David Sirota: "Obamacare: The Gift To Insurers That Will Keep on Giving"

[OhioChick]

10:50 a.m. October 2, 2013

This week's healthcare-themed government shutdown and the much-vaunted launch of the insurance exchanges has predictably jump-started the latest season of "The Politics of Obamacare."

In this made-for-TV cartoon series, the battle over the new law has been depicted as a fight between competing small guys. Bam! Democrats insist opponents of the law don't care about the uninsured, even though the new law will leave millions of people without health coverage. Ker-pow! Republicans claim that proponents of the law don't care about struggling businesses, even though America's for-profit employer-based system puts U.S. businesses at a competitive disadvantage.

Now, as a Wile E. Coyote government hurtles toward another fiscal cliff and as cable news substitutes red-versus-blue prognostication for fact-based health policy reporting, few in D.C. bother to mention that Obamacare really isn't designed with patients, most employers or even health care in mind. It is primarily designed to further enrich one tiny handful of businesses: health insurance corporations.

There are a many ways to see this amid the capital's latest riff off a Hannah-Barbera production.

More: https://www.nsfwcorp.com/dispatch/obamacare-ker-pow/

[Hydra]

1. And they are laughing all the way to the bank n/t

[ChromeFoundry]

3. Yep, in the Cayman Islands n/t

[frazzled]

2. David Sirota: the crank who can't stop complaining.

And hey, how's that President Edwards thing going for him?

[yurbud]

22. so...do you have some factual dispute with him? Or do you think free range snark is somehow going

to hurt his reputation here?

[colsohlibgal]

4. The Good/The Bad

This bill really helps people with pre existing conditions, it helps almost anyone because it lifts the lifetime cap dodge.

Is it really going to do much to alleviate a huge problem for us with healthcare, the ballooning costs and rising deductibles - No.

We remain pretty much alone in allowing for profit healthcare, and make no mistake, this bill will continue making big money for big shots at these companies, big shots that play no role whatsoever in providing care. That is so very wrong which is why other nations balk at for profit healthcare.

And we remain obstinate in not allowing negotiation for lower prescription drug prices.

Hopefully this is a foot in the door, but I'm not holding my breath, not as long as big money rules Congress.

[ellenrr]

5. Health stocks rise

as they did when Obamacare was announced.

if you need any evidence-
"Insurer stocks outpace market as exchanges debut"

"Stocks of several big health insurers outpaced gains on the broader market Tuesday, as enrollment began for a key provision of the health care overhaul. Analysts warn, however, that investors in the sector could be in for a bumpy ride over the next few months."

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/insurer-stocks-outpace-market-exchanges-195728002.html

[BridgeTheGap]

6. Exactly why single payer never got traction and the public option

was killed off in short order.

[Doctor_J]

10. Yep. If it doesn't make the .01% even richer, it doesn't even get a look

Even from the Dem president and Congress.

[geek tragedy]

7. Leftwing Teabaggers like Sirota are also terrified that it will succeed.

Therefore proving them wrong, and even more irrelevant.

[daybranch]

8. left wing teabagger?

There are no left wing teabaggers. Name calling does not make, nor even help, your points. I suggest you explain more.
I appear to be moving more left wing every day as the right wing moves the center more to the right. While I worked hard for the Affordable Care Act and the reelection of President Obama, I have not closed my eyes to the weaknesses of the ACA and support the public option, medicare for all etc.
Today I carry petitions to amend our state constitution in Ohio to permit a vote on medicaid expansion. It is clear that teabaggers in our legislature will not support the expansion even though our governor, John Kasich, supports the expansion. I fight the teabaggers all the time and I find the term being linked to the left or the democratic party or to any group but the GOP offensive.
Years ago I had a libertarian call me a communist. Pretty bad at that time, left wing teabagger is not any better.

[geek tragedy]

9. Sirota said Obama is more racist than Ron Paul.

He's a Teabagger on the left.

[Doctor_J]

13. Liberal is an insult at DU now, just like on Limpballs' show

get used to it.

[Doctor_J]

11. It will definitely succeed in making HC CEO's even richer

As do most of the president's initiatives.

[geek tragedy]

12. Substance-free whining without any evidence. Just the same lame

talking points the people who wanted to kill the ACA have been repeating since 2009.

[dougolat]

14. Yup, the same valid complaints....

..won't go away!

[geek tragedy]

15. Yes, those medical loss ratio regulations and the other numerous restrictions on their

ability to deny coverage and exploite the insured are great profit devices!

You do know there are other provisions besides the individual mandate, right?

