dagblog - Comments for "Why Junk Insurance deserves an Occupy Movement"

I'm hoping the insurance

Ramona — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 02:38:46 +0000

In reply to Wouldn't it be great if we

I'm hoping the insurance companies are next. Surely there's enough energy for both. They really couldn't be more deserving.

Seems like a pretty

Ramona — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 02:36:40 +0000

In reply to I forgot to add another

Seems like a pretty reasonable argument for union representation.

And yet...

Interesting take, as always,

Ramona — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 02:33:38 +0000

In reply to This always takes me back to

Interesting take, as always, DD. So in other words we're all screwed. If the system was against us before, it's really against us now.

I'm glad Wendell Potter is on our side. As a former cohort, he'll be one step ahead of them. Not that it'll change anything, but at least we'll get the insider skinny while they're busy screwing us.

So reassuring that it can all be explained. Hmmmph.

(I did like "The Rainmaker". Matt Damon was a revelation. Didn't know he had such chops.)

It appears he did: "We were

Ramona — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 02:15:17 +0000

In reply to "When the clock moved past

It appears he did:

"We were providing basic first aid care in Grant Park Saturday night," said Jan Rodolfo, registered nurse and national coordinator of National Nurses United. "Rahm took the tents denying protesters first responders free speech and free assembly."

"First amendment rights don't stop at 11 p.m.," Rodolfo said.

But Mayor Rahm Emanuel said during a press conference he wanted to make sure the law was enforced.

Source: http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Occupy-Chicago-to-Join-Nurses-in-City-Hall-Protest-132432498.html#ixzz1c2SZeBEd

"When the clock moved past

nothere — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 01:36:49 +0000

In reply to Why Junk Insurance deserves an Occupy Movement

"When the clock moved past the magic hour, Mayor Rahm barked, the police moved in, and more than a hundred people were arrested in the eviction process. "

Rahm did that? In contrast to what Oaklands' mayor seems to be doing, which initially seems to be "It's not my fault; I didn't know it was going to happen; and I told the police to be gentle!"; Rahm actually set the police on the movement in Chicago?

Wouldn't it be great if we

EmmaZahn — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 00:18:13 +0000

In reply to Why Junk Insurance deserves an Occupy Movement

Wouldn't it be great if we could trade basic insurance premiums for taxes? As you note, nobody is protesting insurance companies even though they are

I forgot to add another

Richard Day — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 23:47:48 +0000

In reply to This always takes me back to

I forgot to add another variable.

If a corporation is negotiating freely with an insurer for health or disability insurance that relates to its workers and there is no union rep involved in that process; guess who is screwed?

So if you are in a Right to Work State, and you are an employee:

YOU ARE SCREWED

And if you simply work in a corp without union representation:

YOU ARE SCREWED

This always takes me back to

Richard Day — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 23:30:20 +0000

In reply to Why Junk Insurance deserves an Occupy Movement

This always takes me back to a really fine movie:

The Rainmaker

I fought insurance companies for twenty five years.

Now the courts have made it harder and harder to sue them.

Access to internal memos per corporate privilege comes into play.

Access to the courts per class actions comes into play.

Access to increasingly higher fees for expert witnesses come into play.

People have no idea what is covered whether one is talking about health insurance or car insurance or property insurance or life insurance...

States like Minnesota just wrote the policies. Minnesota and other states just assumed the insurance companies would sneak in all sorts of language.

Repubs of course wish to get rid of STATE REGULATIONS; although they claim they only wish to get rid of Fed Regulations.

And sure enough, the repubs get into power in a number of states and they want to deregulate; which means the insurers get to modify form contracts to their benefit.

Is the private citizen supposed to find a thousand dollar retainer in order to translate the terms of the form contract?

And can that attorney negotiate anything with the insurer?

If you are a large corp you will of course negotiate with the insurer. Form k's are out the window when you deal with large insurance k's.

You bring up a most important issue.