oldenGoldenDecoy's picture

    More Crap From the Health Insurers: They Want Us All... But Only on Their Terms...


    They can kiss my tailfeathers . . .


    Please Note: The was originally posted at 1:25 AM
    Re-posted for further input, if anyone wishes to add
    their comments.

    From the LA Times, March 25, 2009

    Health insurers say they'll lower premiums for the sick, if ...


    Yeah ... IF .... If we bend over and grab our ankles . . .

    Here's the industry line of continuing BS ...

    Tuesday, Karen Ignagni, who heads America's Health Insurance Plans (SourceWatch), said insurers want to help reverse that. "The private sector can rise to the challenge of solving these problems," she said.

    Igagni and Blue Cross Blue Shield Association President Scott P. Serota made the offer in a letter to senior senators. But it came with a catch: The insurers said all Americans must first purchase health insurance to boost the size of the risk pool, a concept opposed by many consumer groups.

    "By enacting an effective, enforceable requirement that all Americans assume responsibility to obtain and maintain health insurance, we believe we could guarantee issue coverage with no pre-existing condition exclusions and phase out the practice of varying premiums based on health status in the individual market," they wrote.

    The two industry leaders said insurers would still need to vary rates based on age, family size and geography.


    And relating to the government run public option plan to compete with the industry schlubs?

    [Also] unclear is whether the insurers' proposal will head off calls for a government-run insurance program.

    After years of horror stories of Americans denied coverage, many congressional Democrats are committed not only to stepping up regulation of the insurance market, but also to creating a so-called "public plan" to bring down the number of uninsured.

    Such a plan, which liberals and interest groups say is necessary, would compete directly with private insurers.

    Industry representatives vehemently oppose it, saying it would drive insurers out of business and lead to the creation of a single-payer system akin to those in Canada and Great Britain.

    Ignagni and Serota reiterated their opposition Tuesday in the letter.

    "Creating a new government-run plan would thwart the ability of the healthcare sector to implement meaningful delivery system reforms, exacerbate the cost shifting from public programs to consumers in the private market, and destabilize the employer-based system," they wrote.

    And Max Baucus' position on this announcement?

    But an aide to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), who is a leader in the effort on Capitol Hill to overhaul the healthcare system, said he would not back away from creating a new government insurance program.

    And a response from one major consumer advocate?

    Richard Kirsch, who heads Healthcare For American Now, a leading consumer group in Washington, blasted the letter as cynical ploy.

    "It's a sign of their desperation," said Kirsch. "They are still looking to find out how they can charge us as much as they want and have no competition from a public plan."

    latimes.com/business/la-fi-health25-2009mar....story

    Mr. Kirsch is dead on the mark. It's just plain too damn bad that the industry doesn't want competition ... The industry has pretty much run a monopoly and had a stranglehold for far too long on the well-being of the lives and the health of the America people.

    It's time they were made to compete for the American public's hard earned dollars.


    Here is an added video with Mike Lux and Richard Kirsch:



    Find out where they are in the process and how you can help.


    ~OGD~




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