and raise interest rates.
Hello next Great Depression. But still Summers got rolled he thinks what ever is going on is a bad idea?
Thats like thinking Darth Vader is a bad guy that is until you see the Emperor.
Actually, not so frightening.
Belly up, and good by to bailout plan.
THEN, WH and Obama and Congress are forced into IMMEDIATE jobs production investments and creation.
And forced into passing regulation legislation for banking/finan.
See Hugh’s diary today on what needs to be reformed for bank/fin.
I’m all for it.
When life gives you giant vampire squid, making lots and lots of calamari only makes sense.
(I have this vision of Iron Chef America, with Mario Batali wrestling a giant squid from the ingredient table over to a chopping board . . .)
LOVE it, Blub, thanks for sharing.
That’s what I’m tawking about!!
Woot!
How do you know the finances or business practices of health insurers? They could be operating as a ponzi scheme for all we know.
LOL! I would love to see that.
Only time will tell.
Mark Kleiman (over at The Reality Based Community) suggested that the Senate find something that was left out because AHIP really, really hated it and include it as a down payment on the payback. Then for the first payment, find something that was included because AHIP really, really, wanted it included and kill it.
I’d nominate a real public option for the down payment, and the ban on rate negotiation as the first payment.
I think this may actually piss him off enough to act in our interests. Even Mad Max (my useless excuse for a senior senator) seemed a bit testy today.
This could require a LOT of Sauterne.
I’d best start sampling it, to ensure it’s good enuff for our sauce.
Sigh, I SO miss a good butter sauce . . . a decent buerre blanc or buerre rouge.
Sigh.
No butter in THIS house . . . OR heavy cream.
Sigh.
Insurance companies get money from people agreed then they invest the money agreed and yes sometimes they invest in financial ponzai schemes, hedge funds, Mortgage paper, Credit Default swaps etc.
How do I know that I read the blogs.
Hmmm.
Has anybody tried making calamari out of Humboldt squid?
Well, between the pressure of the coming ’10 Election and following ’12, I’d think Obama and the Dem Party together understand, we will screw them mightily at the polls if they don’t represent our interests, and not the interests of the corp greedsters.
We’ll see within about a month, won’t we . . . pressure MUST be kept on.
If we drive HCReform well, fin/bank reform stands a chance, too.
We tried that on Palin in Alaska. I think there needs to be a spell too, to make it work for more than a few days.
I just don’t think it’s going to be enough to pass real healthcare reform anymore. This needs to end with insurance CEOs in orange jumpsuits. We should work to pass Leahy’s bill. heck, we should amend it to call for FULL McCarran repeal, as Senator Leahy has called for.. and then let the games begin.
You don’t make calamari out of Humboldt squid, Humboldt squid make calamari out of you!
I thought it worked, ET.
Palin ain’t in your State Gummint no mo’, is she?
Ooooo. I do love a good frog march parade.
They also use the money they get from people, their customers, to lobby their customers’ representatives in government precisely to block any legislation that will protect their customers from their excessive greed so that will be allowed to continue abusing their customers and get more money out of them. Repeat.
Uh, MY understanding is that squid/calamari are the same beast.
Now, the Humboldt Squid you refer to is the big puppy, partial to them cold waters?
Are they protected species? Cuz I’ve NEVER seen them from any suppliers in my time in the biz, nor promoted on any restaurant menu, then and now.
If, like abalone, they are limited to catch, but you HAVE some, I’d treat it like any other calamari.
Skin it, pull the head and tentacles off, tear off the fins, pull out the bone, cut it down the middle, pound it and cook it in any NUMBER of ways.
Good though. (sips Sauterne, it’s still ok I think)
I know that some fisherfolk off the California coast have landed the bast**ds. I would not want to be under water with them, even with SCUBA gear.
Calamari!
No, she quit state government, but she’s still haunting the imprecatory edge of nutty GOP politics. Today, her main team – SarahPAC – organized a call-in of the offices of Senators on the Senate Finance Committee. They called Senators’ offices all Monday long.
You don’t think HC Reform final bill Obama signs is gonna be good for we the people?
I think it WILL be good.
I also believe we can get that, AND get Leahy’s legislation on the roll.
We get what we fight for. And we never let up the pressure. Never. Let. Up.
