The President, The Democrat Party, Lack Credibility

[Killswitch]

But unless you're a stockholder it's really none of your business.

It's my business when I'm a consumer, who gets his price raised five times in one year with out ever using the product like what has happened to me with Aetna.

I don't even know what the god damned card looks like but my rates have nearly doubled since last February.

 

[unregistered]

 

[RightField]

It's my business when I'm a consumer, who gets his price raised five times in one year with out ever using the product like what has happened to me with Aetna.

I don't even know what the god damned card looks like but my rates have nearly doubled since last February.

It's probably Obamacare provisions that are driving your prices up. Someone has to pay.

 

[koalabear]

It's my business when I'm a consumer, who gets his price raised five times in one year with out ever using the product like what has happened to me with Aetna.

I don't even know what the god damned card looks like but my rates have nearly doubled since last February.

Welcome to the UHC you wanted so badly.

 

[eyer]

It's my business when I'm a consumer, who gets his price raised five times in one year with out ever using the product like what has happened to me with Aetna.

I love this irony...

...how many millions is Aetna spending in NASCAR?

Thanks for chipping in.

Too funny...

 

[unregistered]

 

[miles]

Look, guys...you can't fix stupid. Nothing is going to make these people understand real world economics.

They're like a ten year old computer that simply does not have the capacity to process information. Their hard drives are limited to 1 MB of data. There isn't room for anything else.

 

[koalabear]

It isn't like we didn't tell him.

But you can keep your own Dr..

 

[miles]

But you can keep your own Dr..

Too bad your old doctor is fed up and retiring early.

 

[Killswitch]

Switch insurance companies.

I will. I'll get on the government plan when it comes out.

You can pay for my insurance then.



Thanks!

Plus in 12 years I can get on Medicare.



I'll be living in St Croix and your kids will be paying for my health insurance.

I hope I don't stub my toes in the sand.

 

[koalabear]

I will. I'll get on the government plan when it comes out.

You can pay for my insurance then.



Thanks!

You must have missed the part where the "free"insurance will be counted as income on your tax return.

 

[firespin]

It's my business when I'm a consumer, who gets his price raised five times in one year with out ever using the product like what has happened to me with Aetna.

I don't even know what the god damned card looks like but my rates have nearly doubled since last February.

I hate to break it to you, but if you're that worried about your cost for health insurance for a single guy in his 40's or so, you're really not doing so well in your business. It's gotta be less than $5K / year.

 

[Joeybagadonuts]

I never met a politician who wasn't full of shit.

Anyone who gets into politics is there to grab whatever they can for themselves with both hands.

Polticians are worse than the mob.

The mob doesn't pretend to be anything but criminals.

Politicians are empty suits with empty promises who depend on the the ignorance of the voting population who think it really maters what group of whores are in office.


and that's all I have to say about that.

 

[Luk]

I hate to break it to you, but if you're that worried about your cost for health insurance for a single guy in his 40's or so, you're really not doing so well in your business. It's gotta be less than $5K / year.

His problem is the little blue pill isn't covered.

 

[mercury14]

Switch insurance companies.

You can't switch insurance companies unless you're willing to find another job. And since employers regularly change their health insurance company, that strategy makes no sense even in the off-chance it's feasible.

 

[mercury14]

Too bad your old doctor is fed up and retiring early.

This is true, according to Glenn Beck and lying right wing propaganda.

 

[koalabear]

You can't switch insurance companies unless you're willing to find another job. And since employers regularly change their health insurance company, that strategy makes no sense even in the off-chance it's feasible.

KS is his own boss, he can switch any time he wants.

 

[mercury14]

Oh look. Economic morons on parade.



Wellpoint's revenue was $65 billion, so they're actually making 7% margins.

UnitedHealth's revenue will be $93 billion, so that's 4% margins.

Humana will do about $35B, so that's 3% margins or so.

These profits don't sound like the reason that premiums are expensive.



Most of the subscriber loss was due to layoffs, dummy. The article even says that, and notes that the claim about cancelling policies for sick people is an unsubstantiated claim from an industry critic. Dummy.



Killswitch thinks that paying a CEO some 0.01% of revenues is really making a difference in the cost of his insurance.



This is all unsubstantiated claptrap. Try explaining to people what percentage of their healthcare dollars actually go to these various places.

http://www.healthbeatblog.org/images/2008/01/22/image001.gif

"The costs to the health system of treating uninsured patients have not been systematically documented. A recent analysis concluded that the uninsured received approximately $34.5 billion in uncompen-sated care in 2001."

And say it's doubled since then. That's $60B out of more than $2T, or less than 3%.

http://www.commonwealthfund.org/~/media/Files/Publications/In%20the%20Literature/2003/Jun/The%20Costs%20and%20Consequences%20of%20Being%20Uninsured/davis_consequences_itl_663%20pdf.pdf

Listen, you're missing the point. I realize that health insurance is big business. My point is that the industry is showing skyrocketing profit - despite covering fewer patients. And that skyrocketing profit is part of the reason that healthcare costs in the USA are high. Their actual existence is part of the reason our costs are higher than the rest of the world.

