If I could pick one complaint about the House version of the health bill, I would say it really does seem to give insurance companies a break. A few of the Democrats that voted against the bill, including Dennis Kucinich, did so because of the mandate that decrees that everyone must have health insurance. If you can't afford it, the federal government would provide subsidies to insurance companies so that you can have insurance.
My question is how is this any different than bailing out AIG?
To me, this part of the new bill is reminiscent of Massachusetts universal care which vastly benefits the private sector. One way or another, the Man is getting his third vacation home with our money.
Of course, I can bitch about this all I want but I don't really see another alternative. Corporations of this country are so powerful that there will NEVER be a system like there is in Canada or Great Britain. And, with at least 30 million people believing that any government run system is going to cause our country to become EXACTLY like the Soviet Union in the year 1955, our plutonomy is going to roll merrily along.
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Under the House bill, health insurance companies are no longer in the insurance business. They can't rate and underwrite risks, which is the essence of insurance. That will become illegal. They can't decide to whom they will issue policies; that will be illegal too. They can't offer novel or innovative coverages; their coverages are dictated by law. To a limited extent they can make decisions on paying claims, but under the watchful eye of government regulators. Meaningful competition among insurance companies will be, in effect, illegal.
In the world that the House bill would create, the money we will pay to insurance companies won't really be insurance premiums. Insurance premiums are contractual payments which the parties voluntarily agree upon and which are based on a mutual assessment of risk. Rather, the checks we will be writing to insurance companies will be taxes - legally compelled, at rates set by the gubmint. So when things start to go badly, as they inevitably will, Pelosi and her colleagues will have someone to blame: the insurance companies. Maybe old-fashioned socialized medicine would be better. Then the folks who voted for the bill (and the ones who cheered for its passage on the internet) will have to take responsibility for its folly.
Most of us here agree that the tax deduction for employer-provided group insurance has nearly destroyed the individual insurance market. Most politicians aren’t going to have the guts to remove it so last in lines proposed solution #4 is to extend the tax deduction to individual, portable insurance policies, long-term insurance policies and to the high-deductible policies that people choose with their own money (something blk mentione don here a while back).
Last in lines proposed solution #5 - remove the ban on cross-state insurance. What else aren't we allowed to purchase in another state? We need to allow the same innovation, entry, and competition that has slashed costs in other industries like cell phones, etc.
One way or another, the Man is getting his third vacation home with our money.
Seriously, M, we get that you've got an overwhelming sense of envy.
Okay, so let me get this straight....
What you like about the bill is that it declares a minimum mandatory amount of "compassion" for one's fellow man that an American must have in order to avoid fines or prison, and what constitutes "compassion" is defined by the President and Congress, meaning it will probably get redefined by every new President and every new Congress from now til doomsday.
This is what you like about it? Hmmm...
Just out of curiosity, do you think you'll still like it when a Republican President and a Republican Congress gets to treat you as a criminal for failing to meet their newly redefined standard of "compassion"?
Articulate. Reasoned. Civil. Where are all these crazy right-wingers I've been reading about?
Actually, I have been quite thankful for GOF and juris. They rip me and rant but I like what they write.
For example, GOF's comment above has sent me deep in reflection. I know generally how I want to respond but it is such a thought provoking comment that I don't know where to begin.
"Under the House bill, health insurance companies are no longer in the insurance business."
How is that possible when the bill specifically calls for subsidies to be paid to insurance companies by the government if people can't afford their own? This would be why Kucinich voted against the bill.
"Corporations of this country are so powerful that there will NEVER be a system like there is in Canada or Great Britain. And, with at least 30 million people believing that any government run system is going to cause our country to become EXACTLY like the Soviet Union in the year 1955, our plutonomy is going to roll merrily along."
Fuck, I don't even want to see get close to the BRITISH system, let alone Soviet... because, you see, I used to LIVE there. I have experienced that system FIRST HAND. And now I'm here. Hmm. Why is that? Why didn't I stay in the UK if their healthcare was so damned good?
BECAUSE IT ISN'T. It's a disaster.
Earlier this month, Dan wrote on here -
"That maybe we actually have some compelling arguments...Mark, until that happens, I wouldn't bother "reaching out." We have been trying to reach out to the conservatives for decades, asking for some help in solving some of the REAL problems this country faces. What we have gotten in return is nothing but scorn, ridicule and snarky, petty dogma. As for the "John Smiths" out there, fuck 'em. They don't have convictions, only inflammatory rhetoric....I will however, submit that perhaps your blog has become a tad too much like poking the beast with a long stick, just to watch how worked up it gets....We all love to expose and discuss the hypocrisy of "the other side" but it has to eventually give way to something better. Rather than this continual meme of "See how stupid/criminal/un-American the other guys are," which has been the bread-and-butter of far too many pundits on both the right and the left, I would rather read thoughtful compositions on current topics reflecting your own unique, Liberal viewpoint."
Where the fucking hell did all the "thoughtful liberal compositions" and "compelling arguments" go when I posted an issue based response to every entry made on this blog regarding the health care bill? No inflammatory rhetoric, no ridicule, no scorn and all you supporters go silent. Well, I guess I'll get back to laughing at the genius of the stimulus bill or the unique liberal viewpoint that brought us the cap and trade bill.
Speaking of poking Dan, I'll throw another dig at him asking for an issues-based post - which I gave him - and his complete avoidance of that (even while posting on other threads).
The only thing that gets the frogs croaking around here is vituperative posts on the venality of the right.
Nothing like showing true colors.
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