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Tag: insurance

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Oh my god! Revoking health insurance companies’ antitrust makes us Nazis!

by Calickizzle
Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 11:14am

In September, Rep. John Conyers and Sen Patrick Leahy introduced into their respective judicial committees legislation that challenged the exemption to federal anti-trust legislation enjoyed by health insurance companies. Called the Health Insurance Industry Antitrust Enforcement Act, the purpose of this legislation is to ensure that “health insurance issuers and medical malpractice issuers cannot engage in price fixing, bid rigging, or market allocations to the detriment of competition and consumers.” On Wednesday, theHouse Judiciary Committee voted to pass Conyers’ amendment out of committee with a 20-9 vote, including three Republicans offering their bipartisan support in revoking the anti-trust exemption for health insurance companies.

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antitrust | health care | insurance | nazi | View Comments

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Where Do Our Premiums Go?

by Jsmog
Tuesday, October 6, 2009 at 04:12pm

When insurance companies are paying over half their profits for lobbyist and legal fees, that’s obviously money not going to provide benefits to policy holders with their health care bills. Because of their lack or regulation they legally have the right to hike up their rates whenever they want. Because of this their membership rates are down but they are still able to make huge profits off less customers. In three years the profits of Wellpoint, the nation’s largest health insurance company, went up 90% while their memberships rates were down 3%. Netting $2.5 billion in profits last year wasn’t enough for WellPoint. Now, WellPoint’s affiliate, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, is suing the state of Maine for refusing to guarantee it a profit margin in the midst of a painful recession:

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Socialism That Helps People: Bad. Socialism That Helps Property: Good

by Jsmog
Tuesday, October 6, 2009 at 03:55am

[Transcript (edited):]

The Republicans who oppose health care reform and the conservative Democrats who oppose a public option have deeply principled, philosophical objections to the concept of government insurance—except when insurance companies benefit from it.

The big arguments against the public option have been these: that the government is incapable of running an insurance plan, that the free-market provides consumers with better choices, that socialized insurance will have unfair advantages. But as Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Cay Johnston recently reported, these arguments do not stop some of the big opponents of socialized insurance for voting for socialized insurance when that insurance is not for the well being of people, but for the well being of property.

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