Here is the Trojan Horse of the Insurance companies. They're running scared!

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

From yesterday's NYT

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/washington/25health.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=health%20insurers&st=cse

Insurers Ease Stance on Pre-Existing Conditions

Published: March 24, 2009
WASHINGTON —The health insurance industry said Tuesday that it was willing to end the practice of charging higher premiums to sick people if Congress adopted a comprehensive plan that provided coverage to all Americans.

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Insurers said that they could accept more aggressive regulation of not just their premiums but also their benefits, underwriting practices and other activities. Such strict regulation, they said, would make a new public program unnecessary.

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However, the two executives said that insurers wanted to retain the right to charge different premiums based on the age, place of residence and family size of subscribers.

Lots to question:

They're willing to accept "more aggressive" regulation of premiums, benefits, underwriting, etc. Oh, and this new aggressive regulation will make a new public program "unnecessary". More aggressive than "non-existent"? No comfort there folks.

And what benefit if they still retain the right to charge more based on "age, place of residence and family size of subscribers."?

Don't fall for it. Don't let your Congresscritters fall for it.They do not not want to compete with a public option and will do everything in their power to oppose it.

[acmavm]

1. Really, if the insurance industry is for it, all decent people should

be against it. No matter what 'it' is.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

2. A hard point to debate.

If a company or an industry is almost universally reviled, most could conclude that their actions must have led to the emotion.

They could have CHOSEN to provide fair, decent affordable coverage at any time in the last 30 years, but they chose not to. They chose instead "death by spreadsheet" and giant executive salaries and bonuses. They have not earned the respect necessary to administer the health care needs of the American citizens. Too bad, but there it is.

[cabluedem]

33. Amen to that. Only a fool lets themselves continued to be tricked. Single Payer NOW !!! nt

[DCKit]

3. They'll simply shift the financial burden to other groups...

and continue to reap the same, insane profits. It's time for the people of the U.S. to become self-insuring and cut the parasites out of the equation.

If Medicaid and Medicare can administer their respective programs for 10% of the cost of the insurance companies - the vaunted, cost efficient "private sector" - then it's time to give them the chance to do the same for ALL of U.S..

[Rosa Luxemburg]

4. HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANIES ARE LIKE VULTURES!

it is a disgrace that they use sick people for their advantage and all their bonuses.

[havocmom]

5. Look at the new products being advertised: pet insurance, car & house repairs

Yep, they are scared. They know they have pushed their luck way too far and are gonna have to be reeled in. Already looking for new snake oil to peddle.

Yes, I DO think insurance is important, but not as practiced in US in past several years. It has just been a scam since Clinton's health care work went down in flames. Remember all those talking points about how we would get 'rationed medicine'? Remember how, once Clinton;'s efforts stopped, suddenly Insurance Companies got pretty aggressive with looking for ways to deny coverage to people? They LOVE rationed medicine, so long as they get to do the rationing!

And then the stock market stopped preforming. THAT is where insurance companies get most of their $$. So now they are hurting, and scared about the prospect that some real change is coming at them.

Watch a couple hours of TV, if only for the commercials. Interesting patterns out there all around us.

[cabluedem]

30. The old saw about waiting in line is BS. We have "rationed" healthcare right NOW in the US ........

..I have had to wait 3 months just to see a specialist, when I *did* have insurance.

Screw the health insurance companies!! No way we are going to fix that broken horse.

If President Obama and the other Democrat congressperson can't make some major changes
in our healthcare system in _this_ term, I am sitting 2012 out, because I will know for
sure that they were bought out by Big Pharma and Big Healthcare Insurance.

[Ohio Joe]

6. While I don't know about benefits or underwriting...

Premiums are all approved by the states. I've written and maintained rating programs for two different insurance companies and I can tell you that the insurance companies come up with new rating calculations all the time and they must be approved by the state they are to be effective for before they can go into effect.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

7. Well something is wrong somewhere

if a for profit company like United Health is able to pay out over a BILLION dollars in stock options and salary to it's former CEO, based on the backs of its subscribers.

[Jackpine Radical]

9. As with a lot of state regulatory schemes,

the ins. cos. tend to write the regulations. They have a lot more people on the job than the states do.

[Ohio Joe]

10. Yes, that is true

The insurance companies come up with the rate calculation completely, the state does not give any input. It is submitted for state approval and they either say "yes" or "no". There is no negotiation process.

