Don't let Third Way, the Ben Nelson's or Republicans be the next Harry and Louise
We all remember that commercials like these were made to trick Americans into thinking that health care reform would hurt average working families. We now see what has happened to the health-care system. CEOs rake in the big bucks from the huge profits they take in as health-insurance costs have skyrocketed.
FierceHealthcare reports the following top 10 CEO salaries for 2008.
* Ron Williams - Aetna - Total Compensation: $24,300,112.
* H. Edward Hanway - CIGNA - Total Compensation: $12,236,740.
* Angela Braly - WellPoint - Total Compensation: $9,844,212.
* Dale Wolf - Coventry Health Care - Total Compensation: $9,047,469.
* Michael Neidorff - Centene - Total Compensation: $8,774,483.
* James Carlson - AMERIGROUP - Total Compensation: $5,292,546.
* Michael McCallister - Humana - Total Compensation: $4,764,309.
* Jay Gellert - Health Net - Total Compensation: $4,425,355.
* Richard Barasch - Universal American - Total Compensation: $3,503,702.
* Stephen Hemsley - UnitedHealth Group - Total Compensation: $3,241,042.
My rates go up and coverage goes down every time I turn around. And then they just decide not to cover certain medications without an explanation. Even scumbag criminals are resurfacing like Rick Scott to try and con America for a second time -- and the media do nothing about it.
“Isn’t it amazing folks in Congress were shocked the plan THEY passed allowed those huge bonuses for AIG?" asks Rick Scott, the former health-care executive who chairs the group, in a new television ad to be released tomorrow. "Now some in Congress want to raise taxes and spend $634 billion for the President’s health-care overhaul - - WITHOUT even seeing all the details of his plan. They just never seem to learn."
Ah, yes, Rick Scott. Funny, the details the Politico leaves out of their stories! From Christopher Hayes in The Nation:
Having Scott lead the charge against health-care reform is like tapping Bernie Madoff to campaign against tighter securities regulation. You see, the for-profit hospital chain Scott helped found--the one he ran and built his entire reputation on--was discovered to be in the habit of defrauding the government out of hundreds of millions of dollars.
This is the man who will be delivering what Politico called the "pro-free-market message."
Third Way is a DLC thinkers outfit that's trying to talk for liberals on health care and have the nerve to think we wouldn't see right through their crap.
mcjoan at KOS has the take down.
Here's their premise:
Whether health-care reform should include a "public plan" is an issue that now threatens to fracture the emerging consensus on health reform. If left unresolved, the debate over a public plan could derail the broader reform agenda while other pressing issues central to reform are put on hold.
The proponents of a public plan seek the right goals—to broaden access and lower costs. But there is a very real danger that an overly intrusive public plan can ultimately undermine these very goals and destabilize the private-sector coverage that middle-class Americans—i.e., Harry and Louise—depend on and are largely satisfied with.
They actually invoke Harry and Louise again, which is fitting, since Harry and Louise were a creation of the insurance industry, much like this plan seems to be. In the event that Third Way forgot, "proponents" of the public option include President Obama, one of the key Senate leaders on the issue, and the largest voting bloc in the House of Representatives. It's not a fringe group of DFHers who want a solid public option. It's the consensus of the majority of Democrats. And the President.
Nonetheless, Third Way seems committed to doing the dirty work of the insurance lobby from the "left." Here's the plan's four basic elements:...read on
I'm waiting for them to hire Sam Waterston to do Unity09-HealthCare commercials for them. There's a tough fight a brewing and the Ben Nelson's are trying to derail any form of health care reform.
Oh man, the insurance companies must be scared shitless right now.
..but they are confident that they are going to win, too. They spent good money to purchase elected officials, and so far, those elected officials look determined to earn the price of their purchase.
In a just society, the bribers and the bribed would be put in prison. Too bad the foxes are in charge of thre chicken coop. Our only recourse is to kick them out of office using either the ballot or recall initiative(if applicable).
general welfare with tax dollars. How did healthcare get into the hands of private companies in the first place?
$
Thank Richard Nixon.
"insurance industry." Enough said.
That scumbag Rick Scott has been in commercials quite often the last couple of months.
I unfortunately think Scott's commercials might be helping his cause. Someone needs to counter and point out his history.
$1.7 billion and life in prison. How many people died because of him? The McDonald's of Health Care. Nice.
You see, the for-profit hospital chain Scott helped found--the one he ran and built his entire reputation on--was discovered to be in the habit of defrauding the government out of hundreds of millions of dollars.
This is the man who will be delivering what Politico called the "pro-free-market message."
Or, as my pro-business, Republican relatives call him, "A fine American."
He had a half hour TV "show" last week, and I have heard nothing from the Dems about this. They probably do not want to lower themselves to his level. How did that work out for you during the Kerry campaign? To quote Greenwald, "DO SOMETHING."
on this site and I'll say it again.
Until such time as insurance companies cannot willfully deny someone coverage for a pre-existing condition; do not have caps on coverage; do not shift 75% of the cost of the transaction to the patient; cannot randomly and at will change coverage; cannot place themselves in between the physician and the patient during medical decisions; cannot dictate patient care in general (I could go on like this).....
