Obama is a true capitalist
My health insurer is Anthem Blue Cross. Anthem plans on a rate increase of as much as 39 percent for its customers with individual policies and this has me worried. How in this "free-market" and "capitalistic society can insurers raise prices as much as they want without fear of losing customers?
I have the answer for you:
The health insurance industry is exempt from federal antitrust laws, allowing just a few insurers to become so dominant that the customer has nowhere to go. Now this sentence will be tough to take for all the anti-Obama haters but on Tuesday he announced his support for a House bill that would repeal the health insurers antitrust exemption. Thus allowing competition in the market place.
Insurance companies have been exempt from antitrust laws for over fifty years. The original bill (McCarran-Ferguson bill) was signed into law in 1944 by FDR as a temporary measure and was set to expire in 1947. As a result of a negligent congress the insurance companies are easily able to gouge customers and deny coverage. There is no legal mechanism for preventing firms from price fixing. If you really believe in capitalism and the free-market you would be outraged that normal competition does not exist in the insurance industry. Why has this bill never been repealed by Democrats or Republicans? Hmmmm......let me take a wild guess here. Could it be that these massive insurance companies were giving huge dollars to all candidates, supporting pet projects and donating to PAC's. Wait, how could this be? I thought one side was good and the other side was bad? Ahhhh..........my head hurts.
When I began teaching in 1999 I paid $88 dollars per month for my health care. My last year of teaching (2008) I paid $249 a month for my health care. Have you ever heard of a health care company going broke?
So why did our President come out at this time in support of repealing the antitrust exemption?
Like a master chess player he is boxing the Republicans in. How can the Republicans, the party of the free-market, be in favor of keeping this exemption? If their supporters are honest about their priorities they just might get a tiny bit mad about all those Republican socialist running around the country who do not want to change health care. Heck, I might even attend a tea party to throw those socialist Republicans out of office.
posted by dole2obama @ 5:23 PM
3 Comments
3 Comments:
Nice post. Brooke's heath care went up this year 40%, so now she's forced to be on HMO. They're threatening to raise mine by $200 a month next year. Hope I don't get sick cause I can't afford it.
GE has completely done away with copays..coverage is now "half assed" I have a HRA (Healthcare reimbursement Account) that I pay into every month...on top of some money to UHC...If something happens to my family it will cost me up to 4K..instead of a $20/copay
Having been in the insurance industry off and on for the past 34 years, I know somewhat how they work. It is a pooled risk of investors. You take in so many of a high risk (in autos, called assigned risk) that you are now required by state law to cover while cherry-picking the bulk of your insureds as low risk. Unfortunately, it is the high risk/multiple claim insureds that run up the bulk of the costs. However, when I look at myself, I see that over all of these years I have never had a large claim ever. But, I have a few conditions that might possibly some day before I die be a problem and I end up paying $1,150/month with a $500 deductible for regular care, a $500 deductible for physical therapy, a $500 deductible for psychological treatment, a $500 deductible for acupuncture. Very little of my care is covered. Last year I just barely exceeded my deductible, yet I am paying over $12,000 a year. It is very frustrating and discouraging. We can afford it. I cannot imagine if we only made $24,000/yr. By the time they took out for taxes, I might only bring home $18,000 at best and 66% of that would go towards healthcare. Little wonder that I would not be able to make a house payment or feed my family. Pitiful. Go Canada!
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