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(photo: trois tetes via Flickr.)
Sam Stein of the Huffington Post notes a key bit of under-the-radar commentary from inside the health insurance industry this week:
The market concentration for health insurance is so monopolized in some areas that insurance companies are willing to raise prices and lose customers in an effort to improve their bottom line, a leading insurance broker told Wall Street analysts on Wednesday.
In a conference call organized by Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research, Steve Lewis, a highly regarded broker at the world’s third largest insurance broker, Willis, painted a picture of the health insurance market in which employers seem likely to be priced out of coverage. . . .
Insurers are able to do this in part because the markets in which they operate have no adequate competition, suggests Lewis. . . . employers in many markets know “that they’re not going to be able to trade down pricing very significantly” (i.e. find cheaper coverage) and, as such, would likely only change plans or become self-insured if there was a “fairly significant” disruption in service.
. . . The remarks are as clear an indication as any that while the health insurance industry suffered greatly from the recession it remains remarkably well positioned to recoup those profits going forward — principally because companies can raise prices without worrying about the market hit it will take.
I’m sure this is a problem that will clear itself right up once the President and Congress pass a health care reform package that mandates everyone to buy insurance. . . .
(See the Huffington Post article by Stein for a full transcript of Lewis’ remarks.)
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They’ll have to create a new Gattica Pool for the undesirables. Buy in or forfeit 2.5% of your income to the IRS.
And the KILLING by Insurance Death Panels Goes On and ON!
WTF do you expect in a system for PROFIT. You will never have a good system until it is freely available to all at a price they can afford, not the current system where obscene profits are the only motive for their existence…. The Proverbial Middle Men !!
Here in Indiana, where Anthem/Wellpoint is based, had 4th quarter profits of $2.7 billion yet lost 1.4 million customers (one of who was me) in 2009. Their stock prices have doubled, and they recently announced a 21% increase in premiums for Indiana. There is no fucking justification for this.
Another democrat called it quits today. They should all hang their damn heads in shame.
In the Wellpoint hearing the executive said they had raised the prices in CA because the penalties in the senate bill were not strong enough to guarantee we would all buy their insurance. Waxman asked her what they wanted them to do to us? Even knowing they intend to continue to raise our premiums, the elected officials will still vote for this bill. She stopped short of saying we should all go to jail.
From Wellpoints 10K:
“Operating revenue for the year ended December 31, 2009 was $60.8 billion, a decrease of $0.8 billion, or 1%, over the year ended December 31, 2008. The decrease was primarily driven by fully-insured membership declines across our Commercial and Consumer businesses resulting from the current economic conditions, as well as our strategic withdrawal from certain State-Sponsored programs. These decreases were partially offset by premium rate increases for all medical lines of business and increased reimbursement in the Federal Employees Program, or FEP.
Net income for the year ended December 31, 2009 was $4.7 billion, an increase of $2.3 billion, or 91% over the year ended December 31, 2008. Our fully-diluted earnings per share, or EPS, for the year ended December 31, 2009 was $9.88, an increase of $5.12, or 108% over the year ended December 31, 2008. Our fully-diluted shares were 480.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2009, a decrease of 42.5 million, or 8% compared to the year ended December 31, 2008.”
Bring on the mandate! I always wanted to be an outlaw.
I’m getting a sense that 2010, following the caving of Democrats to the will of our Republican Prez on the HealthScam bill, the exodus of Dems will seem like a circus parade cum stampede rushing for the exits.
No Waterloo for Obama, instead, it will be Little Big Horn for the Dems.
Are you prepared to go to jail for your position? Because if you refuse to pay the penalty to the IRS, that’s what they can do after they apply fines, penalties, and garnishee your wages. It costs to stick to your principles.
“Are you prepared to go to jail for your position?”
Most won’t, but mind the keys to the Cessna.
