Not So Fast: Insurance Discrimination Still Likely After 'Reform'
Again and again, these issues arise that could have been solved by a straightforward push for a single-payer, government-run system. But that, of course, would have required a political system that didn't have corporate sponsors. It's painful to watch them tie themselves in knots, trying to rationalize the death-for-profit system:
Any health-care overhaul that Congress and President Obama enact is likely to have as its centerpiece a fundamental reform: Insurers would not be allowed to reject individuals or charge them higher premiums based on their medical history.
But simply banning medical discrimination would not necessarily remove it from the equation, economists and health-care analysts say.
If insurers are prohibited from openly rejecting people with preexisting conditions, they could try to cherry-pick through more subtle means. For example, offering free health club memberships tends to attract people who can use the equipment, says Paul Precht, director of policy at the Medicare Rights Center.
Being uncooperative on insurance claims can chase away the chronically ill. For people who have few medical bills, it is less of a factor, said Karen Pollitz, research professor at the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute.
And to avoid patients with costly, complicated medical conditions, health plans could include in their networks relatively few doctors who specialize in treating those conditions, said Mark V. Pauly, professor of health-care management at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.
By itself, a ban on discrimination would not eliminate the economic pressure to discriminate.
"It would probably increase the incentive for cherry-picking," Pauly said. "I'm strongly motivated to try to avoid you if I'm not allowed to charge you extra."
Cognizant of the threat, lawmakers are trying to neutralize it. For example, the bill advanced by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) calls for creation of complex mechanisms to essentially raise or lower compensation to insurers, depending on whether they attract disproportionately sick or healthy populations.
The bill assumes the problem would be greatest during the first few years; after that, part of the machinery to compensate for variations would go away.
A straightforward way to reduce gamesmanship is to standardize benefit packages, Precht wrote in a July report. One issue lawmakers must resolve is how much latitude to leave insurers over what they cover and how.
Unless lawmakers tackle the problem effectively, a reformed health-care system could continue to reward insurers for avoiding rather than treating illness. It also could perpetuate existing economic penalties for health plans that do a better job of covering the sickest patients. They tend to attract costlier members, which can force them to raise premiums, fueling a cycle that can make it harder for the severely ill to get affordable coverage.
"In a competitive market, a good-guy insurer is a patsy," Pollitz said. "The race is to the bottom."
Susie?
As if the companies were going to be stopped from playing the system?
They will play the system for all it is worth. What would you expect - honest and fair practices?
Silly Girl!
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
health care soviets where the nurses vote on which doctor each patient gets.
"The deal has to be negotiated in the real world, not on some idealized Aristotelian plane. We understand that. A 100-percent deal may be impossible."
Famous "Reality Based" Commentator
By now you have not seen the hand written on the wall you have been asleep...
Obama hand picked the personal to produce this corporate bill.
The personal on the committee looks to have taken a bill which the health and drug company produced and presented it as a reform..
The only thing this criminal health bill will do is cut test and procedures from you health policy. Force Americans to buy these piece of crap, and stop any negotiations to cut the price of buying drugs.
How many NEW 10's of million new policy holders will Obama/Emanuel , blue dogs and other democrats give to this Global Empire with their SO-Called Health reform...
Does Obama , Emanuel and the rest of these a.. h...es believe that Americans will not find out "after it is too d... late",, that this health reform was a bait and switch routine which they used deceit Americans with.
We have to start to forget these corporate elected officials and stop building our own pool of candidates to run in the democratic primary elections to give Americans the CHANGE and TRANSPARENT government which is for and by the people of this country instead of these Corporate Global Giants...
None
Obama in 2003 (AFL-CIO Civil, Human and Women's Right conferecnce):
"I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer, universal healthcare plan...that's what I'd like to see...but, as all of you know, we may not get there immediately because first - we gotta take back the White House and we gotta take back the Senate and we gotta take back the House.."
Obama in 2009 - Nevermind...
naive.
"The deal has to be negotiated in the real world, not on some idealized Aristotelian plane. We understand that. A 100-percent deal may be impossible."