[nichomachus]

13. Sure there's negotiation

They discuss how much the insurance companies will "donate" to the regulators' boss' campaign fund if the regulators approve the rates -- and how much they'll "donate" to his opponent, if they don't approve them.

[Ohio Joe]

15. I am unaware of that ever happening

And I would not have been afraid to report it if I was aware. Besides, there is really no need for it. Rate changes are done ALL the time. Nationwide, in their auto department, does 4 - 5 a month. In 12 years there (6 as a contractor, 6 as an employee) I never heard of a rate change being denied. Work on the code changes and testing always begins before the state gave back an answer. What they do is always make them fairly small increases (never decreases, of course)... SC, bump up women age 26, a week later, NC, bump up all men in a certain zip code, a week later, another demographic in another state. It never ends, a constant increase from all insurance companies that really does overwhelm state employees that review them. As long as the asked for increase is not done to the exact same demographic repeatedly in the same state, it is pretty much rubber stamped. Honestly, political party has nothing to do with it.

[nichomachus]

22. Politics and business float on a sea of bribery called "campaign donations"

It happens all the time.

[Laelth]

29. That's very interesting and, as I imagined, thoroughly evil.

Insurance companies need to get out of health care quickly. "We the people" have every right to be furious about the ways insurance companies abuse us.

:dem:

-Laelth

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. If we accept mandatory insurance, it will be the same mess as Medicare.

NO mandatory insurance...we need better health care, not premiums.

[nichomachus]

14. Same mess as Medicare? Explain.

Medicare works quite well.

[dixiegrrrrl]

23. You have not heard of the cost over runs, fraud,

and that great gift to the Insurance companies, Part D. ???????

[nichomachus]

24. Then we should deal with those and not throw out the many parts that work

[cabluedem]

31. How exactly are people that are out of work going to pay for mandatory health insurance?...

Or maybe they will start up debtors prisons and force us to work?

To hell with that!!!!

Single Payer healthcare NOW!!!!!

[xchrom]

11. +5 -- i see this as foretelling of what's coming at us.

we're not going to get a single payer or medicare for all -- and this is giving a picture of the landscape in front of us.

[formercia]

12. So, why didn't they do this years ago?

That's because they know the 'government' can do it cheaper, about 5 cents on the dollar vs 25 cents or more for the insurance companies.

[dmr]

16. Yet they STILL want to RED-LINE, as in:

However, the two executives said that insurers wanted to retain the right to charge different premiums based on the age, place of residence and family size of subscribers.

Oh, please, that's red-lining ....

You can't trust these people. If an agreement is made, how long before lobbyists sneak back to their favorite in-pocket Congressmen in guise of campaign contributions to quietly slip in a new bill in a must-pass budget bill that would end up dissolving the original agreement for a more insurance-friendly agreement?

[Kablooie]

17. Ah ha! They see a tidal wave of change on the horizon and are trying to ameliorate it.

It's clearly a great sign if the insurers are offering adjustments to their system even before any concrete new policies have been announced.

They are quaking in their booties.

[glinda]

19. I agree. They are scrambling to keep in the game and show they can compromise but

I had my rates raised because I didn't have enough medical. LOL!!!!!!!!!! My husband recently went on Medicare and we went from 1250/mo payments to 350/mo although since then they have raised my rate three times in the last two months!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The only hope for untangling this mess is to nix the Insurance Companies altogether. They are hurting us.

[cabluedem]

32. Bingo!!!! Ding-Ding-Ding!! We have a winner !!! nt

[bvar22]

18. Without a Public Non Profit Alternative....

...there is NO reform.

[Froward69]

20. evil fuckers.

after reading the article my conclusion is they are proclaiming that they are changing their stripes... truth is they are scared of having to actually "compete" with a streamlined, more effective and less expensive system.

tough shit!!!

medical insurance companies are the reason we are actually a third rate country in the industrialized world.

Fuckers

[Better Believe It]

21. Why Do We Need a Health Insurance Industry? A Parasite on the Health Care System

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8293424

Recommend

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

25. kick!

[upi402]

26. like when a NBA player commits a foul, he holds his hands up

"Who? Not me...":hide:

[leftstreet]

27. K&R

[Laelth]

28. So, they admit they've been ripping us off for decades?

Too little, too late. Medicaid for all ... let the insurance vampires compete with that!

:dem:

-Laelth