Rockefeller Attempts to Force Insurance Companies to Dedicate More Cash to Care

[babylonsister]

http://washingtonindependent.com/61868/an-attempt-to-force-insurance-companies-to-dedicate-more-cash-to-care

An Attempt to Force Insurance Companies to Dedicate More Cash to Care
By Mike Lillis 10/1/09 12:54 PM

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee’s health subpanel, is no fan of the insurance industry, as was made perfectly clear during Tuesday’s debate on his failed amendment to create a public plan.

Along those lines, the West Virginia Democrat plans today to propose legislation requiring insurance companies to dedicate a minimum percentage of their premium revenues to the delivery of medical care. Rockefeller claims those companies spend too much paying salaries and rewarding shareholders, and not enough treating patients.

He has a point. The health reform bill moving through the Senate Finance Committee is a gift to the industry industry, supplying upwards of $460 billion in insurance subsidies over the next decade. Rockefeller said Congress should enact “some guarantee that these taxpayer dollars are being used to help American families get health care. … We must demand that with taxpayer dollars the health insurance companies put people before profits.”

A vote on Rockefeller’s proposal should come later today.

[Hannah Bell]

1. they also reportedly spend 1.4 million/d lobbying congress.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

2. And they have the room to do it too, despite what they claim

http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2009/08/05/are-health-insurers-making-too-much-money/
By Igor Volsky on Aug 5th, 2009 at 1:30 pm Health Insurance Industry Fudges Data To Downplay Its Astronomical Profits

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Moreover, a report by Families USA found that “insurers in the individual market sometimes maintain medical loss ratios of only 60%, retaining 40% of premium dollars for administration, marketing and profit.” “For the 10 biggest insurers in the year 2006 (the year the insurers used for the 1 cent out of every dollar depiction above), profits were anywhere from 2 to 10 percent, or two to 10 pennies on the dollar. That’s two to 10 times as much as what the insurance industry group suggests in its illustrations.”

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[Autumn]

3. Will it be tax deductible for the companies? n/t

[Hissyspit]

4. VIDEO:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=385&topic_id=380934&mesg_id=380934