Famous "Reality Based" Commentator
After 8 years of stolen elections and total destruction to Americans and our country we forgot to read Obama's Resume before we voted him into office..
Obama like Emanuel is a right wing centrists and believe more in the republican policies than that of the democrats...
Emanuel has now help elected enough republicans or republican policy voters on the democratic ticket that republicans still control the house and the senate... Of course we can see that Obama will displace 50 democrats to receive ONE republican's vote...
Democrats had better start opening their eyes , listening with their ears and get rid of the elected democrats which are phonies and destroying our country...
Nothing is more frustrating as to see each and every day the democrats talk , act and vote corporate republican policies.
None
I'm bordering on hoping there is no "health insurance reform" this year.
And we put a few more progressives in Congress in 2010.
Then re-introduce HR 676, which not only provides improved Medicare for ALL Americans but also makes it ILLEGAL for insurance companies to offer insurance for basic medical care.
Don't "reform health insurance" - REMOVE all insurance companies from the business of covering basic health care.
Democracy is too important to be entrusted to politicians.
Rise Up!
Protest!
If we wait until after elections we lose seats big time - that's what happened to Clinton.
*
Following this line of thinking - if they pass basic reform now - and then pick up more Senate seats and stay at least static in the house - they might be able to revisit the bill and beef it up, change it, make it stronger - better.
How about THAT for a pipe dream?
*
Yes it's a dream, but since MLK had a dream we did too.
Unfortunately since raygun our dreams have become nightmares.
You for Real...
If they wish to have a health reform bill that would held our citizens they could have it today...
Democrats are brought and paid for just as the republican has been..
The only difference now it the democrats have the majority and will receive more of these Global Empires lobbyist money..
Just think how important and powerful the democrats have become with their new power...
Democrats complain they could do nothing because they were the minority at first, then they receive the majority of the house. Then they complain they were the minority in the senate and have a republican president.
Now , they have it ALL ,,, and they still can not do a d... thing to benefit the concerns and wishes of their EMPLOYERS.... The American citizens......
They are so arrogant and wrapped up in their power and glory and they love the attention and money coming from these Global Empires for their votes..
This has become the 3rd term of the Bush/Cheney administration.. There is only one way to rid us of these jerks and that is to replace them all....
None
First of all, the liberals will lose the filibuster proof majority in 2010. 2nd of all Congress can do all the things i those bills without creating a new program! They can mandate the cost of health care! They can mandate portability! They can mandate to the insurance companies that they must insure pre-existing conditions. The only reason that they want to create another huge government program is to steal from it for all their side ventures! They have stolen from all the others and they know that if Social Security people will do some accounting and it won't be good!
There's no way we aren't going to be screwed by the time this is over. Congress never does anything that isn't in their own self-interests. Most of them don't give a god-damn about their constituents.
*
Trittydi:
Congress people care DEEPLY about their constituents, who are their contributors. The Corporations.
It is the voters that they don't care about. Except at election time.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
health care insurance cost reform is a economic necessity. the demographic(s) that believe that individualism trumps all are being very foolish and short sighted. there are global financial elites that have no interest in citizens of the united states having health care reform. this would interfere with their
global investments ie. CHiNA. china's perceived power/advancement has a lot to with this country.NOW the global elites will continue their growth/capitalistic imperialism in asia/china at the cost of this country. look at the criticism president obama is/has taken from the "patriots" when the tariff was put on tires manufactured in china. if "we the people" get a better/competitive deal regarding health care we again become a economic threat to other global competitors.
You might as well give up - screw hope - right?
NOTHING has passed yet. Save your GBCW for after a bill passes? It might make a little more sense.
You'all are just projecting negative vibes . . .
lol
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
80% of people will cave in and just pony up their own dough.
Private health insurance companies are like the scorpion in that old story about the scorpion and the frog. They discriminate because it is profitable for them to do so. Whether this results in the death of the frog and their own drowning is immaterial.
even if most peoiple don't really believe scorpions and frogs speak the same language in the first place.
"The deal has to be negotiated in the real world, not on some idealized Aristotelian plane. We understand that. A 100-percent deal may be impossible."
