If you are so utterly incompetent as to not be able to ascertain my Congressman's name from the link I already provided, than I really cannot help you. Since it's highly likely you do not live in my district, I can't imagine he would give a flying fuck what you think anyway, so go ahead and write a letter. At least you would be engaging in some useful civic activity and buy all of us 5 minutes free of your inane ramblings.
Thank you for again proving you are a partisan hack. It's obvious you didn't even click the link and read the bill.
StageLeft
No Lifer
- Sep 29, 2000
- 70,150
- 5
- 0
Sometimes I really wonder if the only way to constrain health-care long-term is for society to make some hard choices and stop spending increasing amounts and resources keeping people alive at the end. Medical costs were low 200 years ago because if you got sick and the local doc couldn't help you you died, that was that. Medicine continues to come up with more extreme and expensive ways to keep people going and so whether gov or private pays, how is that going to be addressed?
waggy
No Lifer
- Dec 14, 2000
- 68,143
- 10
- 81
what i don't understand is why insurance will pay $140k for a surgery of a 89yr old person but won't pay shit for younger people that need it.
some of the shit insurance does amazes me. i don't see the govermetn changing either.
im sorry but someone 80+ should not be getting hearts, lungs, liver transplats when someone 30yrs old is sitting on the list.
yeah im a cold heartless asshole.
Fantastic? I'm not so sure. A stopgap for a windfall profit may be ok - but if a company just has a good year, they should be left alone. Maybe mandate that they adjust their rates down ever-so-slightly, but come on... We've got over half a century of actuarial data. A year where an insurance company makes a bit more money than the government thinks it should, is likely to be offset in future years by a shortfall.
In the end, I'm afraid this will only encourage insurance companies to ask for their own bailout if ever a bad year should strike.
At the same time, engineering advances, technology matures, patent protection laspes following a decent ROI, etc. Things do get cheaper, and while we keep finding better, more expensive ways to heal people, eventually those new ways will get cheaper, too.
But, if we keep going at this rate, I agree we're going to hit a critical mass.
waggy
No Lifer
- Dec 14, 2000
- 68,143
- 10
- 81
Originally posted by: Carmen813
Maybe if you were over 80 the insurance company would buy you a new heart and some blankets.
well i would like a new blanket. the one i have is kinda old. as for the heart? pfft they just get in teh way of logical thinking.
Fern
Elite Member
- Sep 30, 2003
- 26,907
- 174
- 106
The additional costs for those with pre-existing conditions will be subsidized by those without them. I.e., those of us without pre-existing conditions will have higher premiums to offset the new lower premiums for people with pre-existing conditions. Younger/healthier people get screwed over.
Fern
That is life. You already subsidize ERs and people who get sick while covered. Besides, if they could make millions and millions of profits, all they need to do is reduce their profits to keep rates the same... and they'll need to do that to compete with the government.
EVERYTHING is considered a "pre-existing condition" nowadays.
That is why they make huge profits. That is the whole problem with the current situation.
Remove profit. With profit, denying coverage so ceos could make millions while people die is not what healthcare should be about.
Uh huh so why are the state run health insurance programs seeing similar high single digit increases in costs like private insurance? The state out trying to make a "profit".
Because, they are only covering the people who are being denied insurance. If UHC is passed, everyone, including the healthy, will go to it as a way to avoid being screwed by private insurances, including businesses.
How do you think millions of profits are generated? By excluding having to actually COVER anything. And since they are a MONOPOLY, they can do whatever they want, including giving themselves millions of dollars in bonuses for screwing and denying people.
Use your brain for once.
It is so laughable to see somebody deny reality. Fact is, with the way we are treating an insurance program like an entitlement the costs will continue to rise. You thinking the problem is profit is hilarious.
Pass this and talk to us in a few years when it kicks in and the costs continue to climb in a non-profit system.
What is laughable and sad is that people would prefer profit companies deny insurance and coverage with no other option while their fellow countrymen die and suffer.. but have no problem with trillions in wars and corporate bailouts.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...ml?hpid=topnews&sub=AR
The health insurances are paying BIG TIME to avoid any change to their huge profits.
When your wife is denied insurance by EVERY INSURER IN THE STATE because she took one pill for one month to have a baby, which flagged her for insurances, maybe we could talk.
Ignorance is bliss. Ignore Cigna's testimony and hundreds of others in front of congress. Ignore how much we pay vs what we get compared to other countries. Ignore the millions of uninsured or how many people are denied treatment THAT WERE COVERED because the insurances are a monopoly that will always screw people for profit... what should the people do? Sue them? By the time it is dragged through court, they will be dead!
You sicken me.
"Pass this and talk to us in a few years when it kicks in and the costs continue to climb in a non-profit system. "
Other countries pay half what we pay and everyone is covered with no excuses. Let us catch up to them.
As long as there is complete coverage and I know they can't drop me if I get cancer because I had acne 20 years prior, I'll be happy to pay. As long as every american is covered, I will pay. As long as there aren't sickeningly huge profits because of denial of coverage, I will pay.
Other countries pay half what we pay and everyone is covered with no excuses. Let us catch up to them.
As long as there is complete coverage and I know they can't drop me if I get cancer because I had acne 20 years prior, I'll be happy to pay. As long as every american is covered, I will pay. As long as there aren't sickeningly huge profits because of denial of coverage, I will pay.