“They” now know we’re here, and can influence elections, like NEVER before.
We got the mo, don’t let up.
We can have it all.
*G*
Ahhh, perspective, and depth, is everything, is it not. *G*
Never seen red calamari, either.
You?
Can you eat them?
True
Red! Who Knew! I Didn’t!
Yeah but as you noted the offices are closed:)
I haven’t given up hope but will believe it when I see it. Dems are traditionally the spelunkers of the Beltway. If they pass a bad bill, the next day I launch my presidential primary challenge.
ratfood in ’12
Unfortunately, I think this is what we are up against here.
Got my vote!
1) there is no ‘REAL’ PO in any of the bills the Democrats in Washington are working on.
2) the PO’s that Obama and the Democrats have allowed to be ‘on the table’ are not stakes, they are weak reeds that do not threaten the kraken in the least, which is why they feel free to utter such extortionistic threats.
3) nice message discipline, relating the cruelty of the current situation, then segueing to the approved non-solution.
that bait and switch really doesn’t fly. Institute Single-Payer, Medicare for All, and let the insurance cartel try to charge whatever crazy price they want for their obsolete garbage ‘product.’
Squid pro quo.
The Red Devil Wiki
And I’ve lived in CA for 45 years, never knew they were red.
Thanks to whom it was, Bargain? that brought this up!
*G*
Yes, calamari is fried squid.
As far as I’m aware, the Humboldts aren’t endangered. Off the California coast I’d guess they’re classified as an invasive species. If that’s the case there’s no daily limit and no possession limit on them.
But … they’re big (reaching 7 feet overall and 100 lbs), and ill-tempered. According to wikipedia, they do support commercial fisheries off Mexico and Peru and in the Atlantic. Looks to me like they’d pretty good steaks, and if you’ve got an eagle at home, you’d have a cuttlefish bone to make it happy.
Thank ya, thank ya verra much!
ratfood ’12!!
Is a more hopeful feeling about the prospects of getting real health care reform sweeping over the Firedogs in the last day or two?
Time for me to toddle off. Gots young minds to corrupt int the morning. Take care all.
Actually it was PeterR who mentioned devil vampire giant squid.
Have a splendid evening.
Maybe a bit. Folks around here tend to be realistic, welcoming positive signs but taking them with a grain of salt.
With that I bid you all adieu.
ratfood in ’12
Yeh, just read the wiki on it.
Not really Humboldt Bay, it’s their name for some reason.
Peru and Mexico for commercial harvesting.
Mean suckers, it seems!
What Is Calamari?
Pass the capers and buerre blanc, please? *G*
lost my appetite :-)
Ah, then thank you PeterR! *G*
Mangiamo!
it’s time for some triangulation. We should push Leahy’s bill to the forefront and link the two. The left should push for acceptance of the strong PO. If we don’t get an acceptable bill we push to defeat it AND ride the public outrage to passage of Leahy’s punishment bill. If we push this triangulation hard enough, perhaps we can succeed in neutralizing insurance industry opposition to real reform. I have to believe that the industry has to be more scared of McCarran repeal than they are of the public competition they are so keen to fight against. So tactically we should link the two – acceptable reform and no Leahy bill or we drop everything and push for Leahy’s industry lobotomy act BEFORE we try again for serious healthcare reform. They can’t very well fight us and Chapter 11 at the same time…
Ratfood & Bill ’12
They’re either named for the Humboldt Current or for the naturalist. Either one’s plausible.
Almost 30 years ago, when Ms ET and I lived on Prince William Sound in Alaska, I contracted my gillnet boat as a shrimp fishing tender in the off-season. It would go out to about five anchorages and pick up the day’s shrimp from a few boats. The shrimp fishers caught squid as by-catch. They’d just give them to us.
I miss fresh squid. It starts losing its essence within hours of being brought up from the deep.
Calamari always makes me think of this:
good night ratfood.
good night all.
Thank ya!
Bill who?
Ah, I WONDERED about that.
Thanks!!!
It’s ironic, but the idea that the Baucus bill will result in health insurance premiums increasing is part of the progressive critique of the Baucus bill..
