Whoa, don't miss what is buried in this article re the windfall for the health insurance industry.

(Emphases mine)


Policyholders could pay more under Obama plan


By TOM MURPHY and LINDA A. JOHNSON (AP)
September 10, 2009








It certainly looks like the reality will be fixed around the policy.

Sadly.

Too bad our elected representatives are not answerable to us...

The plan Obama outlined last night will be a windfall to the insurance industry, and everyone knows it. There's a very good reason those of us on the left are feeling like we are being sold out.

It's because that's exactly what is happening.

:dem:

-Laelth

n/t

Who are these "Analysts" and what is their agenda? I would like to know more about them before I swallow every bullshit line they throw out.

Now, we're getting down to the nitty gritty of just what is being proposed. And we the people are not the main concern.

http://www.bmocm.com/

BMO Capital Markets is a leading North American financial services provider offering investment and corporate banking, advisory services, treasury and market risk management, institutional investing, and research.

=====

http://www.longbowresearch.com/about_us.asp

This is our focal point at Longbow Research. In the highly competitive institutional asset management business, investors have come to rely on Longbow Research for our commitment to their success.

• First, we provide unique insights and primary data on specific companies, supply channels and industries. These unique insights are gathered in-house through a number of market surveys, supply channel checks, retail polls and an extensive network of industry contacts. Extensive work at this level allows us to identify key trends as well as potential catalysts.

<SNIP>

Internally, our analysts are compensated primarily on stock-picking and client support. We pride ourselves in having a buy-side stock-picking culture within a sell-side business model.

====

http://www.healthpol.com/

A policy and marketplace consulting firm specializing in assisting its clients through the significant health policy and market change afoot.

Clients include health insurance companies, casualty insurance companies, HMOs, Blue Cross organizations, hospitals, and physician groups.

===

So do you think they are all giving accurate unbiased information? Or is this just more stuff like the Lewen Group and Betsy McCaughey?

These guys know which side of their bread is buttered on, and what they heard last night is music to their ears.


A Speech Even Insurance Companies Could Love, September 10, 2009

H. Edward Hanway has taken home $121 million in the last 5 years. No wonder their margins are so thin!

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/12/best-boss-09_CEO-Compensation-Health-Care-Equipment-Services_9Rank.html

For all of these people's sanctimonious insistence that they are *fiscal conservatives*, they certainly are playing fast and loose with cost containment. Anything for another 3 years of fattened campaign coffers to get them through the next election. THEN the $#^* can hit the fan for all they care.


Think Progress on August 18, 2009:

700 billion to 900 billion reasons according to estimates.

Wait for the flood of the pom poms.... :rofl:

:think:

will of course drive prices through the roof. Health care stocks went up today; people with coverage through work can't opt for the "not really public" option, so those insurers can basically charge whatever they want and we can't do anything about it

What more could we ask for? Real health care reform?

The current plans being discussed are a WIN-WIN-WIN scenario for the health insurance companies.

....we were here bringing all of this up before May 22, 2009.

:hi:

Forcing people to buy health insurance is millions of more customers for the health insurance companies which is $Billions$ more dollars for them.

Not to mention that a "public option" would be managed and run by the insurance companies, just like the govt "run" health insurance is now, which is another huge boost to them in profits.

Hedge Fund Billionaire to keynote Obama's "Fiscal Responsibility Summit" February 23 . February 19, 2009


'Obama will be tested': Feb. 23 "Fiscal Responsibility Summit" targets Social Security and Medicare, February 21, 2009


Competing Views of Government: Universal Medicare or Government-Protected Insurance Companies, March 10, 2009


Bloomberg had a great piece yesterday: 'No Reason to Demonize U.S. Single-Payer Health' , March 12, 2009


Harry Reid is already fuming that we should just 'leave the ConservaDems/Blue Dogs alone.', March 27, 2009


10 Democrats vote yea to cut estate taxes for supremely wealthy; 5 are ConservaDems , April 3, 2009


Jeb Bush's Medicaid legacy frets lawmakers: $300 million penalty if Medicaid not privatized , May 3, 2009


WellCare charged with fraud (Florida's largest Medicaid HMO contractor), May 6, 2009


ConservaDem Ben Nelson: 'A public plan would hurt the private insurance plans.', May 6, 2009

:hi:

i consider myself fairly well informed (and completely disillusioned) on this issue (of this sad, bad, cruel joke of a reform), but i haven't started following all this until fairly recently... the DU has been a great source for me, even though (imo) it is only a small fraction of people who have a clear, objective picture on what's taking place now...

