Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Robert Greenwald of Brave New Films has released the short documentary film "The Health Insurance Racket: Getting Rich while denying Americans Care." What does Isabella, a four year-old girl in Wisconsin who is physically incapable of eating and has had to be tube fed her entire life, have to gain from healthcare reform? The treatment she needs to live a normal life.
This is part of Brave New Films' Sick for Profit campaign:
UnitedHealthcare CEO Stephen Hemsley owns $744,232,068 in unexercised stock options. CIGNA’s Edward Hanway spends his holidays in a $13 million beach house in New Jersey. Meanwhile, regular Americans are routinely denied coverage for the care they need when they need it most.
Welcome to the American health insurance industry. Instead of helping policyholders attain the health security they need for their families, big insurance companies get rich by denying coverage to patients. Now they’re sending lobbyists to Washington, DC to twist the arms of lawmakers to oppose reform of the status quo. Why? Because the status quo pays.
Learn more about the glamorous lives of billionaire health insurance executives and tell us your story of being victimized by their greed.
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Why is it amoral for a corporation to make a profit? That is their sole reason for existence. You don’t HAVE to buy what they are selling. Further, this bill is not about insurance reform, its about Health Care for all, paid for and provided by, the government.
Your concern seems to be about choice. Here’s something I would support, and I’d like to see how you feel about it. You bring up employer provided health care and COBRA. If you’ve ever lost your job, you’ve probably been shocked by the premium COBRA wants to continue your health insurance. Are you aware that that premium is actually LESS than what your employer paid? Your employer picks up the tab of the overwhelming bulk of the cost. For me, at my last position, I paid ~$80 every 2 weeks to cover my family and myself. When I left, the COBRA premium was ~$700 a month. That means my employer was footing over $500 monthly.
So, how about this? Rather than give everyone free coverage, simply have employers make that contribution to a HSA, which you could spend where ever you wanted?
As far as what goes on in other states, well, that IS their right. The Federal Government has no constitutional authority to interfere. If the people of those states don’t like that, they can either move or change it at the state level. Here in AZ, we don’t have that problem. I can choose from any number of companies to provide insurance.
Brice, you ignore the fact, as has been documented by the AMA, that the health insurance companies maintain a monopoly in most states, and have anti-competitive agreements to maintain ther market shares. Some in Congress have proposed inter-state competition between insurers, but the long term effects of this will also encourage industry consolidation among the monopolies. It will also lead to federalization of insurance regulation, ending the traditional state regulation of insurance. The “states rights” people will have a problem with this.
People do not have a real choice in selecting their health insurance. Those who are lucky enough to have employer-sponsored health insurance (there are 14,000 fewer every day) have whatever plan their employer selected. They are at the mercy of their employer modifying coverage or even ending participation in the plan due to cost. They could go out and purchase an individual plan of their own, but these plans tend to be prohibitively expensive. If they lose their job, temporary COBRA coverage is also prohibitively expensive when you are unemployed.
As for drug companies, they receive federal subsidies for research and testing; they spend outrageous amounts of money in direct marketing to consumers (Congress should repeal this law); and when Congress enacted Medicare Part D the pharamaceutical companies made damn sure there would be no pricing competition, particularly from the importation of drugs.
There is a big difference between making a fair rate of return on investment and profiteering off the misery of others. Your approval of “they can charge whatever we will pay” indicates your support for this amoral behavior.
If you produce something no one else can, why should you give it away for less than it’s worth?
We don’t owe them anything. We don’t have to buy what they’re selling. The fact is, we want what they’re selling, and we’ll pay it. So, they can charge whatever we will pay.
Do you go to the grocery store and complain about the evil dairy farmers? Calcium is good for your bones, and you should drink it. So, shouldn’t they just give it to us for free? Pick any item that is good for your health, and make the comparison. Why shouldn’t the drug companies charge as much as they can get us to pay? A corporation exists solely to make a profit for itself and it’s shareholders. Take that away and what would be the purpose of producing anything?
“Corporations are, by definition, greedy. If you recognize that, and deal with them knowing that, you will never be surprised by their actions to increase their bottom line!”
That is a true fact. And that is exactly what supporters of the single payer and public option are trying so hard to do: limit the bounds of corporate greed. I am shocked and appalled at the brazen unwillingness of the drug companies to be willing to negotiate with these large programs – Medicare and the proposed Single Payer plan. I just plain don’t understand what we “owe” them, in terms of their “right” to make limitless sums of money off the backs of the public.
Ouch. I actually can’t believe I worded it that way. Obviously, some denials are in bad-faith. That’s why we have an insurance commission!
I don’t know that I would call most denials improper. I’m certainly NOT blaming the ‘victims’, but the fact remains that insurance companies are in it to make money. They aren’t in it to help us out. I talked about this a little bit in another comment I made. I’m no fan of Insurance companies.
Do you ever wonder how our parents survived, without health insurance? Sure, there were private insurance companies, but it really didn’t become widespread until the late 70’s. One thing you always have to keep in mind when it comes to anyone who wants your money. They want it so they can have more for themselves. Corporations are, by definition, greedy. If you recognize that, and deal with them knowing that, you will never be surprised by their actions to increase their bottom line!
You are misinformed. I have sued insurance companies for denial of coverage, coverage that my clients had paid premiums, deductibles and co-pays to receive. The court ruled against the insurer for improper denial of coverage in breach of contract and for bad faith. This is the usual situation.
Blaming the victims of the rapacious greed of insurers is poor judgment.
Insurance companies are in the business of making money. We are consumers. We have choice. Every denial from an insurance company is part of a contractual agreement we made with them. Why should we force them to void the contract because we didn’t read it, or bought what was cheapest?