I mean, I know the insurance CEOs are corrupt greedheads, but why has no one pointed out that the Baucus bill will result in the increases in premiums that they say it will? Front page bloggers at this very site have said so.
Not to mention that It’s a lame and transparent attempt to try and give Baucus’s Insurance industry bailout bill some street cred.
The important thing is to make the final bill better. We need to make the public option stronger in the final bill, to avoid the very dangers the corrupt insurance salesmen threaten us with.
Thats like thinking Darth Vader is a bad guy — that is until you see the Emperor.
…and finding out the Emperor can shoot force power bolts from his hands.
…finding out that there was indeed somebody more menacing than Darth Vader at the top of the Empire pyramid who indeed could cause Darth Vader to kneel was the full illustration of how truly wickedly evil and powerful The Hooded One was.
It would have been quite useful if the top CEOs from CIGNA,WELLPOINT,UNITED HEALTH and AETNA had been presented to America in a national healthcare forum where these Captains of American Health Insurance were introduced to a cross section of 100 Americans whom they have performed the role of Vaders Emperor on or to. It would have been an interesting display of how these CEOs operate and justify what they do and how they do it. One can imagine just after the first 50 victims stories were presented and these CEOs reacted in ways that did not produce any sympathy towards them how that would have helped get this current reform effort properly motivated and powered by a angered and disgusted public.
It would be(have been) very useful to meet these American for profit health insurance Emperors in a national forum shown on American TV or on the Net.
How very illustrative it might be(have been).
Have any of you heard that Tony Blair is the front runner to be the next president of the EU?
Love that toon, I’d watch it if it was still on.
GREAT stuff.
Damn!
Ratfood & Bob
I just saw that at The Guardian. How odd, I’d have expected his obeisance to the Bush-Cheney junta would have left him tainted forever.
heh, squid lobotomy bill. Do those things have multiple brains?
anyway, yes. and the resolve to torpedo a bad bill must be unyielding, and preparations should be made to spin the fallout the right way.
Cool, although if Bob is VP I’ll have to watch my back. “g”
P.S. There may be a precedent for screeching but I’m guessing it would be the first VP debate to feature biting.
birth certificate?
That was punaise-worthy, sir or madam.
Oh my, do you think that could be a problem for a green, black, blue, and red candidate? We’d probably also require one for Bob…
It’s right up there with the classic Looney Tunes and Rocky and Bullwinkle. All the best cartoons worked at at least two levels.
Mrs. BC’s best pal in gradual school came over here from Russia to go to school. Moose and Sqvirrel required a lot of ‘splainin’, but she finally caught on.
Thanks (although punaise is the master).
Hope we can count on your vote in ’12.
Leaving for real now, nighters to all.
Aloha Ya’ll again from the Mtn. top…! ;-)
I wonder if my constant altitude changes constitute a pre-existing condition…?
Why not have all the CEOs show up at the Senate HELP committee and let them explain their personal policies, their huuuuge salaries, the way they bribe senators and lastly their view of the American health care system, specifically how they make pre-existing condition determinations among other things.
Oh, and who pays their golden-parachute COBRA when they get the boot (if they do)?
Probably should have started her out with something like this.
Dang, rf, I just got here…! ;-)
Aloha, Jo Fish…!
Live birth aspects… dunno
Aloha, CT… long time no see. How’s life in that tropical paradise of a foreign country?
Make ‘em all swear ala the Tobacco CEOs…!
I concur with all you said.
Best entertainment evah.
Worked on so many levels, it was great as a kid, and as an adult.
Biting satire and social commentary.
Peabody and his pet kid Sheman, Aeso’s Fables, Fracture Fairy Tales, Skwirrel and Moose, Boris N Natasha, Mullberry Bush. Bugs Bunny toons, all the post WW2 toonz about war . . . Foghorn Leghorn.
And the danged Animaniacs were just as good. Still are. Scathing satire and biting commentary.
I miss good art.
Well Here is our Hero Grayson http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdUqkm6L8kI
3 of them appeared several months back in front of a House committee. These 3 Yugo salesmen were beyond greasy, and they pretty much thumbed their noses at the committee.
They were preceded by three of their rescission victims – all women, all terribly injured by the companies these fucks run.
CT!!
Aloha dude!