Famous "Reality Based" Commentator
and everything/everybody speaks that language(numbers).
Just think how much more efficient our government would be if we only removed the most wasteful, most costly, most corrupted, most inefficient, most politicized, most worthless segment of our political structure:
Republicans.
- with a Democratic president and the majority in the House and Senate - and in the case of the public option where over 70% of the public supports it - using the cover of Republican intransigence won't cut it anymore.
65% support single payer. It only depends on how you ask the questions.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
of the corporate lobbyists as Congress'/Obama's true constituents to the forefront. OMG - real reporting! In addition, he is going into other areas the MSM has studiously ignored, such as the emerging anger on the left at the Democratic party in light of their egregious selling out to big biz and the possible emergence of a third party, and the likelihood of the Supreme Court granting MORE rights to corporations to FURTHER influence election outcomes with their ruling that corporations and individuals are EQUAL. ONLY IN AMERICA, where the almighty dollar is more important than human life.
Thank you Rick! Just when I was ready to give up on CNN.
The MSM doesn't do anything that doesn't serve the Corporate purpose.
Don't get your hopes up.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
the public option since Day 1. Next, we'll find out how people will be FORCED to pay private insurers for health insurance they can't afford. Then they'll be fined and jailed for not doing so. Text book fascism-corporations dictating to government.
The public option will involve even higher profits for insurers, on the back of a struggling middle class, just like all the other 'too big to fail' leeches on the economy which contribute nothing to our society as a whole.
me-oww!
I have been very discouraged by the fiasco of health reform so far. Maybe it was too much to expect, for a Congress with a long record of triviality and dysfunction to suddenly begin to work like an actual legislative body, one capable of addressing important issues in a meaningful way. The audacity of hope? Let's try the audacity of basic decency and the public good, first.
A single-payer system is really the way to go -- if you not beholden to the insurance industry, anyway. Anything short of that is just an attempt to reverse engineer a bad system into something that looks like positive change. The so-called "public option" is already a compromise, and yet it's treated as though it were introduced by the ghost of Karl Marx himself, and Congress and the media are all falling over each other trying to be the first to declare it dead and gone.
I think there is still a chance, though. Opponents have no moral ground to stand on. We have to keep turning up the heat. Even after all these ridiculous tea-bagging scare tactics, 70% of the public would still like to see Medicare extended to anyone who needs health insurance.
And nobody has yet offered a good answer to Rep. Anthony Wiener's question: What do the health insurance companies do to make this country better?
not ONE frickin' thing!!! Nothing... Nada... Nyet!
How can you write a post that Obama "privately" supports the public option when he has repeatedly publicly supported the public option time and time again. While you are seeking perfection, people are working hard to get a bill passed. I think I'm done with C&L. The posts are becoming increasingly reactionary, defeatist, pessimistic and lame. The comment section long ago was overrun with people living out left-wing fantasies and the like. This schtick is becoming increasingly boring. This isn't analysis. Its cutting and pasting.
Document where Obama has repeatedly supported "the public option".
He has been highly duplicitous in his support.
Then point me to where you find your perfect understanding of what 'the public option' is, in fact.
My understanding in the bills in those committees where it is described, it is a seriously compromised work.
"Left wing" fantasies are principles to which one adheres.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Most Americans are left wingers by your counting. Nobody's buying anymore your tired old DLC shtick that anyone who isn't a corporatist DLC'er is a left-winger far out of the mainstream. You DLC'ers are the defeatists - you're defeating the public option which is the only hope for real health care reform. You're defeating the Democratic party and the American people. You're selling the Democrats and American people DOWN THE RIVER big time, lying, and engaging in bait and switch. In the space of a mere 8 months you've single-handedly transformed the party of "hope and change" - which turned out to be nothing more than a PR slogan - into one of angry defeatism. Way to go!
or simply don't understand them. I didn't say the public option was a left wing fantasy. I support the public option. A robust one. I said the comment thread is the refuge for the ignorant and people living out left-wing fantasies. I didn't want to name names, I don't want some silly flame war.