September 10, 2009






And with little price controls on insurance rates, the people will continue to get the shaft.


There is no mistake about it; for Big Health Insurance and Big Pharma, a robust public option open to even a few paltry million to start, is like kryptonite to Superman.

Funny that you didn't highlight this key phrase

They might deny care to millions of people, but not all of those are brain injuries. We can still see platoons of people hired for the purpose of denying claims and CEOs with salaries equal to the budget of a small country.

Yes, by all means! Pass it along to the policyholders.

Do they think we are that stupid?

His freaking compensation is $22,716,454.00 - http://www.swivel.com/data_columns/show/9210467

will continue to rise at the expense of those they insure . . . corporations are, after all, in business to make money and to maximize shareholder value . . . not to provide quality healthcare, not to provide universal healthcare, and certainly not to provide affordable healthcare . . . they will continue to maximize their income (premiums) and minimize their expenditures (benefit payouts) in order to make as much money as they possibly can . . .

the bottom line of leaving healthcare in the hands of insurance companies is that, without strict price controls, 30% or more of our healthcare dollars will go to things that have nothing to do with the provision of healthcare -- things like shareholder profits; executive salaries, bonuses, and perks; advertising and marketing; and the redundant administrative and overhead costs resulting from over 1,300 different plans that doctors have to deal with . . .

single payer is the only really workable solution to the healthcare crisis . . . but it seems that the insurance companies are just so powerful (i.e. they provide too much campaign money to politicians) for Congress to do anything that would negatively impact their profits . . . and therein lies the Catch-22 of the whole healthcare debate . . .

This point was raised by Bill Moyers the other day. Premiums will go up. Insurance companies will get 30 million new captive members.

If they're worried about getting it right, then get it right.

So, are we just that stupid or is it an illusion?

I've written, called, posted all over the net about this for so long my fingers & lips hurt. Without a public option, we are simply giving them more legal ways to creatively screw us.

I worked in insurance/Big Pharma for years. Like any business, they will do whatever they must to keep profits high. This means increasing costs to consumers or reducing services. There IS nothing else they can do. Remember when Almond Joys kept the price low but cut out one stinkin' almond????

The only thing that will keep affordable rates & variety of services for us is TRUE free-market competition, which for insurance is PUBLIC OPTION. ESPECIALLY if coverage is going to be mandated.

In NJ my auto insurance rates were 5 times higher than they are here in VA & I've never had so much as a speeding ticket (yes, I drive like an old lady). The "no fault" BS that was supposed to keep rates down never did, it just shifted more burden onto the customers in paperwork & higher rates with limited payouts. Still, when the profits started getting too low, the companies stopped offering auto & the state was forced to blackmail them: "If you don't sell auto insurance in NJ you can't sell ANY insurance". So many of them pulled out of the state.

A gov't run non-profit will force these bloated companies to cut the CEO bonuses & commercials & private jets to save money, instead of cutting our benefits (and our throats).

Sorry for the rant & thanks for posting this. :banghead:

These new *taxes* and *fees* that Max Baucus wants to levy on health insurance companies will be turned back around onto us, the consumers.









Kent Conrad has already admitted that co-ops WILL NOT bring down health care costs. According to Conrad, they *might* be useful in increasing competition.

See Post 7 in this thread.



Let's recap what ConservaDem Max Baucus is pushing:

1. Forced mandates on everyone to buy insurance (...or face stiff fines)

2. No public option (... because it would *threaten* private insurance companies)

3. Co-ops (...but, they won't hold down health care costs---oh, well)

4. New *fees* on health insurance companies (... that will be foisted onto consumers)



We've got a battle on our hands.



Voices out here in the wilderness are asking for the result of the cost analysis for Single-Payer, done last month at the request of Rep. Anthony Weiner. Wonder if this report will be buried...


Would those who live in Weiner's district try to find out the status of this?


Rep Weiner's e-mail (for constituents of NY 9th district only)



Thanks for your story, blueworld.

But did Almond Joy cut out the JOY!?! That would be the question.