*G*
*WAVES*
I’ll stay long enough to say “Hi CT.” Could you see the lunar impact from up there? (I’m guessing not, it was only visible from lunar orbit wasn’t it?)
Yeppers, just ask a Birther… Btw, there’s actually some Birthers over here…! Ignorance knows no boundaries, eh…? ;-)
My platform includes equal rights for hatchlings. Still the fact that he’s not quite 8-years old might pose a problem.
Trying to figure out the play here.
So if AHIP is going all rogue here, either (a) they must figure they have something to back it up with, i.e. something bigger and badder than the regulations and laws that the Obama administration and Congress are able to unleash on ‘em; or else (b) they must figure they have the votes in Congress to corral anything happening there; or else (c) they’re bluffing.
Seems like (b) is iffy at this point, and the longer this goes the weaker AHIP gets in Congress. And I don’t think they’re just bluffing, this is too big for them to be that desperate; they seem certain. That leaves (a).
Norske’s theory makes sense for (a), they threaten to crash Obama by crashing the economy. But so would any other explanation that gives AHIP any ability to damage Obama or the country at large. One possibility occurs to me: if they claim bankruptcy (or just go Galt over limited exec compensation and profits) and just plain go out of business and/or stop paying claims — essentially health insurance disappears overnight — then that would have the same effect, the public would revolt and blame Obama; bye-bye second term. Even if premium payments stop.
There are probably also other things they could hold over Obama’s head.
Looks like it’s hardball time, boys ‘n’ girls.
I think the fact that Palin can see you and Putin from her front porch also proves the Earth is flat.
Two words: Single payer.
Sassi, Hamm, & Collins
Scroll to about 120 minutes. And keep away from sharp objects.
I was working for Gemini that nite (tonite too) and they’re funded primarily by NASA and they kicked us off the mtn. 2 1/2 hrs prior to impact… They were doing the spectroanalysis of the plume so they didn’t ‘see’ the plume, however, Keck personnel were telling me the other day that they observed both impact plumes…!
CT! Long time no cross paths, mi amigo. Taking good care of the large island for me, I trust? And it’s taking good care of you and yours? Congrats on the new gig. Can I see you wandering around up there via the webcam?
Palin can’t even see the calendar on her wall to know it’s Columbus Day, hence a Federal holiday.
She apparently is trying to mobilize a “phone bank blast” to call the SFC members about the Baucus Abortion tomorrow.
Sara, Calendar, Calendar, Sara.
If the health insurance companies try going Galt, they’ll force single payer on us. By going Galt, they’re saying they quit the game. If they quit the game, then we get to start with a clean sheet of paper. Obama’s already said if we were starting from scratch, he’d push single payer.
The insurers have way too much to lose by crashing the system. I don’t buy it: so my conclusion from your choices is that they’re bluffing for a better deal.
Regardless, as you say, it’s time to play hardball.
Maybe if I flash a flashlight towards one of the Gemini cams…! Not positive where either are located around the dome, tho…! ;-)
Really, it’s simpler than that.
The insurance companies like the Baucus bill.
They wrote the Baucus bill.
“When they yell about the Baucus bill they are just saying “Please don’t throw me in that briar patch!”
OK! Calling Joe Trippi
Cool! You have an awesome job, even if they do kick you off the mountain occasionally.
I saw that. Hopefully she’ll quit halfway through.
Ah, I just looked again and the only interior cams are at CSO, and the only Gemini cams are exterior pointing away. Beautiful sunset up there as usual I see!
http://www.jach.hawaii.edu/weather/cfhtgemini/
You’re granting them entirely too much subtlety. They aren’t stupid by a long shot, but they aren’t subtle either.
They wrote the bill, but they didn’t write the amendments that have been passed. It’s the amendments they’re screaming about. They are particularly peeved about the weakening of IRS enforcement of the coverage mandate and the large chunk of the potential market that won’t be forced to contribute to their profits.
They might be able to get what they want from Obama by threatening his re-election, was the theory. That could form a basis for a bluff.
On the other hand, the other week Norske had a convincing theory why they needed each other and a reasonable HCR was likely to result. I’ll see if I can hunt that up somewhere…
Always a gorgeous site (except when it’s like pea soup which is a rarity…), the sunrises too…! ;-)
Here’s another great site for webcams up here…!
