Eliminating the private insurance industry would save $400 billion annually in administrative costs

1. We already have single payer (Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, the VA, Indian Health Service)

2. People **Don't Like** Single Payer because 'they don't know they have it'.

3. 'Eliminating the private insurance industry would save $400 billion annually in administrative costs, enough to ensure that everyone is covered and to eliminate all co-pays and deductibles.'
(See below)



The *official* reaction to HR 676 (Medicare for All):


(photo by alusiaaa via Flickr)








We will know very soon where we stand with all Congress members.


They will not be able to hide.

Think of how many families' medical bills/premiums etc that much money could pay.

:puke:

nobody's worth that much and who's paying it?

enough to make someone sick.

The insurance companies...the MULTINATIONAL insurance companies are sucking the life out of America because we let them.

Eliminating the powers that our premiums have bestowed upon the health insurance octopus will be equal to the US's investment in WWII. It will require a monolithic surge in the inherent power of individual Americans. The focus and determination of each citizen is even now taxed to prevent the insidious tactic, misinformation, circumventing their right of free choice.

Goebbels would be impressed. Nazi sympathizers have taken the halls of congress. I know it sounds nuts, but it's true. The data is irrefutable. We really didn't win WWII, the Nazis simply changed flags.

It's an eternal battle, this war against the baseness of children-of-powerful-people.

I attempted a similar post the other night but mine wasn't nearly so coherent. :hi:

Thanks, my friend.

:hi:

Some are dupes of yours:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6349493&mesg_id=6349493

But I guess one will have to do. ;-)

Expand what works--- Medicare!
Eliminate what doesn't work -- Private insurers that shift costs on to you, jack up your premiums, tie up your doctor in red tape, bribe Congressmen, and inflate medical costs while adding no value.

Cut out the middleman. Improved and Expanded Medicare for All!

Between the two industries -- health care provision, and health insurance -- I would say that health care PROVISION is more important, since THAT is what actually makes the positive difference in people's lives. If health care PROVISION can be made more effective and efficient by reducing or eliminating health INSURANCE, then so be it. HEALTH CARE is the goal, and INSURANCE doesn't provide any medical benefit.

putting those greedy CEOs out of a job

I've not heard mentioned how many work for private health insurers.

... if it meant universal single payer for everyone. The industry & its inefficiency sickens me.

These companies truly are like the Titanic - so big there's no way to make a quick turn, or stop, or change direction on a dime.
Everything takes forever and most of the time its not done with 'forward thinking' in mind so by the time some change IS done, its
obsolete already.

:sarcasm:

Look at the jobs it will provide.

Oh, wait...

They admitted as much when we called them out on it.

One only has to wonder---who was paying them? The insurance industry, or the Obama political team?

I've been attacking Kookcinich since Day One and haven't seen a dime for my efforts. Where do I send my invoice?

Since your removing all those administrative costs, I'm guessing that means the government will use volunteers to run health care? You can't seriously believe that the government will be more efficient at running anything can you? The government never runs anything more efficiently. Also if those companies make TOO much money, why aren't there more companies out there competing against them? Could it be there's more to it than you think? Just saying.

This morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the US department of energy. I then took a shower in the clean water provided by the municipal water utility. After that, I turned on the TV to one of the FCC regulated channels to see what the national weather service of the national oceanographic and atmospheric administration determined the weather was going to be like using satellites designed, built, and launched by the national aeronautics and space administration. I watched this while eating my breakfast of US department of agriculture inspected food and taking the drugs which have been determined as safe by the food and drug administration.

At the appropriate time as regulated by the US congress and kept accurate by the national institute of standards and technology and the US naval observatory, I get into my national highway traffic safety administration approved automobile and set out to work on the roads build by the local, state, and federal departments of transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the environmental protection agency, using legal tender issed by the federal reserve bank. On the way out the door I deposit any mail I have to be sent out via the US postal service and drop the kids off at the public school.

After spending another day not being maimed or killed at work thanks to the workplace regulations imposed by the department of labor and the occupational safety and health administration, enjoying another two meals which again do not kill me because of the USDA, I drive my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to ny house which has not burned down in my absence because of the state and local building codes and fire marshal’s inspection, and which has not been plundered of all it’s valuables thanks to the local police department.

I then log on to the internet which was developed by the defense advanced research projects administration and post on political forums about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can’t do anything right.

Did you know that? I bet you didn't. Most people don't. That means they can collaborate together to set prices. Essentially, they're a cartel, like OPEC.

got your cement pizza quick, didn't ya?

For all 8 executives, that's $123,899,190 total compensation for one year.

Presuming that an average health-care insurance policy costs about 7K per year,
$123,899,190 / $7000 = 17,700

So, that's 17,700 folks that could have medical insurance if all eight executives were no longer part of the picture.

Dividing that figure by 8

17,700 / 8 = 2,212

So, on average, each executive's salary is equivalent to 2,212 insurance policies.

Seems a bit inefficient, particularly when a good salary of $41,000 per year only buys (almost) 6 policies at the same figure of $7K each.

I had an emergency heart procedure done in 2004 in Germany. I paid and submitted the bill to our
insurance carrier back in America. At first, they refused to pay it because it was done by a clinic
that was not on their approved list (in Essen, Germany, well DUH!). We pointed out that it was not
only an emergency, but that it also cost ONE THIRD the price it would have cost in the USA. THEY AGREED,
and STILL refused to pay until we threatened to switch carriers (there are several hundred of us, not
a tiny deal). Assholes. Private insurance carriers: stay healthy or please die.

Enough is enough.

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