Anyway excellent post. I know what you mean about sore fingers. And I have telephone ear as well.

how the health insurance companies comply and not turn down pre condition customers, cover a greater portion of the
population, cut health insurance costs and still provide affordable health care without insurance rates going through the roof?

I just don't see how a new health care bill will accomplish this.

Health insurance companies must be removed from this equation. They are the prime reason that health care is out of reach for more and more people. Unaffordable health care makes for chaos in the lives of everyday people.


And in chaos, they can steal.



They are also ultimately using the relentless pursuit of profits to break the back of Medicare. They have hated Medicare with every fiber of their black-hearted existence. It is their biggest enemy--- Medicare For All will burn down their bloated mansions, torpedo their sleek yachts and rip out their fattened offshore bank accounts.




This is war, people. THIS IS WAR.

The President needs to be commended for doing a very difficult job without the benefit of any REAL Mainstream Media criticism on his health care reform stance. Lies about health care reform are aplenty, and the M$M is all too happy to focus on those. But keeping Obama on the straight and narrow, forcing him to REALLY look out for average Americans, is not within their purview, I guess.

For instance, if you watched him last year, he said that Single Payer Universal Heatlh Care for ALL was the best solution. Great statement, there, Mr Prez to be. (Citation -youtube.com/watch?v=fpAyan1fXCE )

Then he WENT ON TO SAY, "But since we are not starting from scratch, we have to work within the system we already have." WHAT? WTF?!?

Do you tell someone who is driving around in an unsafe car that gets horrible gas mileage, that cannot pass the local smog law tests and that is ugly to boot that they have to stay in that car?

The media, which has interviewed every single living numb skull within four hundred miles of a major network's office, and reported on such things as Obama not having a valid birth certificate, etc. somehow have never found time to parse the President's stupidity in saying this.

Just how much lunacy is there when one says "I have found the perfect solution, and now I am working on reform, but I must stick with what we have, even though what we have DOES NOT WORK and is more expensive, as we will see to it that it will be slightly modified." And none in the media calls him on that.

We are so screwn. Both the President and our Corporate media are only beholden to the Corporatocracy. SCREWN SCREWN SCREWN.

Medicare already exists, Mr. President. Expanding Medicare to all is NOT starting from scratch. Expanding Medicare to all IS working with what we have.


People are going out of their way to ignore any discussion about this.


Sometimes my cynicism takes over and I think things like Rep. Joe Wilson's ignorant outburst during Obama's Joint Session speech was staged as a shiny bauble to distract people from talking about more of the 'If you have another plan, I want to hear it' requests from our president. The right-wing screaming time-bandits strike again. Hell, it worked at the town halls to shut down discussion. Why not try it again, but this time, spitting it into the President's face?


You damn right, we have another plan. It's HR 676, Medicare For All.


Joe Wilson, you are a disgusting disgrace to our country. Take your rotten mind and mouth, and clear out.


Pelosi backs resolution aimed at Wilson, September 11, 2009

Anyone else think we're headed off a cliff?

... but for all that it's worth, I'm gonna keep naggin' my congressman(Murphy) and senator(yes singular, in Dodd, because the other one is a useless piece of crap). I hope it all works out cuz I'd hate to be the first to post "I told you so."

And, bashed the poster who posted it.

We are in trouble when the politician trumps the policy.

Joe Wilson and AHIP Team Up to Write Max Baucus’s Health Care Bill
By: Jane Hamsher

http://campaignsilo.firedoglake.com/2009/09/11/joe-wilson-and-ahip-team-up-to-write-max-baucuss-health-care-bill/

Friday September 11, 2009 7:06 am


There really doesn't seem to be any limit to what the administration will do to pass Rahm Emanuel's neoliberal giveaway to the insurance industry. The "author" of the plan released by Baucus (and apparently by Mike Ross) is a former VP of Wellpoint. Now AHIP is boasting about their role in crafting it:

Many of the changes to the insurance system now under discussion are the ones that have been advocated this year by the insurance companies themselves, said Karen M. Ignagni, the chief executive of America's Health Insurance Plans, the industry trade group. "The industry has been the leader in creating the proposals everyone is about to endorse," she said.

No wonder insurance company stocks shot up after the President's speech.