I think posters on this board live out their left wing fantasies by making wild accusations in the comments section, coming up with fantasy scenarios about everything from Obama to corporatism, and basically being so defeatist and down-trodden that it is a wonder that they make it out of bed in the morning.
And like clockwork, you come to illustrate my point. You call me a DLC'er when I've probably done more work on behalf of the poor and working class than 99% of the people posting on this board. You accuse me of "selling the Democrats and American people DOWN THE RIVER" as if I'm some politician. I'm just a voter like you! Well not quite like you, because I'm annoyed by the lameness of many of these posts - they are boring and rarely shed light on anything. Their chief goal seemingly is just to inflame people. And Susie is the worst. The quality of blogging on this site has tanked over the last 6 months and it has a lot to do with the absence of a few bloggers who were here months ago, but are no longer around. This is place is an echo chamber filled with people who don't know anything.
I haven't seen a good discussion in a C&L comment threat in like 6 months. So it is what it is.
in this case the health insurance companies (a.k.a. vermin) do not belong in this frickin' debate whatsoever... Why is it so difficult for the U.S. of A. to learn lessons through watching their allies out there?! huh?!! Why not adopt a healthcare system like Canada or the U.K. and get rid of those gouging, life-defeating, cruel corporations and their minions who deny insurance on a regular basis?! Why not only settle for a system that covers EVERYONE and that takes care of the citizens who have put this system in place?
Why for the love of gawd is this so flippin' difficult?!!!!
Because it has historically been nearly impossible to have any kind of rational discussion of social policy in this country. Roger Cohen said it quite well today in the NYT - Americans hear "pooled risk" and think "hey, someone is freeloading on my hard work."
During those brief periods of push back against the Corporate propaganda that began one hundred years ago, there has been success in enacting social policy. The New Deal and the Great Society.
Propaganda utilizes language to manipulate.
Using the phrase "pooled risk" is purposeful to achieve the very result that you note.
Describing public servants with the slur 'bureaucrat' denies the role of the public will.
Free market, public relations are other phrases in the Corporate lexicon of manipulation.
It is the intention of the Corporations to subvert social policy. Roger Cohen may or may not understand this, but he is working for the Corporate media after all.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Its that simple we give the Nazi Fascist Socialist pieces of shit the Congress, Senate and the WH, why because these sellout pieces of garbage that call themselves Democrats are more worried about giving Blow Jobs to the lobbyist for Campaign Contributions or taking it in the ass to prove they can be SCREWED.
Totally discussed with CAVEI-IN Pelosi and BACK-UP REID.
No Public Option, No Money, No Vote No Support.
I had heard mention of the possibility of insurance companies "courting the healthy" and sticking the government with the most costly patients, but I never stopped to think of some of the methods they might use to do it.
That "gym membership" idea seems seriously sneaky to the point where one might actually want to outlaw such practices.
And the "make the sick jump through more hoops" idea... is the kind of immoral trick I'd expect from these people.
* There are two types of Republicans: millionaires and suckers.
"Mugsy's Rap Sheet": Recording history for those who seek to rewrite it.
How ironic that the company that makes a profit off the rescission of their clients has just reduced Health care benefits for their own employees.
I wonder how many new cars and houses Angela Braly will purchase this year with that 10 million dollars that she pocketed last year? I wonder what her bonus will be this year?
I wonder how many medical procedures for Wellpoint's clients 10 million dollars could have paid for?
Does Wellpoint practice rescission on it's own employees?
Only when the last tree has died
and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught
will we realize we cannot eat money.
When I was in the corporate world, my health insurance was terrible at paying claims. I was always getting bills from doctors.
So, I printed up a disclaimer and gave it to each medical provider I visited:
"State law requires my insurer to respond to your claim within 45 days. If they don't, please call me at [my cell number] 45 days after this visit -- on [I left a line for the date] -- so I can immediately file a complaint with the state insurance commissioner."
I got one or two phone calls in the next few months, and I kept my word & filed complaints. Those bills got paid... and then, suddenly, all my claims started to go through pretty quickly.
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