President Obama Calls Out The Health Insurance Cartel

[Mick Jagger]

President Obama Calls Out The Health Insurance Cartel​

There are still those who would try to kill reform at any cost. The history is clear: for decades rising health care costs have unleashed havoc on families, businesses, and the economy. And for decades, whenever we have tried to reform the system, the insurance companies have done everything in their considerable power to stop us.

We know that this inaction has carried a terrible toll. In the past decade, premiums have doubled. Over the past few years, total out of pocket costs for people with insurance rose by a third. And we know that if we do not reform the system, this will only be a preview of coming attractions. A new report for the Business Roundtable – a non-partisan group that represents the CEOs of major companies – found that without significant reform, health care costs for these employers and their employees will well more than double again over the next decade. The cost per person for health insurance will rise by almost $18,000. That’s a huge amount of money. That’s going to mean lower salaries and higher unemployment, lower profits and higher rolls of uninsured. It is no exaggeration to say, that unless we act, these costs will devastate the US economy.

This is the unsustainable path we’re on, and it’s the path the insurers want to keep us on. In fact, the insurance industry is rolling out the big guns and breaking open their massive war chest – to marshal their forces for one last fight to save the status quo. They’re filling the airwaves with deceptive and dishonest ads. They’re flooding Capitol Hill with lobbyists and campaign contributions. And they’re funding studies designed to mislead the American people.

Of course, like clockwork, we’ve seen folks on cable television who know better, waving these industry-funded studies in the air. We’ve seen industry insiders – and their apologists – citing these studies as proof of claims that just aren’t true. They’ll claim that premiums will go up under reform; but they know that the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office found that reforms will lower premiums in a new insurance exchange while offering consumer protections that will limit out-of-pocket costs and prevent discrimination based on pre-existing conditions. They’ll claim that you’ll have to pay more out of pocket; but they know that this is based on a study that willfully ignores whole sections of the bill, including tax credits and cost savings that will greatly benefit middle class families. Even the authors of one of these studies have now admitted publicly that the insurance companies actually asked them to do an incomplete job.

It’s smoke and mirrors. It’s bogus. And it’s all too familiar. Every time we get close to passing reform, the insurance companies produce these phony studies as a prescription and say, "Take one of these, and call us in a decade." Well, not this time. The fact is, the insurance industry is making this last-ditch effort to stop reform even as costs continue to rise and our health care dollars continue to be poured into their profits, bonuses, and administrative costs that do nothing to make us healthy – that often actually go toward figuring out how to avoid covering people. And they’re earning these profits and bonuses while enjoying a privileged exception from our anti-trust laws, a matter that Congress is rightfully reviewing.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press...e-Reform-Despite-Defenders-of-the-Status-Quo/

 

[fossten]

A thuggish president attacks a private sector industry. You're proud of this. Welcome to the fringe left. Who's next, Christians?

 

[Mick Jagger]

A thuggish president attacks a private sector industry. You're proud of this?

In this case, yes. The health insurance cartel needs to be tamed.

Welcome to the fringe left.

Thank you.

Who's next, Christians?

Just the ones working with the health insurance cartel to maintain their privileged exception from our anti-trust laws and their tyrannical despotic control over who lives and who dies.

 

[Calabrio]

Just the ones working with the health insurance cartel to maintain their privileged exception from our anti-trust laws and their tyrannical despotic control over who lives and who dies.

So why not just repeal the anti-trust law and reform the system. Why is it necessary to rush through a radical government health care system. This question is even more important when the benefits don't kick in until 2013.

This entire plan doesn't address cost, it's just about payment.
Arguably, the problem with healthcare is cost.
High demand means you need high prices to creat the high supply. If you fix prices, you'll still have high demand, but fixed prices will lead to shortages. And then, rationing.

This is healthcare bill isn't about increasing access to health care. They even admit that 2/3 of the uninsured will remain uninsured after it's passed. But it does centralize power in Washington, D.C. and give the federal government the power to involve itself in EVERY decision in our lives.

Want to drive a fast car...that's a high risk activity. You will pay.
It won't necessarily be illegal, but you're going to pay for it.
Want to own a gun. That's dangerous and the collective will have to pay if you get hurt. So, you can own it, but you're going to pay for it with insurance.

Health care is a window for the government to dictate and control EVERY aspect of our lives. From gun rights to careers to leisure to children... everything.