The "Insurance Companies Support Health Care Reform" Gambit
By dday Friday Sep 04, 2009 8:00amAngela Braly, the CEO of Wellpoint, called for health care reform at a meeting in Indianapolis.
One of them most powerful women in the nation is calling for health care reform. Wellpoint CEO Angela Braly says she supports guaranteed coverage for everyone - as long as everyone gets and stays covered [...]
"The high and rising cost of health care in America is just not sustainable," Braly said. She said the current system, including Medicare, which is administered by the federal government, was inefficient and promotes quantity over quality. She also said it posed "a real threat to the social and fiscal obligations of the government and to the health and prosperity of the American people."
"We believe insurance companies have a role to play. We can and are making a difference," Braly said. She said Wellpoint's strategy was moving beyond processing claims and managing risk, noting employee incentives when customers get healthy.
Braly says the what worries her most about the plan currently under consideration is the "public option."
This is, essentially, the insurance company-approved argument for health care reform. They see it as forcing everyone to buy their coverage, making refusal to buy their insurance a crime, and offering no competition to their monopoly over it. I'm sure they don't want to see that anti-trust exemption of theirs lifted either, the one that has led to 94% of the individual insurance market becoming "highly concentrated" in the hands of one or two companies.
Braly kept talking about how the current system is inefficient and leads to skyrocketing costs, as if she has no agency over that whatsoever. There are issues with how the fee-for-service system promotes quantity of medical care and not quality, but that's due to the profit incentive, which is exactly the same in the insurance market. Braly's argument seems to be that it's doctors and hospitals at fault for chasing profit in health care, but insurance industry CEOs like her are good samaritans and innocent bystanders who just so happen to do the same thing. If a profit-driven health care system is wrong, then it's pretty much wrong across the board. And she actually advocated for an outcome where insurers would be "free to offer a range of choices," while worrying about a public option... which would just be another choice, one that could deliver quality coverage at a lower cost.
Braly tried to argue that health insurance profits aren't all that big:
According to Braly, the difference between the Medicaid or Medicare payouts and actual costs are shifted to the private plans, costing you $1,500 a year. Add that to the $1,000 a year shifted to the private plans to cover the uninsured and it costs you a total $2,500 a year.
"Sounds a lot like the Fannie Mae for health care and I think we all know how that experiment is going," Braly said [...]
"If you completely eliminated insurance company industry profits which is clearly the aim of some, you would pay for two days of health care in America and in the process you would eliminate the market mechanism to control costs and improve quality of health care being delivered," Braly argued.
I don't know what any of this means. The market mechanism in health care has not controlled costs in America whatsoever, yet throughout the industrialized world we see public programs that control costs and provide better health outcomes. Private industry has begged off completely from limiting health care costs through any means other than denying coverage to their customers and rationing. Health care spending in Medicare and Medicaid is lower than spending through the insurance market. And insurers have used the employer market effectively to confuse employers and employees alike about the true cost of their service. Braly throws out "Fannie Mae" for health care, but the current system is clearly "Goldman Sachs" for health care - where the relentless drive for profit at the expense of people creates a spending bubble that nobody ever bothers to burst until it's too late.
In the end, Braly calls Wellpoint a "supporter" of health care reform. That's funny, I would think that a company committed to health care reform wouldn't illegally force their employees to lobby against it.
Consumer Watchdog in Santa Monica has asked California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown to investigate its claim that UnitedHealth Group and WellPoint Inc. pushed workers to write their elected officials, attend town hall meetings and enlist family and friends to ensure an overhaul that matches their interests [...]
WellPoint, whose Anthem Blue Cross unit is the largest for-profit insurer in California and employs 8,000, took a more overtly negative tack.
"Regrettably, the congressional legislation, as currently passed by four of the five key committees in Congress, does not meet our definition of responsible and sustainable reform," Anthem said in a company e-mail last week. The proposals would hurt the company by "causing tens of millions of Americans to lose their private coverage and end up in a government-run plan."