This is what happens with markets that have extreme demand-inelasticity. There’s almost no price-sensitivity at all. That, and the fact that you don’t buy insurance against inevitability, are the primary reasons why private insurance makes no sense to service this need.
Does the Senate bill provide a fix for Bush’s Medicare prescription drug giveaway? Can the government negotiate drug prices with pharma?
It’s not just healthcare, darlin’, it’s every fucking thing. The latest cave-in announcement on the KSM trial is another shining example of cowardice. (Obama doesn’t have enough balls to be a Republican.) Little Big Horn will look like a dinner dance.
I like the way you think. Your rage rivals mine.
The McCarren Ferguson Act of 1945 exempts health insurance companies from anti trust laws thereby giving them monopoly pricing ability. The Act must be repealed whether we get national health care reform or not. Why is this issue never discussed?
She stopped short of telling us to go fuck ouselves.
So-called HCR is nothing but a huge windfall to the healthcare industry at the expense of the middle class. There are just so many ways to send profits through the roof and in fact the legislation encourages rates to go up more than they go up now:
1) Mandate – that gives a Captive Market and Captive Markets drive up costs
2) The 2%+ IRS tax to opt-out
3) The Subsidies to the insurance companies
Between those three elements the insurance companies get rewarded for raising rates by having those who can no longer afford insurance paying to subsidize the insurance companies. They get you coming and going – you either pay them higher rates to keep your insurance or you pay to subsidize them without getting the benefits of having any insurance whatsoever. I’m here in California where Anthem raised their rates 39% and I can opt out now because there’s no mandate or subsidy, but if we had so-called HCR I would end up paying to subsidize Anthem…Anthem could raise their rates 60% and it would result in more of our tax dollars going to them with the uninsured being the ones who would involuntarily reward Anthem for raising rates. This is a massive middle class tax hike during a recession with the money going toward corporate welfare with the corporate welfare designed to reward insurance companies for raising rates and having more people lose whatever insurance they had.
O what a fucking mess we make
When to reform we undertake.
This mother fucking shit has got to fucking STOP.
What in the fuck has happened to my country??
What in the hell has happened to the Democratic Party?
GODDAMMIT. From the Democrats having no backbone, to the corporations having no decency, and them working together, we’re all just FUCKED.
They’re going to pass this bill. They’re going to get the shit kicked out them in November (DESERVEDLY SO I ADD), and then they hope we’ll all come rallying back to the Democrats after a few more years of Republican insanity.
The question is, will we???
I’m not. It’s time for something different. National strikes, protests, something. This fucking shit has got to STOP.
Goddammit.
Assholes.
And oh yeah, this fucking agent of CHANGE strikes again. Campaigned against the Bush White House for getting involved in DOJ issues (Dept. of Justice SHOULD be the most independant agency), to what??? WHAT? Why get right down and just as fucking involved as any President ever and instead of allowing DOJ to decide where to try supsects, he and the political advisors, will decide.
Fuck your change and the hope you stole from us all.
Asshole.
Let’s put together a HUGE march on DC and let these MFers know how we feel about what they’re trying to do to us!
Nice Norske opening there, Nahant! And I concur with you all the way.
Swopa, thanks for picking up on this one, I just read that, and thought it was simply incredibel!
I mean, Sam exposes the phreakin asshats and THEY are exposing themselves!! What hubris!
The class war is heating up when the have’s thing they can thumb their noses at the have nots and NOT pay a price for doing so!!
Incredible, I guess the corporate facists don’t read or care about history, and they don’t care about the backlash that’s coming at them when their world collapses on them.
Incredible, the stupidity and hubris of the rich.
They never get it, do they.
I read somewhere recently (i was toking on satori,sorry no linky) that another 25% of american manufacturing jobs will be off-shored by 2020. If that’s a fair estimate then the best laid FDL plans are frankly moot.
FDL needs to develop another action track, one that would hopefully help coordinate and organize massive protests by student, the ghost of unions and private citizens!
