
Posts Tagged ‘government health care’
Health insurers near monopoly control of most markets
- Image by Steve Rhodes via Flickr
I thought I understood why insurance companies were the main threats to a “public option.” It’s easy. Their overhead—exec salaries, advertising, political lobbying, etc.—averages 31%. Medicare’s overhead is 1%. No duh they don’t want to compete.
Today, I found out there’s another reason: they mostly don’t even compete against each other. Consumers in 94% of America’s insurance markets buy their health insurance from near-monopolies that dominate their region. The Bigs don’t want to avoid public competition, they want to avoid any competition.
And what happens when profit-makers don’t have to compete? You know what.
Premiums have risen 87% over the last six years, while profits at the ten Bigs rose 428%. Wait a minute: If your insurer’s profit is up 400%, why are your premiums rising so fast?
So, on with the debate: Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), speaking on Fox News, defended the insurance company position, saying a public option would “destroy the marketplace for health care.”
But TPM today covered a report by Health Care for America Now, saying:
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And maybe that’s why millions of your excess insurance premium dollars are being spent on defeating a public option, rather than on reducing your premium.
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- NY Times/CBS News Poll: Wide Support For Government-Run Option Competing With Private Insurers (huffingtonpost.com)
- Why the Critics of a Public Option for Health Care Are Wrong (tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com)
- No Country for Old Men (thehealthcareblog.com)
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Sen. Grassley: “Bipartisan” means “no public option”
- Image by Getty Images via Daylife
Aw, c’mon, Senator.
72% of Americans want health care reform to include a “public option.” Nearly three-fourths of the nation. Including more than half of all Republicans.
Sen. Grassley, however, insists that the “public option” must be killed if there is to be a “bipartisan” bill.
But wait. Isn’t America already bipartisan on this? Even Iowans, Mr. Grassley’s constituents, support a public option 56% to 37%.
Mr. Grassley wants the Senate to ignore what a bipartisan majority of American people want in order to get what a minority of U.S. Senators want.
Ah. Then, he’d maintain, we’d have something bipartisan. In Washington. Hooray for that.
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By the way, Senator Grassley is the 6th-largest recipient of health care industry money in the U.S. Senate.
Looks like the industry’s getting what it wants from Mr. Grassley.
Looks like Americans—and Iowans—aren’t.
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- Americans Want Real Health Care Reform. Help Us Make Congress Understand (crooksandliars.com)
- What you can do to support the public option (mydd.com)
NYTimes Poll: 72% of Americans favor Public Option in healthcare
Americans overwhelmingly want a government-administered insurance plan that would compete with private insurers.
Will Congress deliver? Or will it cave to Big Insurance and pro-industry lawmakers?
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- Kathleen Sebelius: Congress Must Pay for Health Care Reform (blogs.abcnews.com)
- More on the Public Option (talkingpointsmemo.com)