As soon as "Obamacare" goes into effect, Big Health Insurance will become the most powerful lobby in

[Snake Alchemist]

the US. The influx of money will be incredible. People who think that somehow things are going to change or that power will be wrested away from them afterward don't seem to grasp the power and influence they will have.

[Better Believe It]

1. It all but guarantees the continued control of our health care system by them.

[Snake Alchemist]

3. Continued and strengthened. nt

[ProSense]

2. You should

read this:

Wendell Potter Agrees: Big-Profit Health Insurance Almost Dead
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002390746

[TheKentuckian]

14. How long until their demise and what causes the downfall?

You have an "industry" that gets 16% (and growing) of the world's largest economy flowing through it's hands, what possible danger could it be in?

Hint, it sure as hell isn't the goofyass MLR, because even if it works quite well, 15-20% of a 1/16 (and growing) is a terrific profit margin, larger than big oil's by a significant amount.

It isn't the mandate, what industry wouldn't want compulsury customers?

It isn't the subsidies, what industry wouldn't want the US Treasury making up the difference between what it's customers can pay and what they want to charge?

They are in no way hamstrung with regulation, besides baseball they have the only anti-trust exemption and generally face the same under resourced and captured states.

The biggest dangers this predatory cartel faced were fixed by the Wealthcare and Profit Protection Act, people won't be able to fire them, consumer mobility was reduced by reenforcing the employer as gatekeeper, and Unle Sam will now kick in the difference between what can be squeezed from the consumer and what they want to charge.

The claim just doesn't make sense, very few industries have a more profitable model or surer customers, if any?

Soon in geological terms, maybe. Soon in human terms, is fucking ridiculous. Almost dead is not supported and I don't care what name is thrown around to back up the thought. The claim is incredible and comes with the burden of proof. Most people won't be on a Federal plan soon because there is no such thing, with no one to pass it, and no way to access it since most folks MUST buy from the company store. Over the next projected 20 years there is no expectation of general access to the exchanges.

The insurance cartel is one of the safest possible bets and compared to most industries, highly profitable.

The system was far closer to collapse before the Wealthcare and Profit Protection Act, which was designed from the root up to embrace, protect, and enhance the insurance cartel.

[ProSense]

21. I take it

"How long until their demise and what causes the downfall?"

...you didn't read the article or is it a rhetorical question so that you can make up your own?

"The system was far closer to collapse before the Wealthcare and Profit Protection Act, which was designed from the root up to embrace, protect, and enhance the insurance cartel."

Great argument: Allow people to continue to die in greater numbers so that we watch the alleged collapse of the insurance industry.

[mac56]

4. I'd take this with a grain of salt.

People are prone to make things up on DU lately.

[frazzled]

5. They'll be regulated for the first time

Under the law they won't be able to impose lifetime or annual caps on their payments for your care, as they are able to do now.
Under the law they won't be able to drop you if you get sick, as they are able to do now.
Under the law they won't be able to turn you down for a pre-existing condition, as they are able to do now.
Under the law they will be required to spend 85% of their funds on actual health care payments, or else return the money to their customers. As things stand now they have no such requirements.
Under the law they will have to provide certain basic benefits if they want to be on the exchanges. As things stand now, there are scam insurers who sell policies that cover next to nothing.

So let them lobby. The laws that are a good start at changing the worst problems of the insurance industry will already be in place. But nice try.

[Snake Alchemist]

6. That will not offset the amount of money they will be receiving. nt

[CAPHAVOC]

15. Problem

ACA gives them 20% off the top. All they will be required to do is post up on government written policies and service them with electronic billing. They can price them as needed. The higher the price gets the more they make for doing less. No underwriting and minimal policy service. They love these regulations. it is a free money machine. We pay, they play.

[EFerrari]

22. None of those things help people who cannot afford to use the insurance

they are mandated to buy. Those are INSURANCE benefits, not healthcare.

[frazzled]

28. Try informing yourself

People who earn up to 400% of the poverty level will be getting subsidies on a sliding scale to purchase the insurance. Medicaid will be expanded under this law to now include many more people at the bottom of the scale.

This is in no way a part of the issue about this case.

It's been working in Massachusetts, and people there overwhelmingly like it.

[cbayer]

7. Yeah, that's why they lobbied so hard to get it passed

[Snake Alchemist]

8. Who's idea do you think the mandate is? nt

[and-justice-for-all]

10. It was orginally republicans idea...

an idea they championed back in 1993 and now since a Democrat came up with it, it is now somehow unconstitutional. But no one has an issue that we are required via an individual mandate to have car insurnace.

Seeing that if you make 15K or less, you will be able to use Medicare/caid.

[Snake Alchemist]

12. That says it all. nt

[CAPHAVOC]

16. Car Insurance is a State Traffic Law. It is mandated to get a Tag.

The fine for not having it is an administrative license regulation. Total different Animal.

[TheKentuckian]

19. We have no such thing. My sister hasn't paid insurance in over twenty years.

She takes the bus to work, uses a fleet vehicle if need be at work, takes the bus home, and on occasion will rent a car.

She has not violated the law, she has paid not one thin dime in penalties, and she sure as hell hasn't written a single check so what mandate?

I have insurance but my employer does not dictate my coverage that I am required to have and if I don't pay it, the IRS fails to come collect or to penalize me.
Hell, even my state is not compelling my activity but rather regulating activity that I elect to participate in by my own free will and even then, I decide not anyone else on how to comply with the regulation of activity I willingly participate in. If I don't like my rates or decide that I don't want to do business with an outfit then I can fire them and choose someone else that better suites my needs. This piece of shit Right Wing law dictates that if my employer wants Cigna then I have Cigna, however I feel about them or the rates.

The analogy is clumsy, at best.

[obxhead]

25. Apples and oranges.

I can choose not to own a car and not be fined for failure to have car insurance. I'm sick of this bullshit comparison.

[cbayer]

17. The mandate is a critical part of providing universal coverage.

Whether we have a single payer system or a system with market driven choices, allowing people to opt out until they were sick would bankrupt it rapidly.

You sure do have some funny ideas about things.

[Snake Alchemist]

20. Opt out of the mandate? If that's the case then we are fine. nt

[Romulox]

26. Insurance companies are not a critical part of providing universal coverage.

That is the point at issue--mandatory FOR PROFIT insurance.

[and-justice-for-all]

9. If you make under 15K a year

You will be able to use Medicare.

[bornskeptic]

11. Nonsense!

160 million people are insured by private insurance now. That doesn't count the millions in Medicare who participate in Medicare Advantage plans or Part D plans, or who buy Medigap policies. It doesn't include the millions of people in traditional Medicare and Tricarewhose claims are handled by private insurance companies on a contract basis.In 2014, only about 16 million more are anticipated to be added to that number. The increase in private insurance business will be almost insignificant. In exchange, they're bound by hundreds of pages of new regulations.

[Snake Alchemist]

13. You'll notice they are not the ones challenging it in court. nt

[EFerrari]

23. $447 billion in taxpayer funds per Dr. Steffie Woolhandler this morning

on Amy's show.

[One_Life_To_Give]

18. Their Lobbyists wrote it! What do you expect?

They knew exactly what they were doing when they wrote the bill. Enough carrots and misdirection to make it look good. But in the end the authors insured their paymasters work was done.

[obxhead]

24. Exactly!

I'm tired of seeing the tired old meme that big insurance hates "Obamacare."

It's a gift of the golden goose to them! They can literally print money now, built on the backs of the middle class.

[girl gone mad]

27. Correct. We'll NEVER get a single payer system if the mandate is upheld. n/t