No, and no.
It IS being discussed, there is pending legislation that addresses anti trust exemptions, where have you been?
Repeal of the McCarran-Ferguson anti-trust exemption for health insurers has indeed been discussed. The latest twist, I think, is that about a week or 10 days ago, the White House announced that they were going to support a stand-alone bill to repeal the exemption. Why stand alone? Because they thought it could pass, and even have some Repug support!!! Meaning, as I said in a comment at that time, that their explanation revealed that they had no confidence that the POS monster HCR bill will NOT pass.
I’d expect that the anti-trust repeal bill is probably sitting on a back burner somewhere until the dust is cleared from the upcoming train-wreckage of the omnibus bill.
The Greeks are storming the Parliament. We’re more civilized, of course. We just bend over and shoot off emails while taking it in the ass.
student protests upstairs
Correction: The White House has no confidence that the POS monster HCR bill will actually pass.
While I might be with you on the need, I think FDL is moving along to an end of its own accord.
You and I, and others, are ready for more . . . but as much as I’m ready to let loose, FDL has reined me in just enough to see what they have going . . .
I’m older, not as quick to draw, and want to pick my battles with more insights.
I’m still prone to outbursting, get to the bottom line and joust that windmill, but there’s something to FDL that’s reined me in, and honed my needs, desires and general OUTPUT for a more well sculpted and scripted goal and the actions required to MEET them goals.
That aside, I’m really delighted to hear of the March 9th Protest(s) and think we’ll be needing and SEEING more of them, as this all marches to its end.
And I’m likely to be in the parade sooner than later, as soon as MY last straw snaps my camel’s back.
I feel the tension rising way too quickly this past few months, and see the ‘bad guys’ pushing their agenda WAY to urgently . . . and it gives me pause to think all this facist corporate government class war might escalate MUCH sooner than I ever dreamed it would.
I’m on orange/red alert, I am.
To be clear, the government cannot negotiate drug prices for Medicare simply because Bush forced a provision to that effect into the Part D amendments. It’s not because some provision in the Constitution would prevent the govt from doing so.
By contrast, the Department of Veterans’Affairs has the statutory authority to negotiate drug prices, and it does so all the time.
I disagree, we will have our Thermopylae . . . as Suz linked above, out here in SactoLand, the students in Berkeley AND Davis are already taking it to the streets . . . last time this shit happened?
Yep, Vietnam.
I smell the beginning of the 60′s, all over again.
“The Corporate Culture”
Thanks, but I’ll stand with my no and no . . . they are viable!
I appreciate your input, and detail . . . and I thank you for that.
More info the better. And you are correct, and add on to my simple response.
This is a really important point. The mainstream world, a full month into this price hike period, is still stammering around like, “Wow, wasn’t it really stupid of them to announce price hikes while the bill was still at least a little bit alive?”
No. It wasn’t stupid at all. They ran the numbers and they figured out they could not lose with this move. First they WANT the bill to pass because it mandates millions of new customers with the same zero competition. So tweaking the process to keep the bill alive doesn’t hurt them at all.
Second, The want to get a new price floor established before any law cuts in, figuring that any tough regulation will start with where prices are when the bill passes, so let’s get those prices up 20 or 30%
Third, improve the starting point even more by “purifying the pool” so to speak. Force out those who are just barely hanging on. Force out the sickest who are already financially devastated. That leaves them with a more profitable pool as a starting point. And they don’t really lose those higher cost customers anyway. The HCR package will force them to buy if they have the means, and if the price hikes drive a few million into poverty, then they will be covered by Medicaid.
And if HCR fails, that is good too. They just doubled their profitability and don’t have to bothered by nearly as many sick people.
The insurance companies win no matter which way this breaks.
That’s just the half of it.
When insurance companies raise their premiums through the roof, they keep some of their book by forcing insureds to downshift into nearly catastrophic coverage with high deductibles and other exclusions.
