Insurance Should Benefit Consumers; Not Corporate Managers and Campaign Contributors

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.

It started off as a bipartisan measure meant "to improve financial regulation by setting up an Office of Insurance Information that would collect insurance data at the national level and beef up the government's in-house expertise on insurance policy. In addition, the office would advise legislators on international as well as domestic insurance concerns." Pretty tame stuff, right? Listening to right-wing Republicans and their Blue Dog counterparts, you would think someone had just proposed socialism. "I believe in states' rights," said Rep. Ruben Hinojosa, D-Texas, adding that he needed more information to decide on whether he would support the bill. His sentiment was echoed by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y." Why?

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.

Even if legislators don't see it-- their own system is dandy-- health insurance is one of the problems Americans are most pissed off about. If Democrats can't go beyond talking about it and actual fix it, they will be as reviled as Bush and his rubber stamp Republicans.