Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Dr. Blackbeard, I presume?

On Monday, Price Waterhouse Cooper published an analysis of the Baucus health care reform bill which concluded that insurance premiums were almost certainly going to go up if the bill is signed into law. Later in the day it came to light that the study was commissioned and financed by AHIP, an insurance company lobbying group, calling into serious question the study's findings. 

On Tuesday PWC released a statement saying that they were paid to focus on only a small part of the bill and that sections they didn't review could offset "some" of their findings.  In other words they cherry picked data to make reform look bad, while threatening Americans with steep insurance rate hikes.  (How is this different than what we've seen year in and year out?)  Some analysis.


Let me see if I have this straight: The governments wants to regulate the insurance companies who, through a (formerly respectable) mouthpiece, say that rates are going to go up if the bill passes.  Did I miss anything?

How is that not blackmail?  The insurance industry is threatening to hold their customers hostage if the government does anything to limit their ability to continue to hold us hostage as they have been for decades.  Insurance companies add no value to health care other than to suck away 30% of our money as overhead and profit yet they maintain a strangle-hold on almost all of the GOP and much of the Democratic party. They take on no risk of their own but make a huge profit by denying care to sick people.

They're not businesspeople.  They're pirates. 

No, they're worse than pirates.  At least you can negotiate with pirates and they generally don't want to kill you, they just use your death as leverage  Insurance companies use death as a business plan. 

I don't even know what to call the insurance lobby other than assuredly absurd.

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