Support AlterNet
Do you value the information you're getting from AlterNet? Please show your support with a tax-deductible donation.
Feedback
Tell us how we're doing.
Insurance Should Benefit Consumers; Not Corporate Managers and Campaign Contributors
Share and save this post:
AlterNet Social Networks:
Got a tip for a post?:
Email us | Anonymous form
Insurance shouldn't be a for-profit business. In fact, it has failed miserably as such. So far this year the insurance industry is the 8th biggest source of bribes "contributions" for congressional Republicans ($7,541,565) and the 11th biggest source for congressional Democrats ($9,126,935). (In 2006, when they were fight for their hero Rick Santorum, insurance executives doled out $13,277,247 for Republican candidates (62% of their total) and $7,705,797 to Democratic candidates (36% of their total). This year, with greasy Democratic thugs Schumer, Emanuel and Hoyer replacing greasy GOP thugs Santorum, Delay and Blunt as the enforcers with the power, Dems have gotten 55% of the insurance industry's bribe stash. Why? Well, it surely isn't because they have suddenly gotten that old time religion and realized that Democratic ideals, values and principles are best for the country. It's far more likely that SchumerEmanuelHoyer has assured them that Democratic ideals, values and principles will never get in the way of, you know... business.
The first time I met Howard Dean he talked to me about how health insurance was too crucial in people's lives to be left as a private industry out to make a quick buck and incentivized to deny peoples' claims whenever they can get away with it. Today's CongressDaily features a story by Shihoko Goto that makes it abundantly clear that many Democrats agree with the Republicans that insurance shouldn't just be a private industry, it should be an unregulated one with license to rip everyone off at will, the way they do now.
A bill seeking to create a federal office for insurance regulation within the Treasury Department is coming under close scrutiny, with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle questioning the need for it.
Some members of the insurance industry expressed concern about the bill and the possibility of adding red tape to the business.
"There is no crisis in the insurance industry" that warrants the establishment of a federal office, and change current business practices, said Brian Kennedy, a member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives and president of the National Conference of Insurance Legislators.
The economic downturn is speeding up the unraveling of America's healthcare system.
In what experts call a "startling" development, the number of people who have health insurance but not enough to pay their medical costs has spiked from 16 million in 2003 to 25 million in 2007, according to a new analysis.
They're called the underinsured-- working Americans whose employers don't provide health insurance so they have to buy it on their own, or who have jobs that offer only catastrophic plans with high copayments and deductibles in the thousands of dollars. An increasing number are solidly middle-class.
The study by nonprofit, nonpartisan Commonwealth Fund also found that underinsured Americans are now acting more like the nation's 47 million uninsured: They're more likely to forgo recommended medical care for fear they won't be able to pay for it. Such preventive intervention is key to keeping healthcare costs down, medical experts say.
A total of 75 million working adults were either uninsured or underinsured in 2007, the study found. That's 42 percent of the US population ages 19 through 64, up sharply from one-third in 2003.
"This erosion in insurance protection is putting patients, families, and the nation's health and economic security at risk," says Cathy Schoen, senior vice president of the Commonwealth Fund and one of the study's coauthors. "As a nation we are losing ground. We need to move in new directions."
| Also by Howie Klein | |||
| Can Pelosi Save American Health Care Reform from the Republican Health Care Horror Show? How Pelosi is keeping us out of the clutches of insurance industry predators. June 20, 2009. |
Taking Your Happiness Where You Can Find It On Monday it was at the sentencing of a UBS swindler. November 4, 2008. |
McCain's Judgment On Trial: The Senator and the Governor McCain might as well have picked a parrot or a mynah bird. October 3, 2008. |
Lieberman at the RNC: Lied When He Said He's a Dem and Never Stopped Watched Joe Lieberman's speech so you didn't have to. September 3, 2008. |
EMAIL
PRINT
6 COMMENTS
PERMALINK