Don’t forget to breathe up there.
And you have a point there. Health care was one of the biggest contributors to his campaign. I suspect that’s why they got the sweetheart deals they got.
On the other hand, reading the tea leaves for November 2008 wasn’t that tough. Once Obama had the D nomination sewn up and he made it clear that health care reform was at the top of his agenda, the vested interests knew they needed a seat at the table. So they bought one.
ES has LLN on tap…!
Cool, thanks much!
Found it! Norske said:
It was in this post: http://campaignsilo.firedoglake.com/2009/10/01/is-the-white-house-drafting-secret-bill-without-a-public-option
The WH could still be drafting a secret HCR bill.
The healthcare Industry is smarter than the American People, they tell the Congress loudly what they want.
Three hundered million of us and we are blogging about healthcare, complaining about what they are talking about, and hoping the give us something with our money.
We aren’t making a fuss, being heard, or trying to even influence what’s going on. We haven’t threatened to not re-elect them, or even bothered them to much. When they had town halls we went and listened to them tell us, not us tell them.
We elected these retards, and allow them to tell us what’s what. We forget they are suposed to be our representatives, not the insurance companies reps. We are sitting back waiting to see what these 535 retards are going to give us, saying we can do nothing about it, and willing to live with what they shove at us.
The insurance industry is in the business of denying coverage. Period. They are rapacious bastards that would gladly kill a few babies if it means they can maintain their pornographic profit margin. You can bet that the upward limit of baby sizes that they will cover will get smaller and smaller. They charge more and provide less and if left to their own devices will simply continue to do so until they bankrupt our nation.
Give us a single payer system and fuck the insurance industry.
Since they’ve declared war on America, it is up to each American to defend his or her country. I know what I’ll do if my insurance company jacks up rates by 111%, and it won’t be pretty.
We here in the medical field have an old joke line that goes “this would be a pretty good job- if it wasn’t for all these sick people.” But at least for us it really was just a joke. For the insurance co’s it isn’t a joke and it sure as heck ain’t funny.
Yesssssss. But how viable is this Mccarran proposal?
Oh come on. We could only pray that the health insurance cartel would stop paying claims. Huge news item. Public finally wakes up and sees that the industry has been holding us ALL hostage. It would be the best thing that ever happened for single payer.
done last month. barely covered anywhere. California’s Real Death Panels: Insurers Deny 21% of Claims
if we want this stuff covered, we’re going to have to amplify the message. because there are a lot of people who have signed on to not covering single payer related news.
single payer is not “feasible” — because the dems want ahip to continue to fund the dems and not the republicans (which is what would happen if the dems seriously took them on). so the dems and their allies are committed to protecting ahip. obama may not do 11 dimensional chess, but his administration sure does multi level kabuki.
It’s even deeper than that, of course (and the reason so many people are up in arms): the insurance companies are using customer money to lobby officials to allow them (the companies) to keep killing customers. This is why I want health care reform, not health insurance reform. The only health insurance reform I want to see is for the CEOs and insurance adjusters to be shipped off to the Hague for crimes against humanity.
It looks as if the health insurance industry has set up President Obama’s health care reform proposal for a double-pronged attack. If they can’t kill it with higher fees and penalties on the poor and the middle class, they’ll be able to jack up prices after the health care “reform” bill passes and blame the increase on President Obama!
Sadly, President Obama has failed to fight for a strong public option designed to keep costs and prices down. Once the bill passes, the sky will be the limit for health insurance premiums nd the insurance companies will be able to blame it on Congress and the President. “Reform” without price controls will enrage the middle class and the poor and lead to Democratic defeat in elections for a long time to come.
It’s long past time for President Obama to come out of the closet on the public option. He can’t merely “believe” in the public option – he has to fight for it or be punked by the insurance industry.
What no one seems to have noticed is that the kid is NOT fat. He is big. His weight for his length is normal. He is just longer and therefore heavier than more than 95% of the kids the same age.
The insurance company MIGHT have an argument if they said they wouldn’t insure kids who were obese, but that’s not the case here and they should be smart enough to know it. I suspect, in my cynical mind, that they just didn’t want to add another kid under the parents’ policy without having some sort of an excuse to drastically jack up the premiums.