The appeals amount to illegal coercion under California law, Consumer Watchdog research director Judy Dugan said. "While coercive communications with employees may be legal, if abhorrent, in most states, California's labor code appears to directly prohibit them," said Dugan, citing sections forbidding employers from "tending to control or direct" or "coercing or influencing" employees' political activities or affiliations.
Insurance companies like WellPoint support health care reform, all right - completely on their terms, and guaranteed to provide them a financial windfall. Anything else would be unacceptable, and they will take any tactic - no matter legal or illegal - to stop it.
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Fuhrman's game plan is to lie. Watch infamous racist, Mark Fuhrman just flat out lie about the VA hospitals in the United States.
http://progressnotcongress.org/?p=2777
What makes one thing that the health insurance companies would not be for a health bill they had the blue dogs Baccus and the republicans create with the directions of EMANUEL...
There has never been a debate , single payer and public option was the same as impeachment for Bush/Cheney... It was never plan and put on the table for debate..
Anyone with an ounce of sense would realize that when Emanuel's plan of adding mandatory 10 to 30 million new policy holders on their books they would be over joy to have that.
They have been seeing a decline of policy holders for years now and this increase to their health policies would be more then they would sign on in 10 to 20 years...
IF anyone is suppressed which Obama's speech and what he said they have not been watching his switch and bait routine...
They claim no illegal Americans will be given free health insurance as they have been giving the illegal's driver license , jobs and the free use of our health clinics and emergency rooms for their health care..
Just look at the deal that corporations get with they get cheap labor for illegal immigrants they have Americans paying for their social programs while lots are sending their money home...
Hospital and clinics had to pass their loss down the road to your and me..
You can no longer believe a word from Obama or the democrat's mouth..
And again ever wonder just how many republicans Emanuel has recruited , funded and supported to run on our democrat ticket... Well the blue dogs are one example of his works...
Look at Obama's broken promises from this web site...
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promi...
I would vote for a republican before I would vote for the blue dogs or any one of their deceitful hypocrites calling themselves democrats...
The Global Empires have been given trillions of dollars by "their" government in a bill called a bailout..
The Global Empires have been illegally keeping their profits and money in off shores accouts.
Now Americans have been forced to buy their insurance policies , and they must be laughing all the way to the banks..
of course...at whatever premium they want...and coverage mandated by the Federal government.
Of course, if someone is "too sick" and thus economically unviable for the insurance company to cover, the government will pay the premium costs (inflated of course) to the insurance company to cover the patient.
Aaaah...ain't capitalist programs grand.
'The House on Tuesday voted 242-181 to approve an operating rules package (H Res 5) that eliminates the Medicare trigger, which requires the president to submit a plan to contain Medicare costs if they reach a certain level, CQ Today reports. The trigger was approved as part of the 2003 Medicare law. Under the law, if 45% or more of the program's funding comes from general tax revenues for two consecutive years, the president must submit to Congress legislation that would slow spending over a seven-year period and make the program financially stable. The trigger went into effect for the first time last year !
Oh yes, congress will protect us...just like this! call the fools 1.800.828.0498...remind them just how well they have protected us so far!
Medicare through themselves. This is where they are going: Any and all health insurance, including drug coverage, must be purchased through private insurance companies, only. dday, you mention an exemption from anti-trust laws for health insurance companies? This cannot stand, especially if any mandatory coverage exists. This has gone way over the line. This liar says, "If you completely eliminated insurance company industry profits which is clearly the aim of some, you would pay for two days of health care in America and in the process you would eliminate the market mechanism to control costs and improve quality of health care being delivered." How come they are not using the market mechanism to control costs and improve quality of health care being delivered? Why doesn't she talk about this. How can this line of "reasoning" ever be considered in a democracy? It cannot. Has the government already been overthrown? I have to go with a "yes."
Take a look at what this woman makes for a living and she's SOOOO concerned about the rising cost of healthcare? What does she takes for stupid? No, for the insides of our wallets.
Compensation for 2008 OVER 9 MILLION BUCKS READ ON....