But now we find, per John Aravosis, that Kent Conrad and Max Baucus are changing their bill to appease Joe Wilson:

"We really thought we'd resolved this question of people who are here illegally, but as we reflected on the President's speech last night we wanted to go back and drill down again," said Senator Kent Conrad, one of the Democrats in the talks after a meeting Thursday morning. Baucus later that afternoon said the group would put in a proof of citizenship requirement to participate in the new health exchange — a move likely to inflame the left.

As John says, if Wilson's outburst turns out to be successful, it'll keep happening over and over again. And it will work every time.

If you want to stop this travesty from going forward -- and it's turning into a complete travesty -- ask these members of Congress from strong Democratic districts, all of whom have cosponsored Single Payer in the past and know better, why they aren't pledging to vote against any bill if it turns out to be nothing more than an insurance industry bailout:

read the rest at the link..........

.....................................................................

Reid Endorses Wellpoint’s Co-op Plan
By: Jane Hamsher Friday September 11, 2009 9:46 am

http://campaignsilo.firedoglake.com/2009/09/11/reid-end...

The Senate Majority Leader endorses the Mike Ross/Kent Conrad/Wellpoint authored co-op plan:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) endorsed the concept of health insurance cooperatives Thursday, siding with centrists in the House and Senate who want healthcare reform but oppose a public option.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) also hinted she could accept that approach a day after President Barack Obama delivered an address to a joint session of Congress that offered encouraging words for both centrists and liberal Democrats who have demanded a public insurance option.

I think I may have to adjust my prediction for the co-op "squeeze play" on July 20:

The easiest political path to passing health care is still running the "co-op" crunch. Regardless of what the House does, the Senate can pass Conrad's shitty fake co-op. The Blue Dogs band together and refuse to vote for anything else, and that's what comes out of conference. There's a PR blitz to sell it as a "public plan" (which is why we've worked so assiduously to define it as NOT a public plan), and in a rush to get something passed, Rahm starts twisting progressive arms -- which have been historically very easily twisted.

Blue Dog Mike Ross presciently submitted virtually the same co-op plan in a July 31 amendment that finally emerged this week in Max Baucus's Senate plan. But since it now looks like Pelosi is on board with co-ops, that means the Blue Dogs aren't going to have to take the hit.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

and this ought to warm the cockles of everyone's hearts.........


thank you to Orwellian _ghost for posting this..

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6526239&mesg_id=6526239

SO, UH, THERE'S NO MONEY FOR HEALTH CARE?- Senate Panel OKs $128 Billion For Afghanistan, Iraq Wars
Senate Panel OKs $128 Billion For Afghanistan, Iraq Wars


ANDREW TAYLOR | 09/10/09 05:42 PM | AP


WASHINGTON — With hardly any debate, a powerful Senate committee Thursday approved President Barack Obama's $128 billion request for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for the budget year beginning in October.

The move came as anxiety is increasing on Capitol Hill over the chances for success in Afghanistan and as Obama weighs whether to send more forces to the country.

The war funding was approved as the Appropriations Committee voted unanimously for a $636 billion spending measure funding next year's Pentagon budget. The war funding would implement Obama's order earlier this year to add 21,000 more troops to Afghanistan, which would bring the total number of U.S. forces there to 68,000 by the end of 2009.

There's ample skepticism in Congress that Obama's Iraq and Afghanistan funding request will be sufficient. A key lawmaker, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., predicts that an additional war funding will be needed next spring.

Senate panel chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, would not say whether he believes $128 billion would be enough for military operations in the two countries.

You know how charities have to tell potential donors how much of their donations goes to overhead, and how much to program? Insurance companies should have to tell customers how much of the premiums they take in goes to overhead, and how much to paying out benefits.

You know how casinos have to pay out a certain proportion of the bets they take in in winnings? Insurance companies should have to pay out a set proportion of their premiums in benefits, by law, if they want to stay in business. I propose 95%.

The whole idea that a "public option" that's not available for the public to buy into giving competition to the insurance companies is ludicrous. The whole point of the proposal, as Mr. President outlined it Wednesday, seems to be to protect insurance company profits.

The line about "profit margins" being "razor thin" is hooey. "Profits" are what's left over after they pay themselves hundreds of millions of $$$$/year, and paying for scads of advertising, and rafts of droids to cut off people's benefits.

Somebody else pointed out that health insurance is an unsustainable bubble. I concur.