Insurance companies exist for the sole purpose of pulling a profit out of health care. They make money off of charging as much as the market will allow, while denying payment for as much care as possible. Countries with single payor systems do not have this kind of middle entity who exists just to drive up costs.

As far as the cost of uninsured patients, the figure does not include the cost of uninsured going broke and having to be on Medicaid. One reason health insurers drop sick/costly patients (and I have seen this many times) is because they know that Medicaid is there as an alternative. Why should an insurance company take an ongoing loss on someone when they could kick 'em off so they go on the government doll?

And yes, doctors and providers in the USA make a lot more $$$ than doctors in other countries' health care systems.

The only way to reduce costs is less money to insurance companies, pharm, and providers. Are you aware of any other way? What are your theories about why the USA has 250%-300% the cost of care than other nations?

 

[mercury14]

Btw, you realize that in that pie chart, that 4.5% private insurance costs is only their administrative costs, right?

But let's say for a moment that insurance doesn't play a very large part in accounting for the preposterous cost of heath care in America.... So then why hare Republicans been touting their "more competition across state lines" plan as the solution to reducing costs? (meanwhile, Republicans have always been fine with corporate mergers in the health insurance industry, which reduce competition and increase prices).

 

[Ham Murabi]

Insurance companies exist for the sole purpose of pulling a profit out of health care.

Funny, the bottom line for my company is the bottom line, and I don't even work in the health insurance business. Then I got to thinking about it, and every one of the businesses I passed on the way home - well, they're in it for the money, too.
I think the sleaziest example would be the three grocery stores that I drove by. Don't these grocers know that without food people will die, yet they continue to be motivated by profit! And they're the middle man - they don't even grow their own corn or raise their own chickens!

 

[unregistered]

 

[Liar]

The President, The Democrat Party, Lack Credibility

So, who doesn't?

 

[firespin]

The biggest reason healthcare costs go up and up is because consumers have no motivation to try to keep them low...their marginal cost for having another procedure done is very small, so sure, let's have another test, or let's tack on another hospital charge, or go ahead, raise prices by 10% every year.

Insurance companies used to take a harder line on these things, but providers and patients rebelled, with sob stories about grandma's liver transplant being refused, so in most cases they just pass the costs along now in the form of higher premiums.

It would make more sense for insurance to cover only major medical, so that people would have to be aware of what they were being charged for other things.

And to your question, the biggest reason for interstate competition is to do an end around state insurance boards that mandate expensive coverages that most people people don't want to buy, in order to make providers happy.

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

UD, Trouload, KO, et al, apparently have failed to check in and admit their gullibility.

Sure, it pays for them when they're in the emergency room. When they could've been treated for a whole lot less if they'd been seeing a doctor for preventive care. And guess who pays for that expensive care through higher premiums.

AJ, this isn't rocket science. Even you can do the math. Heh.

__________________
"You cap your health care budget, and you make the political and economic choices you need to make to keep affordability within reach."
"And it's important also to make health a human right because the main health determinants are not health care but sanitation, nutrition, housing, social justice, employment, and the like [like free education d00d - A_J]."
"One over-demanded service is prevention: annual physicals, screening tests, and other measures that supposedly help catch diseases early [Pookie - A_J]."
Donald Berwick
Death Panel Czar

~ More Damned Democrat Tomfoolery ~

How can you measure the value of knowing that company books are sounder than they were before? Of no more overnight bankruptcies with the employees and retirees left holding the bag? No more disruption to entire sectors of the economy?
Michael Oxley 2002
Co-Author of Sarbanes-Oxley Law

It will take the next economic crisis, as certainly it will come, to determine whether or not the provisions of this bill will actually provide this generation or the next generation of regulators with the tools necessary to minimize the effects of that crisis.
Chris Dodd
Co-Author Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act

"It was a great mistake to push lower-income people into housing they couldn’t afford and couldn’t really handle once they had it. ... I had been too sanguine about Fannie and Freddie.”
Barney Frank

“The federal government, yes, can do most anything in this country.”
Fortney Hillman "Pete" Stark, Jr. (D)

"It really doesn’t prohibit the government from doing virtually anything — the federal government. So I don’t know the answer to your question, because I am not sure there is anything under current interpretation of the commerce clause that the government couldn’t do."
John Yarmuth (D)

“Are you serious? Are you serious?”
Nancy Pelosi (D) (on being asked, can you find it in The Constitution?)

 

[Frisco_Slug_Esq]

Funny, the bottom line for my company is the bottom line, and I don't even work in the health insurance business. Then I got to thinking about it, and every one of the businesses I passed on the way home - well, they're in it for the money, too.
I think the sleaziest example would be the three grocery stores that I drove by. Don't these grocers know that without food people will die, yet they continue to be motivated by profit! And they're the middle man - they don't even grow their own corn or raise their own chickens!

The libs seem to think that unless you're a slobbering bed-wetting left-wing actor or politician, that taking a profit is exploitation, that all companies should break even at best and somehow, they have the idiot notion that not-for-profits don't follow a profit model.