Insurance Industry Report Should be Rallying Cry for Single-Payer

[RDillon]

Crossposted from Hillbilly Report.

Man, leave it to the health insurance companies. They are getting a sweet deal in the Senate Finance Committee. The legislation there amounts to nothing more than corporate welfare on the backs of working Americans for the health insurance companies. This should please them right?? I mean, when someone mandates millions of new costumers for you without making you compete honestly with a public option for their business that is a good thing right??

Well in the case of the greed-mongers in the health insurance industry, wrong. Democrats should have known better than to try to play footsies with these people. After all, they make their profits denying coverage on the sick and raising rates on everyone else.

Well, now even corporate welfare handed to them on a silver platter is not even good enough. After Max Baucus wrote a bill specifically tailored to them and their apolegists in the congress, they have come out and ripped it to shreds:

Insurance companies aren't playing nice any more on the health care overhaul. The industry put out a report Monday concluding that the Senate's health care legislation would drive up costs to consumers, delivering a dire message at a crucial point in the debate and potentially threatening President Barack Obama's top domestic priority.

The study "confirms that the current legislation will make coverage less affordable for individuals, families and employers, and the study shows that costs will go up even faster than they would under the current system," Karen Ignagni, the top industry lobbyist in Washington, told reporters in a conference call Monday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091012/ap_on_go_co/us_health_care_overhaul_insurers

And what was their main point of contention after recieving hundreds of billions in corporate welfare?? That some lawmakers actually wanted some protections for Americans from these very insurance companies that have been so instrumental in creating the problem:

The chief reason, said the report, is a decision by lawmakers to weaken proposed penalties for failing to get health insurance. The bill would require insurers to take all applicants, doing away with denials for pre-existing health problems. In return, most Americans would be required to carry coverage, either through an employer or a government program, or by buying it themselves.

But the CBO estimated that even with new federal subsidies, some 17 million Americans would still be unable to afford health insurance. Faced with that affordability problem, senators opted to ease the fines for going without coverage from the levels Baucus originally proposed. The industry says that will only let people postpone getting coverage until they get sick.

These people just cannot stand that the whole of the American populace will not be completely at their mercy. I mean, lawmakers have already taken what was supposed to be something good for working Americans without coverage and turned it into a boon of corporate welfare for this industry with no protections for the consumer. Seemingly the only folks who will be responsible for anything are working Americans who will be totally at the mercy of these unscrupulous people by way of a mandate that only applies to working Americans, not their employers and not the insurance companies.

This shows the ultimate weakness in the Democrats and Obama's approach at achieving Universal Healthcare. The plain and simple fact of the matter is that the insurance industry will not compromise, will not sacrifice and will only fight against even corporate welfare for themselves. They are desperate to keep fines as stiff as possible and impose a mandate without a public option because they know then they will really be in the driver's seat.

It is time to stop playing nice with these people. They care not about their country or the people within as long as they can continue robbing them blind and fleecing our taxpayers. We have already given in too much to them and still it is not enough.

It is time we go back to the drawing board and fight these people with every fibre of our being. They are, and will always be part of the problem. If they say that the Baucus model will cause them to raise rates on Americans, then we need a new model.

It is time to take these un-American greed-meisters who care about nothing but themselves completely out of the equation. It is time that the American people demanded single-payer and got rid of these people. They should have no say whatsoever anymore in the health and well-being of our country because they simply care nothing about anyone but themselves. How can you work to achieve progress with anyone like that??

Single-payer is and should be still on the table. As Democrats we should let our leaders know after this debacle of "reaching out" and pulling back a bloody nub that we will no longer settle for anything less than single-payer healthcare. If these people want a fight, I say lets give it to them. America will thank us for it ten years down the road.

With that in mind today is national call-in day in support of H.R. 676. Go here and use the page to call your House member and Senator and demand single-payer:

http://tools.advomatic.com/35/hc-n/

We should immediately scrap all plans of any reform that is not single-payer. Nothing else will achieve universal coverage and drive down costs. Our enemies have shown they have no interest in working with us so lets fight them and defeat them!!!

[mmonk]

1. We need more representatives to fight for us in order to win.