IndyColtsFan
Lifer
- Sep 22, 2007
- 33,655
- 688
- 126
Except you don't seem to consider any other options; you want to pass the first bill that crosses the table "just to do something." What part of the CBO analysis don't you understand? No one, least of all me, is advocating we do nothing. We need to do something smart -- not just pass anything that comes along so it will make us feel better.
IndyColtsFan
Lifer
- Sep 22, 2007
- 33,655
- 688
- 126
Also, please post a link supporting your claim that the "sickengly huge profits" are because of denial of coverage. I am interested in reading about it.
You keep repeating that and I'll keep repeating the answer. The alternative is to do nothing like the republicans did for 14 years. The alternative is to let insurance companies continue to spend more and more money bribing politicans. The alternative is to let more and more lies and disinformation get into the public mind.
This is a corrupt system. The delaying game does indeed work. It needs to be done now.
Uh I have stated over and over a public option is fine in my book. But make it a true insurance program. 2000-3000 dollar deductible for catastrophic care. If people want a 15 dollar copay then they can purchase it through private insurance. Right now all your plan does is copy the obviously flawed private insurance plan with a public one and pray to some mythical govt god the result changes.
People like you sicken me because you either know this but applaud the power grab. Or are too stupid to get it but are gleefully pushing the rest of us in the cart over the cliff.
IndyColtsFan
Lifer
- Sep 22, 2007
- 33,655
- 688
- 126
AGAIN -- please tell me how the CBO is wrong in their contention that this will result in massive amounts of additional deficit. "Doing something" is not sufficient if it bankrupts the country.
EDIT: Or let me phrase it another way -- are you willing to agree that the current plans do nothing to stop the skyrocketing costs of healthcare?
""They confuse their customers and dump the sick ? all so they can satisfy their Wall Street investors," said Wendell Potter, who retired as CIGNA's vice president of corporate communications last year. He spent nearly 15 years at the company and four years at Humana."
"Potter, for instance, recalled a trip on a corporate jet from Philadelphia, where CIGNA is headquartered, to Connecticut, where the company's health insurance business is based in Bloomfield. During the flight, he was served lunch on gold-rimmed china with a gold-plated knife and fork.
"I realized for the first time that someone's insurance premiums were paying for me to travel in such luxury," he said on his blog."
"He condemned insurers' efforts to get rid of unprofitable customers, sell policies that can mislead consumers and offer very limited coverage, and pay out as small a portion of premiums as possible for claims in order to boost profits and please Wall Street."
"Potter described in written testimony how insurers use "purging" ? unrealistic rate increases ? to drive off less profitable employers. Citing a USA Today report, he recalled how CIGNA boosted rates in 2006 for the Entertainment Industry Group Insurance Trust so much that for some family plans, premiums would have topped $44,000 a year."
"CIGNA, responding to Potter's testimony, said Wednesday, "Although we respect that there are different opinions on the solutions, we strongly disagree with the suggestion that, motivated by profits, the insurance industry has deliberately attempted to confuse or unfairly treat covered individuals.""
http://www.courant.com/busines...tjun25,0,4107201.story
I'll find some more if you'd like.
If we don't mind trillion dollar wars while cutting tax, or paying 500 billion a year for incredibly wasteful defense compared to every other country, we could afford 1 trillion in healthcare reform.
Here is more-
Potter, who spent 15 years at CIGNA, said health plans have a financial incentive to cancel the policies of their most costly members and have implemented strategies to do so. ?They look carefully to see if a sick policyholder may have omitted a minor illness, a pre-existing condition, when applying for coverage, and then they use that as justification to cancel the policy,? he testified. And canceling policies for even a small number of such members can have ?a big effect? on the bottom line, he added. ?Where is the logic and the humanity of having pre-existing conditions not covered in our society?? Potter asked. He noted that his testimony wasn?t aimed at CIGNA specifically, but rather at an industry that he said is ?taking this country in the wrong direction.?
http://www.aishealth.com/Bnow/hbd070909.html
Potter, who spent 15 years at CIGNA, said health plans have a financial incentive to cancel the policies of their most costly members and have implemented strategies to do so. ?They look carefully to see if a sick policyholder may have omitted a minor illness, a pre-existing condition, when applying for coverage, and then they use that as justification to cancel the policy,? he testified. And canceling policies for even a small number of such members can have ?a big effect? on the bottom line, he added. ?Where is the logic and the humanity of having pre-existing conditions not covered in our society?? Potter asked. He noted that his testimony wasn?t aimed at CIGNA specifically, but rather at an industry that he said is ?taking this country in the wrong direction.?
http://www.aishealth.com/Bnow/hbd070909.html
TRENDING THREADS
-
Discussion Zen 5 Speculation (EPYC Turin and Strix Point/Granite Ridge - Ryzen 9000)- Started by DisEnchantment
- Replies: 25K
-
Discussion Intel Meteor, Arrow, Lunar & Panther Lakes + WCL Discussion Threads
- Started by Tigerick
- Replies: 23K
-
Discussion Intel current and future Lakes & Rapids thread- Started by TheF34RChannel
- Replies: 23K
-
-
Facebook
Twitter