While this reduces premium income up front, it also allows insurers to eliminate future claim liability without getting slammed for terminating policies for no cause.
The real effect of this “business decision” is to price people out of health care coverage that actually covers their health care needs.
Watch insurance corporation stock prices for the tell on the scale of their turn at the federal bailout trough.
This Thermopylae however will have 400 richest denizens of Wall Street defending the pass with hoards of rabble storming it.
Of course they won’t be defending it themselves. They’ll have the army do their dirty work, as always.
Amazing, isn’t it? And the fuckwits that are pushing for us all to “grow up” and pass the Senate bill can’t seem to figure this out. For them, the recent price hikes stand as proof that we should ACT NOW. It reminds of the real estate bubble, where we would all be priced out forever if we didn’t ACT NOW.
most likely Backwater (Xe)
Good! Then the rabble may win.
well, I was trying to be a bit more subtle, but yours is probably more correct.
Yer tawking a reverse Therm are ya? *G*
I’m liking that OldHippieJean more n more I see her comments.
*G*
There is another factor that plays in here that I don’t think most of you hve considered, which may right the boat, albeit with huge cost in human suffering, and indeed our conservative friends would contend these are simply “market forces at work.” I AM NOT DEFENDING MARKET FORCES. I say that because too many of you folk knee-jerk and react without hearing out the argument.
The issue is that as those insured wanes, so will physician’s incomes. Now, the fact is, IMO, physicians make too much money, and have been enabled to do so because of health insurance. Indeed, there is already much strain between the medical profession and insurance companies, and that is only going to accelerate as the pool of those insured shrinks. I suspect that will force the medical profession to bite the bullet and make the trade-off that government run insurance for all, as Medicare and Medicaid are here for the elderly and poor, is a better bet. They will have to reconcile themselves to make less money, but some is better than none. I would point-out that European physicians, Japanese physicians, etc., make much less money relative to American physicians.
Ooooohhhhh!!! Double no-lube…..
It must be great to be American!
Will the healthcare mandates apply to US citizens abroad – a little bit like you are forced to file tax returns on your income even if you don’t live or even have any assets in the US? I wonder if the insurance industry is aware of any “loophole” in this aspect of the mandate? I am sure they can find a friendly congresspig to close it. Can’t have citizens leaving the country to avoid their obligation to the patriotic healthcare industy of America…..no sir…
I’ve met a lot of young-ish doctors who make around $150k. Good money, but not out of line with what physicians make in W. Europe. Of course you have rich surgeons and whatnot, but I don’t think we need to stick it to MDs to get what we want. Pay off their student loans, offer them good working conditions and a nice salary. No more investing in clinics that you refer patients to, though.
Those physicians who make about $150,000 are primary practice docs, which are becoming increasingly rare. A nurse-anesthetist in the US makes about that much while the supervising anesthesiologist rakes in about $300,000. A typical psychiatrist earns in excess of $300,000 and a psychiatrist has almost no of the over head other physicians do. No, this is not about sticking it to physicians, it is about the fact the fees they have commanded are going to dwindle as those having insurance dwindles. They are going to have to, as European physicians do, accept the payment offered by government-run insurance.
Public Option is the only answer and I look to Firedoglake to push for it…?