Salary $1,135,538.00
Bonus $0.00
Other Annual Compensation $0.00
Long term incentive plan payouts $0.00
Restricted stock awards $1,750,015.00
Security underlying options $0.00
All other compensation $169,561.00
Option awards $ $6,703,318.00
Non-equity incentive plan compensation $73,810.00
Change in pension value and nonqualified deferred compensation earnings $11,970.00
Total Compensation $9,844,212.00
Options Granted
If they insure everyone, are billions in bonuses and 'too big to fail' financial scams coming next?
then Americans will pay for healthcare TWICE.
Once in the form of premiums to the insurance companies and again when tax dollars are used to bail them out.
Sen. Kennedy didn't die from his illness. I believe he died of disgust.
a cool $519,673 Feb-08 unloading 6,968 shares at $74.58 per share.
And how bout this beauty of a deal?
Mar-09 102,991 Well Point Shares. Acquisition (Non Open Market) at $0 per share.
a cool $519,673 Feb-08 unloading 6,968 shares at $74.58 per share.
And then Wellpoint shares crashed to $30 by Dec 08.
In fact they crashed to 48.13 . . 30 days after she dumped.
I mean come on people
is obviously pushing for a raise at the expense of every single working person in America.
she works for the insurance company, therefore she'll sell her aging granny to keep this kinda money coming into her pockets. This is such bullshit!
People... don't be fooled by these shysters!
others pick you up? At what price? And if no one will pick you up, you will be breaking the law. If Medicare is privatized, and seniors make, say $1500 per month from Social Security, which is more than many make, and they have to pay $800 or $900 a month for their insurance premiums, how will they pay for the refrigerator box they will have to live in? This has become so bizarre that I feel like I am dreaming.
Braly's dishonest and self-serving argument is on par with a current 'health reform' commercial from AHIP that claims to yearn for the day when pre-existing conditions are no longer a factor in healthcare. it takes balls the size of alaska to put out such misinformation.
Obama and Rahm and the rest of the like-minded delusional Dems just don't get it. The progressives have NOTHING to lose. They will be safe in their seats, even if all the Blue Dogs lose theirs and even if Obama loses the nomination or the election in 2012. They can stand up to Obama and Rahm and the rest because they know that their constituents have their backs, and they also know that voters who want a public option outnumber the shills of the insurance industry. If Obama and Rahm and the rest go forward with this idiocy of theirs, the Dems are finished for now. Time to rebuild the party. The Republicans are on a road to failure and implosion whether they win elections or not, simply because they cannot govern and their policies destroy the country and create more Dems than new Repubs. But the Blue Dogs are really going to go down because, unlike 1993-94, their corporate blowjobs are on full display, and they will pay for protecting the insurance industry over the people who voted for them. So go ahead Obama, Rahm and Blue Dogs - try to fuck us over. We'll always be here because we are NOT the "left of the left" since the "left of the left" is now the center of this country.
But what worries me the most is that if Obama cedes the health care issue to phony moderates like Snowe-job and the Blue Dogs, he gives the town hall mobs legitamacy, and every issue will be treated by the opposition in the same way, and we will lose EVERY issue. I really wish Obama would just stand up and call all of these people out - just call them for the LIARS that they are - Baucus, Enzi, Grassley, Armey, Palin, Conrad,the insurance companies - just go before the American people and slap the shit out of the oppostion. His poll ratings would go up 10 points, and no Blue Dog or centrist would even dare defend the insurance industry line after that kind of a smackdown. But I guess it won't happen since Rahm Emanual and Olympia Snowe have Obama's balls in their pockets.
I hope we DO lose every issue. I hope that the country falls into total collapse.
Then we can finally move forward to the long overdue purge of the elites in this country.
..agree on that first paragraph. Maybe not the second so much.
Rush is full of shit. He doesn't make any money if the country collapses.
You write, "Braly kept talking about how the current system is inefficient and leads to skyrocketing costs, as if she has no agency over that whatsoever. There are issues with how the fee-for-service system promotes quantity of medical care and not quantity, but that's..."