Until that time, we need another alternative. With all of the money those CEOs made as outlined above, they could have provided many more people with the care and services they need.
The for-profit system we have does not work for most people, it obviously works well for the CEOs, but not for the people being gouged for premiums and then restricted in all aspects of coverage and access.
Fortunately my mom died so long ago I have gotten over the shame of not having made enough of my opportunties in our fine counrty which rewards hard work.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
busines and for that matter large corporations that aren't involved in the health care busines going to realize that single payer will save them money, put more money in the pockets of the consumers that purchase their goods and services?
I would expect that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce would come out strongly in favor of additional options and even single payor.
That is if they really are what they claim to be.
make any business that no longer has to shoulder insurance costs more competitive in the global marketplace.
with a sneering baby trying to guilt trip me into buying life insurance is the ultimate irony.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
I'm seeing an ad for a casino game. Kind of the same thing as insurance.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
Guess they must have accessed my credit score.
"I mean Romney is the most conservative on illegal immigration and I don't think Ronald Reagan could get elected in California today."
Ann "Clipped" Coulter
.
Demand single-payer. Loudly.
What if law enforcement was run the way health insurance is? Would anyone stand up for the Law Insurance Industry? My guess would be the same people that support the health insurance industry.
What if the cops only came if you were enrolled in their plan? And your crime had never happened to you before. And you hadn't used up your yearly coverage. And someone at corporate approved of your situation. And you had the co-pay for the officers.
What if the profit of the police department was based on the less service it provided the more profit it made.
know, in explicit terms, that a vote for a third option hybrid or any other scheme that does notproduce a viable, unrestricted public option will cost them your votes in the next election. I really don'y think that they are going to listen to anything else.
In the meantime, it is probably not too early for Blue America to commence a very public campaign initiative to establish a fund to be deployed against members of either party who seem willing to betray the interests of the public in order to favor the corporations who have been taking us all to the cleaners for the last few decades. Nothing talks like money to these guys; let them see a flood of money that is going to be deployed against them. It'll get their attention.
That's why the MONEY from the FIRE folks is so important.
crooks pockets any further.
Shake down artists
as long as it's "Out There" and being endlessly repeated.
The Murkin people--the lumpen-proles, Puke & Dim-- believe the last thing they heard somebody they've heard of say, whatever it is.
We're in "Big Lie" country, friendz.
John Grisham sticks it to insurance companies in "The Rainmaker". Fun book, and the movie adapation with Matt Damon, Danny DeVito, Claire Danes, Jon Voight and Mickey Rourke was pretty darn entertaining as well.
Fine by me if the health insurance companies go down. They can compete honestly and provide services that a public plan may not. If they can't do that then they deserve to fail.
We have to keep demanding real reform; if you wrote your congress critter last month, call him or her this month. Write to Ben Nelson and Susan Collins and all the others who are wholly owned by the insurance companies. Write the White House and tell them you support the public option, write your local paper, hell, carry a sign and walk down Main Street (or outside an insurance company or agency).
Make noise!
We have a ONE PARTY SYSTEM
Yep! The "bribery party," and they like things just the way they are. If it wasn't for them damn voters they are suppose to represent and have to acknowledge every 2-6 years, they would be in Utopiaville.
Rush Limbaugh is what a smart person thinks a stupid bigot sounds like.
A few weeks ago the parents of a 13 year old boy (Daniel Hauser) were ordered by the state of Minnesota to force him to undergo chemotherapy treatments. The family was against the treatments and ended up being threatened by the courts with criminal consequences if they did not comply.
If Daniel Hauser ends up dying from the chemo or the side effects of the forced treatments, who will be held accountable?
Couldn't a reasonable person reach the conclusion that he was murdered?
How come it's illegal not to submit to unwanted medical intervention by the medical police state and yet it's legal for the same medical police to deny coverage and care for people that desperately need and want it? WTF?
When people die because they are denied medical treatments by Insurance companies who are gaming the system after collecting huge premiums from them, Aren't they also just as guilty of murder?
As long as For Profit health care is in place we will see more extreme examples of this forced medication and denied coverages as the Health care industry tries to find the best ways to maximize their bottom line!
http://cthealth.server101.com/health_care_for...
I live in PA, and the big Insurer is Highmark, specifically Highmark Blue Cross/Shield. The CEO, Ken Melani, rakes in almost $5 million a year. Highmark got some attention on Rachel Maddow's radio show when Kenny-boy announced Healthcare Gift Cards and HDHP (high-deductible health plans). Since the introduction of HDHPs more and more businesses are switching to this as their only employee option, essentially gutting their insurance while also removing people from the risk pool (the thing that makes insurance WORK). Also, under Melani executive pay has gone up, while low-level employee pay raises have been gutted (3-7% raises a year when he came in, currently .01-2% twice a year). According to my source, since the PA legislature shut down their attempts to buy IBC (essentially making them a monopoly in PA) they have put up a site on the company intranet telling employees how to vote and which legislators to harass, all under the guise of keeping them informed about legislation effecting their jobs. PA NEEDS single-payor, but all of the people here are simple and easily misled. Meanwhile, every day I get to see what For-Profit healthcare and Big Insurance are doing to the people of this state.
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