Wow, salaries have gone up in recent years. To add a little data to the discussion here are some survey results. We might have to work with the doctors a bit:
Specialty Salary Ranges (Annual, Pre-Tax)
Anesthesiology :$311,000 to $446,000
Cardiology(Invasive) :$389,000 to $561,000
Cardiology(Non-Inv) :$332,000 to $439,000
Dermatology :$287,000 to $385,000
Emergency Medicine :$216,000 to $300,000
Family Medicine :$150,000 to $204,000
Gastroenterology :$330,000 to $498,000
General Surgery :$271,000 to $356,000
Hospitalist :$174,000 to $217,000
Internal Medicine :$175,000 to $209,000
Neurology :$203,000 to $298,000
Ob-Gyn :$231,000 to $304,000
Oncology / Hematology :$296,000 to $410,000
Orthopedics :$372,000 to $512,000
Pediatrics :$140,000 to $202,000
Plastic Surgery :$300,000 to $791,510
Radiation Oncology :$357,000 to $453,000
Radiology :$386,000 to $600,000
Pathology :$239,000 to $331,000
Psychiatry :$171,000 to $248,000
Urology :$352,000 to $426,000
I don’t know if there’s a good answer to this. Reducing salaries of doctors an average of $150,000 would save $250 billion a year. But I’d rather keep the MDs on board somehow; we have our hands full sticking to big insurance and big pharma, hospital REITs etc.
It is just plain stupid to be blaming doctors and other bedside providers for the cost of health care when your insurance premiums are designed to skim 30% off the top of premiums.
You wouldn’t have your Medicare and medicaid were it not for doctors seeing those patients basically pro bono, especially medicaid.
This is just buying into the right wing garbage and hysteria that we “can’t afford” for everyone to have access to adequate health care. True the government is strapped, but not from too much spending. It has too little income. We brag about being the richest country in the world. So where is the money? A minute number of people have most of it. That is where to find the money. The Congress so far has the right to tax the bas__rds.
The one thing Bill Clinton had the guts to do was raise taxes on the wealthy. He got away with it too. Even balanced the budget.
The idea that primary care physicians are treating Medicaid patients pro bono is absolutely false.
Single Payer has always been the only possible reform
“I’m sure this is a problem that will clear itself right up once the President and Congress pass a health care reform package that mandates everyone to buy insurance. . . ”
We’re going to have to dismantle the private insurers anyway, whether we just get rid of them entirely, with Single Payer, or “only” blast them into little atoms to break up their monopolies and cartels so that any other plan would work. Neither the exchange nor the public option will work unless both the insurance and the provider cartels are broken up.
Both industries will fight either a public option or exchange that works, every bit as much as they would have fought Single Payer (which would require the provider cartels, mainly the big hospital chaines and Big Pharma, be broken up if it is to be able to control costs), because all of these ideas require the destruction of these industries as we know them, in order that be implemented successfully.
Where was I doing that? aardvark made an point and I was exploring it.
Jesus fuck, people, read shit thoroughly before you angrily respond.
You were suggesting cutting physicians compensation. One can assume that you believe they are over paid and part of the problem. ie blaming them for the problem.
In fact sad to say so many now have to turn to drug company and other private interest groups to get to the modest levels of income they have now. Corruption has followed and more is bound to follow. But that’s the current American way.
Most of Aardvark’s positions regarding bedside care providers are demonstrably false.
But the real point is you and Aav are buying into the corporate elites that our economic and specifically health care woes are “big government” and the cost of the care. The problem lies with the fact that the government has insufficient income.
I’m not “buying into” anything, and this is obvious from my posts here. aardvark made an interesting observation: that physicians might have to accept sharply lower rates under the sort of health care fix most of us are arguing for. This is not an illegitimate point to make in these discussions.
I argue in favor of keeping MDs on board, since they are now in support of either single-payer or a robust PO. Each of those approaches will antagonize well financed corporate interests, so having this powerful consituency on our side would be nice. But at what cost?
All of this is clear from the posts. You obviously didn’t care to read them. You’d rather just accuse others of being stupid or bought into right wing propaganda or something.
“But the real point is you and Aav are buying into the corporate elites that our economic and specifically health care woes are “big government” and the cost of the care. The problem lies with the fact that the government has insufficient income.”
The first part of this is nonsense. Again, read my posts. As to the second, well, compare the per capita cost of healthcare in Canada with that of the US.