1. Is "agency" the correct word?
2. One of the instances of "quantity" should be "quality," right?
It is more than a mere coincidence that the tallest buildings in most cities are either a bank or an insurance company.
Jerry Brown is also investigating the carriers in CA for rejecting nearly 40% of initial claims for reimbursement. This is also my experience. I receive so many initial denials that make you jump through hoops (resubmit for review) in order to get reimbursed for services, that I sometimes wait nearly a year to get paid $90 for assisting on a gall bladder removal. There is only one exception.
Medicare.
At least twenty-three lawsuits have been filed in California alleging that WellPoint and its subsidiaries Blue Cross and Blue Shield illegally dumped patients with pre-approved claims, leaving them financially devastated.
http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/articles...
WellPoint rebuked for canceling policies
http://www.indy.com/posts/wellpoint-rebuked-f...
Every time I hear from these friggin' insurance executives, I want to inject them with some aggressive form of cancer and then deny them treatment.
This is so mean-spirited...and it's exactly how I feel. I can't help it. I find myself wishing horrible things on these people, especially her.
By the way, here is the annual compensation for Angela Braly, CEO of Wellpoint/Blue Cross.
This woman is a snake.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBtAO4dYL98
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtKITW1w2Mc
If she doesn't like it... then I'm for it.
All of politics and business is a dodge. The educated and rich raping the uneducated and poor.
There are no human beings in public service anymore. There is no sense of social responsibility, philanthropy or charity in business anymore.
It's all a dodge. Capitalist democracy has revealed itself for what it is. A failed ideology based on greed.
Angela Braly (insider trades)
A cool $519,673 Feb-08 unloading 6,968 shares at $74.58 per share.
Wellpoint shares crash to 48.13 . . March 08.
Wellpoint shares plummet to $30 by Dec 08.
"And how bout this beauty of a deal?"
Mar-09 102,991 Well Point Shares. Acquisition (Non Open Market) at $0 per share.
Yeah, she's smiling.
http://blog.cleveland.com/business/2007/10/Br...
Guess who's not going to buy forced private insurance?
Me!
And guess who else won't?
Every other American that doesn't want to be ruled by greedy, heartless corporations.
you're fine.
I linked the section in the House bill here last night in a thread. Individual mandate amends IRS tax code. (Sec. 301 on in H.R. 3200 on thomas.gov)
I see this ending badly without an affordable public option too ...
as the premiums will be taken from your paychecks or SS. That is what mandatory means here. You will be FORCED to pay.
even third rate countries with third rate governments know where the line is drawn.
This country and this government have no shame.
firmly hit on head!
Is gambit that little choo-choo that always seems to get lost to everyone's game of Monopoly?
No. That's beck...the crazy train.
Than whose:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTzR2kqcjL0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sjSHazjrWg
Shares of WellPoint, one of the nation’s largest health insurers, plummeted more than 16 percent in after-hours trading Monday after the company lowered its profit forecast, citing higher medical costs and lower-than-expected insurance enrollments. March 11, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/11/business/11...
and the best way to staunch the bleeding from the "lower-than-expected insurance enrollments" is to enact the individual mandate, without a public option. of course braly supports this type of health 'reform' it forces people to help pay for her bloated salary.
The public option is the stick that is forcing the insurance companies to be on board and at the table with reform.
As the old cannibal saying goes, "if you're not at the table, you're on the menu".
quiet about single payer NEVER being on the table. This deal was done long ago. Stop being naive.
.
Q U E S T I O N:
IF THE ANSWERS ARE WITH PRIVATE INSURANCE...
... THEN THEY WOULD HAVE ALREADY PROVIDED A SOLUTION FOR ALL THE PEOPLE.
But they haven't...
... They just keep lying.
PROFIT for PAIN
.
Hmmm...maybe if the Democrats simply blew all the Republicans...right in the Senate well...on C-Span...then perhaps the Republicans would be all bipartisan and accept all the unsocilited concessions from the Dems.
She's right they aren't a high profit industry.