[dougolat]

16. Sure, it gives the Insurance industry a legitimate reason to raise one's rate...

..to maintain 20% profit. ("Oh, you can't afford it? So sorry, good bye&quot

Limiting some of the more outrageous abuses of a parasitical industry by giving it more customers, and subsidized customers, is hardly a win-win.

[geek tragedy]

17. Do you know what their profit margins were before the ACA? nt

[Doctor_J]

18. I don't really care. The ACA has enshrined in law that 20% of the health "care" dollars

will go to profits. Another 20% will go to overhead hiring lawyers and clerks trying to deny contracted service. Meanwhile Medicare has 3% overhead, as every other developed nation knows because they have Medicare For All.

Will you at least admit that the president lied during the 2008 campaign when he said he would insist on the Public Option?

[geek tragedy]

19. When did Obama say he would "insist on the Public Option?"

You apparently don't know what a MLR is.

Here's an educational link:

http://www.cms.gov/CCIIO/Programs-and-Initiatives/Health-Insurance-Market-Reforms/Medical-Loss-Ratio.html

Many insurance companies spend a substantial portion of consumers’ premium dollars on administrative costs and profits, including executive salaries, overhead, and marketing.

The Affordable Care Act requires health insurance issuers to submit data on the proportion of premium revenues spent on clinical services and quality improvement, also known as the Medical Loss Ratio (MLR). It also requires them to issue rebates to enrollees if this percentage does not meet minimum standards. MLR requires insurance companies to spend at least 80% or 85% of premium dollars on medical care, with the review provisions imposing tighter limits on health insurance rate increases. If they fail to meet these standards, the insurance companies will be required to provide a rebate to their customers starting in 2012.

medicare for all would have been better, but votes were never there for it.

[Doctor_J]

20. Here you go

– In the 2008 Obama-Biden health care plan on the campaign’s website, candidate Obama promised that “any American will have the opportunity to enroll in [a] new public plan.” [2008]

– During a speech at the American Medical Association, President Obama told thousands of doctors that one of the plans included in the new health insurance exchanges “needs to be a public option that will give people a broader range of choices and inject competition into the health care market.” [6/15/09]

– While speaking to the nation during his weekly address, the President said that “any plan” he signs “must include…a public option.” [7/17/09]

Link

So you'll admit it now?

[geek tragedy]

21. Where is the quote from 2008 promising to 'insist on a public option?'

He did advocate for one, but Congress did not pass one. Now, should he have decided to let 10,000 people a year die for lack of coverage because there was no public option? Apparently you think so.

[Doctor_J]

24. Are you playing dumb?

Last time I will post this.

In the 2008 Obama-Biden health care plan on the campaign’s website, candidate Obama promised that “any American will have the opportunity to enroll in new public plan.”

Seriously, that's it. If you want to pretend that this is written in invisible ink or something, I give up.

[geek tragedy]

26. That was his plan. He did not guarantee that any bill

that he signed would have a public option.

He explicitly stated during the campaign that his plan would not be what wound up passing Congress.

If these nuances are too subtle for you, I am sorry but not my fault.

[dougolat]

23. Enough to pay their execs indefensably astronomical sums....nt

[locks]

25. David Sirota and Obamacare

I have followed David Sirota as lives in Denver and has been writing and reporting for along time. He is appearing more on TV and his dispatches are more widely-received, for which I am very grateful. He has always been far to the left but very critical of politicians on the left and the right when he knew they were giving in to big money. He is absolutely right about the ACA and insurance companies. Most Dems know this but believe that the ACA was the best the administration and we could get.

I worked hard during the time Hillary and so many were trying to reform our terrible healthcare system. I went to many discussions; most people I met with wanted universal health care and a single payor system. We felt betrayed when it didn't even make Obama's first proposals, mostly because of the lobbying of the insurance companies and big pharm and the representatives they bought.

I will work hard to support Obama and the ACA because it is easy to see the Repubs will never allow any kind of health care reform.
But I am sad that the poorest of the poor in 26 states will not be receiving health care they were promised, that this is far from universal health care, and that the insurance companies who actually wrote the bill will still make obscene profits.

[Bill USA]

27. it was a huge compromise to keep private insurers in business. But I don't know how he could have

gotten a single payer system - expanded Medicare - passed into law. Look at the fight he got on the compromise.

Single payer is really the way to go. But is it realistic to think he could have pulled that off? I tend to think so, but I understand Sirota's frustration. Obama has been a moderate Republican most of his time in office. It's only in the last year or two he seems to be trying out being a Democrat.

I don't think anybody should consider single payer dead though. THis system with middle-men in it is not the optimum solution to providing the best medical care for the most people.

[antigop]

28. k&r nt