Updated: Health Insurance Companies Prefer Compromise Over Competition
With the writing on the wall concerning Health Care, suddenly Insurers are willing to talk.
WASHINGTON —The health insurance industry said Tuesday that it was willing to end the practice of charging higher premiums to sick people if Congress adopted a comprehensive plan that provided coverage to all Americans.
The industry’s flexible position on the issue came as a surprise to lawmakers, and could make it easier to reach an agreement in Congress because it narrows the issues on which insurers are ready to fight the Democrats who control Congress and the White House.
Insurers said they were still staunchly opposed to creation of a new government-run health insurance plan, which, under many Democratic proposals, would compete directly with private insurers.
Ah… they are staunchly opposed to a government-run plan because it would create competition. But, how could this be? We’ve been told for years about the horrors of government-run health care, so, it goes to reason, that only those losers with pre-existing conditions and people too dense to get a job with benefits will take advantage of a government health care program. Everyone else will stay with their private insurer. Right?
Wrong. This won’t happen, and health insurance companies know it. They know that they’ve been offering a crappy product at exorbitant prices. And for all the nightmarish stories thrown out concerning a government plan, the truth is that the health insurance industry has its own little shop of horrors. And it’s this truth that has them in a panic. It’s also funny to note how quickly they abandon their competitive, free market principles when faced with competition.
In effect, insurers said they were willing to discard an element of their longstanding business model, under which insurance policies are priced, in part, on the basis of a person’s medical condition or history.
In the past, insurers have warned that if they could not consider a person’s health in setting premiums, the rates charged to young, healthy people would soar, making coverage unaffordable.
But Karen M. Ignagni, president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, a major trade group, told lawmakers on Tuesday that insurers were exploring ideas to prevent such increases by spreading the risks and costs across a larger population of both healthy and unhealthy people.
Insurers said that they could accept more aggressive regulation of not just their premiums but also their benefits, underwriting practices and other activities. Such strict regulation, they said, would make a new public program unnecessary.
Yep, they are in a panic, and their goal is clear: Stop government health care. The truth is they can’t compete, and the only reason they’re still in existence is because they’ve all agreed to be as bad as the next guy. Seriously, if one buys into all the insurance companies’ propaganda then no one with private insurance would ever consider a government plan. Which would maintain the status quo – meaning that only those people currently uninsured would take advantage of government health care because they had no other option. The rest of us would stay with our awesome private insurance. Life goes on, same as before.
But that’s not what will happen, and insurance companies realize that they’re in trouble and quite possibly facing extinction. For far too long they have been gouging the American people, offering only two choices: Pay up or be uninsured (small print: even if you pay up don’t count on having your health bills paid). And, when it comes to greed, private health insurers give Wall Street a run for their money. It’s another example of a rigged system, one in which profits are built not by offering a sought after, superior product, but by denying care.
So spare me the dire warnings and horror stories about government-run health care. I don’t believe it can be any worse than what most of us are dealing with now. And that’s the problem. Private Health Insurance companies have very little to do with health… unless health refers to company profits.
UPDATE: Action Item – Stand With Dean. Sign the petition!
“Give America a choice. We support healthcare reform that allows individual Americans to choose either a universally available public healthcare option like Medicare or for-profit private insurance. A public option is the only way to guarantee healthcare for all Americans and its inclusion is non- negotiable.
Any legislation without the choice of a public option is only insurance reform and not the healthcare reform America needs.”
Tags: Health Care
I just hope we don’t end up with a mandate, unless there is a government insurance option. I don’t think requiring people to buy crappy high premium insurance will solve the problem.
I guess I feel that our only sensible choice is to have a government-run system with perhaps private supplemental insurance. Right now it’s a propaganda war and it’s going to be very difficult because we still have a hard time convincing people that we don’t have the best health care in the world, we just have the most expensive and inefficient system.
No, health insurance companies are not in panic. This willingness to compromise has everything to do with $17 billion on the table for health insurance reform. This is serious money.
So a little compromise for a big chunk of change makes sense.
Oh the the insurance companies!