Clearly, we have to drive down costs if we’re going to get to where Canada is — not just increase revenue to the payor. There are many ways to do this, but simply getting rid of the insurance companies isn’t enough. Hence the talk of physicians’ salaries.
TALK, mind you, DISCUSSION. Not advocacy. Again, read my posts and you’ll realize that, if anything, I’m arguing for keeping the MDs on board with SP or robust PO even at the cost of higher physician fees/salaries.
Of course our per capita cost of health care is the highest in the world. That is because a third of what is spent of goes to insurance CEOs and shareholders.
Spot on. And that is why it is going to take a radical rethinking and reforming our whole society. It will happen whether we want it to or not. But with the ignorance and cowardice of our political leaders coupled with the absence of any other moral or intellectual leadership I fear it’s going to have to come from virtual complete collapse before the change can begin.
“Of course our per capita cost of health care is the highest in the world. That is because a third of what is spent of goes to insurance CEOs and shareholders.”
Not really. Medicare overhead is in the low single digits, as is VA. Government covers over over 25% of our healthcare. That is to say a quarter of all healthcare spending in the US. Therefore the overall cost of overhead, system-wide, is much lower than 30%. btw, corporate insurance “overhead” is in the 22-26% range, not 30%. (In a $1.5 trillion spend these are not meaningless distinctions.)
Besides, our new system will cost something. If it’s Medicare for All it might be low single digits. A PO will require a lot more servicing, since it will act much like an insurance company, having individual relationships with each “customer”. What will we actually save on administrative costs? Not 30% — more like half that much.
So, lopping off that 15%-20% won’t get us to Canadian levels of per capita healthcare spending. There are a lot of other costs that stand as variables — and need to be discussed seriously — if we are going to get from where we are to where Canada is, which is both sustainable, universal and high quality.
Canada now spends about $3,200 per capita and has universality. We spend roughly $5,700, and leave 40-60 million people in the cold. Imagine what that number will go to if we are to cover 100% of our citizens by going to single payer, but change little in the costs of our delivery system? Even $5,700 is unsustainable. Add 45 million people, then deduct your 20%. You’re still not getting anywhere near $3,200. We need to lower costs on the delivery side, and by a lot.
Glib statements aren’t going to get us where we need to go. Unfortunately there is no panacea, be it tort reform or electronic records-keeping. At some point when you confront huge costs you get to the point where even you’re friends are going to be pissed off at what they’re giving up. That’s why this issue needs leadership, and citizens who can do more than call everyone stupid or brainwashed who don’t agree with their bumper sticker pronouncements.
Basic problem is we have our for-profit medical system and this does not have competition with a single private entity providing services because of anti-trust exemption.
We are the customers to the insurance companies. We don’t have choice and we pay what they demand. If we had at-least 10 choices prices would drop. Insurance companies are the customers of Doctors and hospitals. They are taking in so much money servicing a healthy population age-group they too dont care and splurge money as much Doctors and Hospitals demand.
Now Senate HCR Version is going to make a bad situation worse. Public Option would have provided a true competition. It is dropped. Anti-trust exemption not removed yet. In it’s place UnAmerican individual mandates are added to remove the only sad but true cost-control present right now. So more money to Insurance companies whether customers can afford or not (Cherry on the topping of the cake being given to Insurance companies is IRS providing free collection services on government paychecks). This windfall the insurance companies can splurge for themselves and share a little bit with Hospitals and Doctors. Consumers will lose whether they afford insurance or not. This will have lot of Social effects with consumers losing their little expendable income.
I never expected Democratic congress and executive branch to do this. They will sow what they reap. Republican party will win big in next elections, Democratic party will never be able to recover from this for a long time and they will have the guilt of not thinking of public welfare when they had chance.
I hope Green Party which does not take any Corporate donations as part of its Party Charter starts taking the place of Democratic Party starting in deep blue districts for the sake of progressive agenda.
