May 12 2009
Obama’s Healthcare Announcement Legitimizes Insurance Industry
President Barack Obama announced yesterday that a coalition of stakeholders have voluntarily pledged to reduce health care costs over the next ten years. The president unveiled the plan to cut national healthcare spending up to $2 trillion and “save a typical family an average of $2,500 on their health care costs in the coming years.” Obama stated Monday, that the coalition of six interest groups including doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, drug makers, and one union, have put forward a proposal that is compatible with his comprehensive healthcare reform plans. Although it is not yet clear how costs will be reduced, the President stated that his plan to reform the health care system will uphold three basic principles including cost reductions, the ability to choose your own doctors, and affordability. He also stated that having health care costs under control is “essential” to getting the economy back on track. David Sirota with the Campaign for America’s Future is critical of yesterday’s announcement. According to him, “Either you appease the health industry and preserve the status quo they are making big bucks off of, or you take on the health industry and make real change.” Meanwhile a new study by Commonwealth Fund found that working women are worse off than men with respect to health care costs. The study reported that women are less able to afford health care including filling prescriptions, seeing a specialist, or getting a medical test, than men.
GUEST: Katie Robbins, Assistant national coordinator of Healthcare-NOW
For more information, visit www.healthcare-NOW.org.
7 Responses to “Obama’s Healthcare Announcement Legitimizes Insurance Industry”
NOTHING WILL EVER CHANGE—IF FOR-PROFIT INSURANCE COMPANIES ARE INVOLVED
That the point–to discuss health care with—BUSINESS LEADERS. For profit business shouldn’t be involved in health care at all? THE PEOPLE do not need middleman anymore, as they become rich of the backs of sick people. It will be very interesting to see what is enacted on Capitol Hill? Too much money to be made by both parties, for UHC to succeed. Large Campaign Contributions buys a lot of influence in our politics? Let us see if the majority of Democrats and President Obama are really concerned about the working man? Just remember that Health care is a trillion dollar—FOR PROFIT— industry in America, that does not work for the average person.
When you have seen family members dying because they have denied medical care, as they had insufficient coverage. When your sick child could not afford 14 drugs to keep them alive. Yes! I think its time for a European type health care, without worrying about co-pays and premiums? Only the wealthy like the broken system the way it is because they can afford everything they need, including home visits by prestigious physicians. We–THE AMERICAN PEOPLE–are given less service, less preventative medicine–specially if you have been laid-off from your job. However the fact that hundreds of thousands of well-heeled investors, including our senators and Congressman who make massive profits in the medical industry–AS THAT IS WHAT IT IS–AN INDUSTRY? The million dollar ads on behalf of the pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies are already here to scare people off a European system Their biggest worry is that it will eat into their enormous profits? Nobody on the lower pay scale will get decent humane medical care, while the monolithic for-profit insurance companies are involved, as they will bleed every penny they can from us. Before the British legal and illegal immigration invasion of the 1950’s, my distant relatives assured me they received first class health care from the government.
Just have to ensure illegal nationals go home to get health care–NOT ON THE BACKS OF TAXPAYERS? CALL YOUR SENATORS & REPRESENTATIVES AND DEMAND IT?
Right now we are living with the current disgraceful practice of insurance companies refusing to pay for medical treatment, denying claims, and engaging in rampant price gouging that discourages patients from going to the doctor, and has resulted in 50 million Americans without healthcare and 87 million Americans without health insurance at some point in the past 2 years.
The health insurance companies have played a major role in our current healthcare crisis. They make huge profits and their CEOs make millions, while the rest of us are denied care.
ANNUAL COMPENSATION OF HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANY EXECUTIVES (2006 and 2007 figures):
• Ronald A. Williams, Chair/ CEO, Aetna Inc., $23,045,834
• H. Edward Hanway, Chair/ CEO, Cigna Corp, $30.16 million
• David B. Snow, Jr, Chair/ CEO, Medco Health, $21.76 million
• Michael B. MCallister, CEO, Humana Inc, $20.06 million
• Stephen J. Hemsley, CEO, UnitedHealth Group, $13,164,529
• Angela F. Braly, President/ CEO, Wellpoint, $9,094,771
• Dale B. Wolf, CEO, Coventry Health Care, $20.86 million
• Jay M. Gellert, President/ CEO, Health Net, $16.65 million
• William C. Van Faasen, Chairman, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, $3 million plus $16.4 million in retirement benefits
• Charlie Baker, President/ CEO, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, $1.5 million
• James Roosevelt, Jr., CEO, Tufts Associated Health Plans, $1.3 million
• Cleve L. Killingsworth, President/CEO Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, $3.6 million
• Raymond McCaskey, CEO, Health Care Service Corp (Blue Cross Blue Shield), $10.3 million
• Daniel P. McCartney, CEO, Healthcare Services Group, Inc, $ 1,061,513
• Daniel Loepp, CEO, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, $1,657,555
• Todd S. Farha, CEO, WellCare Health Plans, $5,270,825
• Michael F. Neidorff, CEO, Centene Corp, $8,750,751
This executive compensation could be used to provide quality healthcare for thousands of Americans! Americans need a NON-profit healthcare system that provides healthcare for all.
If you want to learn more, go to:
http://www.insurancecompanyrules.org
WHY ISN’T SINGLE-PAYER ON THE TABLE?
A NEW STUDY SHOWS THAT SINGLE-PAYER HEALTHCARE REFORM WOULD BE A MAJOR STIMULUS FOR THE US ECONOMY and would provide:
** 2.6 Million New Jobs,
** $317 Billion in Business Revenue,
** $100 Billion in Wages, and
** $44 Billion New Tax Revenues
You can find out more about this study here: http://www.CalNurses.org/
The press release is here: http://www.calnurses.org/media-center/press-releases/2009/january/nurses-to-congress-expanding-medicare-could-reverse-job-losses-and-repair-our-broken-healthcare-system-and-safety-net.html
And check out this Bloomberg.com article, “No Reason to Demonize U.S. Single-Payer Health:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&refer=columnist_wasik&sid=ao58otXrmrPM
We must get the insurance companies OUT of healthcare.
I agree that the insurance industry is a major culprit in picking the consumer’s pocket. But there are four other groups who are in it for the money, also. 1)doctors themselves who average over $200k for family practice and $300-400K for specialists. 2) Infrastructure providers… hospitals, clinics and medical suppliers 3)drug companies who make obscene profits and spend huge sums of money pushing their products 4) attorney’s who sue the three groups above for incredible awards.
A well run single payer system with real clout to demand reasonable charges for services and drugs and tort reform would make all the difference in the world. But single payer means taking on the insurance companies and HMO’s head on and they have tremendous resources with which to fight. I believe Obama’s plan to create a government-run alternative is a good step which may have some chance of passage in Congress. Hopefully we can grow this seed organization, over time, into a single payer. A workable variation on this would be state=-run alternative “insurance”.
A privately run not=for-profit insurance company could serve as the single payer. According to Tom Daschle’s book, Blue Cross Blue Shield worked very well, initially, starting out as a non-profit insurer. But as other insurers started cherry picking all the healthy young people away from them, BCBS declined to eventually become just another contemporary health insurance company. For-profit health insurance has got to go.
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