Editorials & Other Articles

LongTomH

(8,636 posts) Fri Jul 10, 2015, 04:03 PM Jul 2015

Robert Reich: The Choice Ahead: A Private Health Insurance Monopoly or Single Payer

The Supreme Court’s recent blessing of Obamacare has precipitated a rush among the nation’s biggest health insurers to consolidate into two or three behemoths.

The result will be good for their shareholders and executives, but bad for the rest of us – who will pay through the nose for the health insurance we need.

.........//snip

Insurers are seeking rate hikes of 20 to 40 percent for next year because they think they already have enough economic and political clout to get them.

That’s not what they’re telling federal and state regulators, of course. They say rate increases are necessary because people enrolling in Obamacare are sicker than they expected, and they’re losing money.

Remember, this an industry with rising share values and wads of cash for mergers and acquisitions.

http://robertreich.org/post/123327070510

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Robert Reich: The Choice Ahead: A Private Health Insurance Monopoly or Single Payer (Original Post) LongTomH Jul 2015 OP

Continued: The Solution is Single Payer LongTomH Jul 2015 #1

LongTomH

(8,636 posts)

1. Continued: The Solution is Single Payer

Reply to LongTomH (Original post)

Fri Jul 10, 2015, 04:06 PM

Jul 2015

The problem isn’t Obamacare. The real problem is the current patchwork of state insurance regulations, insurance commissioners, and federal regulators can’t stop the tidal wave of mergers, or limit the economic and political power of the emerging giants.

Which is why, ultimately, American will have to make a choice.

If we continue in the direction we’re headed we’ll soon have a health insurance system dominated by two or three mammoth for-profit corporations capable of squeezing employees and consumers for all they’re worth – and handing over the profits to their shareholders and executives.

The alternative is a government-run single payer system – such as is in place in almost every other advanced economy – dedicated to lower premiums and better care.

Which do you prefer?

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