Insurance Companies Are Terrified of Medicare For All

[BeckyDem]

April 19, 2019

FEATURING WENDELL POTTER – Financial publications are in a tizzy over the falling stock prices of private health insurance corporations, using terms like “free fall” to describe the trend. The debate over a Medicare-for-All program is largely to blame for the falling stocks. The idea that everyone could get healthcare through the government has terrified companies like UnitedHealthcare which was recently revealed to be quietly lobbying against it.

Most Democratic Presidential contenders have jumped on the Medicare for All bandwagon in a testament to how popular the idea is – another fact that has insurance companies worried.

Wendell Potter, author and journalist who spent more than two decades in the health insurance industry, at Humana and Cigna. He became a whistleblower in 2008 when he left Cigna and wrote the tell-all book Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans. Since then he also wrote Obamacare: What’s In It for Me/What Everyone Needs to Know about the Affordable Care Act; and Nation on the Take: How Big Money Corrupts Our Democracy and What We Can Do About It.

http://www.risingupwithsonali.com/insurance-companies-are-terrified-of-medicare-for-all/

[appalachiablue]

1. Forward

[BeckyDem]

2. Absolutely!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Rebl2]

3. They shouldn't be

Medicare doesn’t pay for everything-80% I think. Most seniors get supplemental insurance that picks up what Medicare doesn’t pay. I would hope if we go the way of Medicare for all, that no matter your age you would be allowed to buy supplemental insurance.
I like my employer insurance and don’t want to lose it. I have rheumatoid arthritis as well as a few other health issues, and have to take several meds. I take a biologic drug for my RA that runs about $14000 for twelve shots. I pay $140 for that three month supply and my insurance picks up the rest of it. I seriously doubt Medicare will pay for that, nor will a supplemental from what I’ve been told.

[BeckyDem]

4. The new bill enhances Medicare, much better than it is now.

[Aristus]

5. As far as I understand, with a few exceptions, countries that have a national health insurance

system also have private health facilities, for all those rich people out there who want gold-plated medical care, instead of the stuff that everybody gets.

I know Germany does.

I think Switzerland at least doesn't have private-payer primary care, but specialty care providers offer private-pay options.

If we were to adopt the Bismark model of single payer health insurance, that would still leave room for private health facilities and the insurance to go with it. Why should they be concerned?

[BeckyDem]

6. Correct, we would still have plastic surgeons and all that. If I understand your

question correctly, why should they be concerned? Because they will lose enormous amounts of profits from the general pool they have now. It's made them rich beyond their own dreams and hopefully that will end.

[Aristus]

7. Yeah, but the bulk of their remaining clients will be rich.

The insurance companies could jack the premium prices sky-high and then say: "Either pay the premium, or get your healthcare in the same place the peasants do." The rich assholes of America will pay the price, guaranteed.

[BeckyDem]

8. ha ha I like the way you think.

I hope the insurance companies do just that. They've robbed us regular folks long enough.

[Aristus]

9. That's for sure...

[3Hotdogs]

11. Why not increase the coverage of Medicare so that it covers the stuff covered by private insurance.

Divert the supplemental premiums from private to Medicare.

Remember, private companies are allowed to allocate up to 15% of premium to other than health care. Medicare runs on a 3% operating expense.

[Aristus]

12. I know, right?

I heard that overhead expenses for health insurance companies were even higher than that; around 23%. Medicare's operating expenses in 1965 were 2%; they're now 3% and they've never gone higher than that. But try getting an anti-government blockhead to understand that.

[appalachiablue]

10. I always enjoy Wendell Potter, great communicator, super smart

and a real mensch in these crazy times! His explanations of the complex health insurance industry are so helpful.

[BeckyDem]

13. He is a mensch, but that is how we see whistleblowers.