I agree, but simply moving to single payer isn’t enough. We need to overhaul the system if we are going to have universal, quality, affordable healthcare. But I like single payer as part of the final draft.
I’d even be OK with moving to a robust PO as a first step. I’d even put up with mandates, and all the accounting trickery that allows CBO to score the house and senate bills as deficit neutral. If they had just given me a robust PO, open to all, with rate-setting pegged to Medicare, I would have gone down that rabbit hole.
But, Nooooooo, they had to go with the abominable Senate plan, sans PO. Oh, and now with even bigger penalties for opting out. So, yes, here we are, pissed off and left hoping for salvation from the Green Party, or something.
I saw PO in the election manifesto, heard countless times before and after the elections. Once the deals with AHIP & PHarma are made all of it is thrown out.
I am sure people in the democratic party who will vote for the senate version with UnAmerican Mandates and no cost-controls will suffer with guilt with rest of their lives for not thinking of public welfare if senate version goes through and Democratic party will be made to remember it by Republicans for years to come.
I repeatedly see one senator blocking and spoiling a good bill and to me looks like they are taking turns to spoil the bills coming through. I want to see one senator from a third party which does not take corporate donations as part of its party charter like the Green Party blocking the bills and do the exact opposite which is make the bills better.
Yea, that’s why I’ve mostly voted Green since 2K, and gotten lots of shit from people for it. And mostly from Democrats, the “wasting your vote” crowd who think its naive and childish.
I voted for Obama, and not because I thought he was some miracle worker. What I hoped was that huge Dem majorities plus a president who was avowedly pro-PO would come up with something remotely, uh, Democrat-like. In the face of an economic calamity and a collapsing health care system. Boy was I wrong. Fool me once, blah, blah. Problem is, live long enough as a Democrat and you’ve been fooled about 900 times.
It gets to where you’re Charlie Brown with a very sore ass.
Off the point somewhat: people who compare Obama to Hoover do Hoover a great disservice. Hoover was a good deal more progressive that Obama. Look at what he did to Mellon. Geithner, Summers and Bernanke are Obama’s Mellons. There’s a joke in there somewhere but I’m tired.
Just need 1 senator and 5 Reps from a third party not taking corporate donations as part of its party charter to get the bills modified for public welfare from those of current MSM reported Centrist bills a.k.a. Corporate Welfare bills.
Green Party fits that description. Hopefully if some of the Deep & True BLUE districts elect GREEN party candidates things will change for better in the Washington DC.
Watching C-SPAN a few days ago, I watched the House pass the necessary repeal of the Anti trust exemption that the insurance company has enjoyed screwing the American middle class for years. They bent me over and I would like to make sure this legislation is made law. Thanx
To those who think America has the best health care in the world?? Nay…sorry we don’t.
Ranking by the WHO
1- France
2 – Italy
3 – San Marino
10 – Japan
18 – United Kingdom
19 – Ireland
30 – Canada
37 – United States of America – at the very bottom.
U.S. Medical prices are the highest in the World.
Respectfully,
Why is no one in suggesting the obvious? Raise taxes?
Not to mention undoing agreements to not interfere with exorbitant charges for medications and appliances?
This is an example of unconsciously gulping in right wing garbage.
In fact the entire approach being taken by Obama and forced on the Congress is right wing garbage market economics.
Competition nor profit really has any place in providing for human rights.
I am afraid it’s going to take a pandemic or some other disaster affecting a big segment of the population to force people to think in terms of public health and why your health is important to my health.
Had the swine flu been more virulent the dangerous incompetence and impotence of our current delivery system of medical care would have resulted in third world death rates.
The health insurance companies must be destroyed by whatever means necessary. Obama wants to make them stronger. The American people have become serfs. If there is a way forward for us it has nothing to do with Democrats and Republicans. Anyone still playing redstate/bluestate a tool of the Oligarchy. Leaders will appear among the people. Support those preaching solidarity and oppose those preaching god and country.