Profit Health Insurance: about 5-6%
Overhead Health Insurance: about 30%
The problem is when you compare to Medicare
Profit: 0%
Overhead: 5-6%
A good question would be overhead costs in non-profit non-government health care providers. I don't have those numbers off hand.
I'm lucky enough to have health insurance, unfortunately with Anthem/Wellpoint. Supposedly 80% is covered with 20% being paid by me. And yet EVERY SINGLE STATEMENT I receive from Anthem has the following Reason Code PSS "This part of the charge exceeds the allowed amount and is not covered." So Anthem refuses to pay what amounted to 27% of the bill on one recent Dr. visit. Of course, the doctor's office bills me for the unpaid amount. Add that to my $25/$35 co-pay.
to 65% if any bill is passed.
More BS PR: WellPoint Recovers and Saves $75 Million Through Anti-Fraud Programs in 2008
84 cases referred to law enforcement; 21 criminal convictions secured
On $47.742 billion in paid claims, they recovered $75 million, or 0.15%. The real fraud is not in bad claims but in the 20-30% profit and overhead at Wellpoint.
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/i...
will fuck us anally, without lube or foreplay....
Health Insurance "providers" are parasites.
The system cannot be healthy, and will NEVER serve the "people," when it is dominated by and run for the benefit of blood-suckling PARASITES, friends..
will fuck us anally, without lube or foreplay....
The American People like that. They want more of the same.
Have pity for poor Angela, Ya' think it's easy spending and investing those bog numbers.
When we put together the salaries of the rest of the top executives and distribution of dividends, betcha, 30% of the ernings are taken and no longer available to pay for additional health care.
No single payer in bill, then NO BILL!
1. What does that mean, "$1000 [...] to cover the uninsured"? If the uninsured were covered, they wouldn't be uninsured. If she means stuff done in the E.R. for poor people who can't pay, how does that unpaid bill get transferred to an insurance company? Is it just that the hospital adds it to the cost for everything else that eventually gets paid by insurance? If it's going to be indirectly paid by insurance, why does the hospital hire collection agents to chase down nonpayers? Are they hoping they'll be paid twice?
2. Fannie Mae... Hell yeah, sista! The gubmint can't run anything without fucking it up!! Oh, by the way, I have run into something wierd here, can anyone help? When I google "Fannie Mae", right below the first link to fanniemae.com, it says "Show stock quote for FNM". Can anyone point me to stock quotes for SSA, VA, HHS, etc.? I have been looking but can't find them. Perhaps I have made a mistake somewhere?
"According to Braly, the difference between the Medicaid or Medicare payouts and actual costs are shifted to the private plans, costing you $1,500 a year."
It's the other way around. People dumped or rejected outright by private insurers or those who have exhausted their private insurance benefits are dumped into Medicare and Medicaid, costing taxpayers billions while assuring the grotesque profitability of private insurers.
The "Insurance Companies Support Health Care Reform" Gambit
Huh. Seems to me it was just the day before yesterday when I referred to
Oh, and on the matter of "incentives to get healthy," it is a good thing to work at getting and staying healthy. But please remember that when an insurance company says this, it's not your health with which they are concerned. It's the hope of having to pay out fewer claims and thus get more profit.
I believe one of the most important factors in the insurance industry's involvement is the fact that they have for some time been the beneficiaries of immunity from legal liability for any bad behavior up to and including fraud for any coverage which is employment-based. So far the proposals for health reform on the table maintain this immunity. This needs to be addressed if we want to keep insurance companies honest. Those interested may refer to my Problem is ERISA blog for further background. There are plenty of other resources as well, as a Google search would show.
Regardless this is, IMO, the big under-reported issue about health insurance reform, and if it isn't addressed then any reform will really be ineffective.
is their only legal responsibility as a corporation. Yet they have all the rights of an American human citizen. That is the basis for all other offenses they commit.
We already know health insurance companies are nothing more than collosal turbo charged engines of greed, and we know all you want to do make health insurance mandatory the way auto insurance is mandatory if you drive.
These crocodile tears from this pompous bitch are an insult. Save me a spot when you get to Hell.
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