For too long, we have invested too much without receiving quality protection from our insurance companies. We must hold them responsible for their behavior by calling to responsibility in prices, treatment, information and transparency; FAIR is an organization that brings attention to this purpose.
This is where we should start to create a healthcare system that will serve to benefit all.
Check out the web site: http://www.fairmanagedcare.org
I don’t believe it can be any worse than what most of us are dealing with now.
Oh, well, that makes a government system without any choices at all acceptable? I guess you must not read any of the horror stories about the NHS or other socialized medical systems.
I’m not defending many of the practices of the insurance industry. It’s a racket that only makes money by receiving premiums and denying claims. But having the government decide whether you can have a hip replacement (the answer is “no”) isn’t going to be fun either.
Oddly enough, I was having this discussion with my doctor this morning, and her answer was, “By the time we’re 80, healthcare is gonna suck. I just hope it doesn’t happen before then.” And this was coming from someone who hates the hospital administration and insurance system, as well.
I know you think free mammograms and prenatal visits are the be all and end all. But you won’t be 25 forever. Eventually, you’ll be the 60 year old looking for a knee replacement or the 70 year old wanting bypass surgery. And the chances are good that the government system will tell you “no.”
I listened to Howard Dean’s conference call last night and he made a point repeatedly. If the new health care plan does not include a Medicare-for-all type of program then we have accomplished nothing. Americans must have the choice between government and private insurance. CHOICE. Right now we don’t have that choice and the insurance industry is screwing us over. All you free-marketeers ought to love choice. Without competition we will never change our health care system. In this case, the competition is coming from the same folks who run a super-efficient Medicare program. It’s not perfect, but it’s a far cry from the private insurance that is now on offer.
The problem with a government alternative is that people will see “free” and abandon private insurance. Because they don’t pay their own premiums, they will think that the system costs nothing, or that the costs are minimal. This is what happened in Hawaii when the state offered insurance for children. Parents dumped their kids from their private insurance policies so that they would be eligible for the “free” state insurance.
Of course, we all know that a government system wouldn’t be free, any more than Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid or any other government service is free. This is why the Hawaii system was shut down after (I think) 7 months. They were simply overwhelmed with people wanting “free” health care.
Maybe you haven’t spent much time dealing with Medicare and that’s why you see it as “super-efficient.” But “super-efficient” means that various services and medications will not be covered. It means nursing home coverage, for example, will be restricted in one way or another.
I happen to be a free market capitalist. But government healthcare will not, in fact, be capitalism in any way. Because of the size and power of government, they will be able to squeeze and shrink the private insurance system until it is either far too expensive for most people (thus funneling them into the government system) or regulation will squeeze these payers out.
I think pressuring insurance companies to drop their practice of charging more for the sick (or refusing to cover them) is an excellent idea. But government “competition” is an oxymoron.
Sharon…open debate…wouldn’t it go to say that if the private insurance industry lost copious members to a government provider, they would then have to become more aggressive in getting those members back? That would include better premiums and better coverage to do so.
I haven’t had a chance to read Dean’s approach at all (I intend to, so I can be better informed on my opinions), but going from what I read here, I get the impression that Dean is hell-bent that the private industry not be deep-sixed at all, but expose them to legitimate competition that couldn’t give a rat’s @$$ about being in-line (or within range) of other “competitors” to keep that margin healthy.
Do I agree with more government programs? No, not really, but when the current model is a broken relic and no one cares to actually fix it, beyond words, then I can accept the kick in the @$$ to make it right.
That said, I need to read up on Dean’s plan to understand the big picture better.
Oh…and P…the total current bill among insurance (attempting subrogation) and providers whose claims were rejected in spite of on-going care for my wife (old story if you are new to this) is ever-increasing. Hell, we probably got another bill in the time I typed this.
Sorry, Smitty. It really is a rigged racket. Insurance companies have become a monopoly.
Health insurance reform won’t work without a public option. It’s that simple. Without it, insurance interests and their friends and facilitators will bend health insurance reform so far out of shape it won’t even be reform in any meaningful sense.
What Madison Guy said!