Political Commentary: Joan McCarter
Providing Health Care Too Expensive? How about Fighting It?
By Joan McCarter, 8-07-09
I’ve been thinking a lot about Bill Schneider’s proposal for healthcare reform, that is, attaching the whole shebang as an amendment to some gun rights bill, and watch the Senate fall all over itself to get the bill passed, and get it passed fast. Seriously, I’d trade shoppers in the grocery store or local mall with loaded, concealed weapons for universal health coverage and an end to the insurance companies’ stranglehold over our access to care. A fair enough trade, I’d guess. Can you imagine America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP, the big guns in the healthcare denial business) and PhRMA taking on the NOA? Now that’d be a lobbyist cage match worth watching. The best part is that it would be over quickly, and maybe with less expense. Because with all of the insanity that August is bringing--the death threats, the hanging of representatives in effigy and the shouting down of any kind of reasonable discourse, it’s the money that is becoming surreal. To say that it is obscene is really understating the case, particularly since so much of the fight over reform swirls around now much it costs.
First and foremost, what’s going into the policy-makers’ coffers from the industry:
During the first half of 2009, health industry groups contributed almost $1.8 million to 18 lawmakers overseeing the House side of the action on an overhaul bill.
For 15 of the 18 congressional leaders, health-care-related PACs accounted for the largest or second-largest contributions each lawmaker received from any industry during the first six months of 2009, a CQ MoneyLine analysis of campaign finance reports shows....
Leading this year’s contributions from PACs representing a range of health care companies and professional associations were donations from doctors, who gave the top leaders $426,150 in the first six months. Pharmaceutical manufacturers gave $352,500, and hospitals followed with $134,800 in donations over the same period, the analysis shows.
That’s both sides of the aisle, by the way, because both sides are taking every advantage of every month this process drags out. It’s a gravy train for them, with industry pouring in all the money they can while they think (ok, know) it will make a difference. But some of it is slightly more targeted:
House Republican Leaders John Boehner (Ohio) and Eric Cantor (Va.) have taken roughly $60,000 from the health insurance company that owns the research firm the Lewin Group, regularly cited by opponents of health care reform, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
Cantor, meanwhile, recently urged his Republican colleagues, at the top of a summer-strategy memo, to refer voters to an “independent analysis by the Lewin Group” that makes that case that giving Americans a public health care option would cause more than 100 million people to lose their current coverage....
Boehner and his leadership PAC have taken in $29,125 and Cantor and his PAC have gotten $28,000 from UnitedHealth’s political action committee, not including what they’ve also gotten from the company’s executives and employees.
Insurance companies can certainly afford to fight reform, with their “astronomical" profits.
The top five earning insurance companies averaged profits of $1.56 billion in 2008 and reported spending an average of “more than 18 percent of their revenues on marketing, administration, and profits.” That year, CEO compensation for these companies ranged from $3 million to $24 million.
All this allowed them to spend more as much as $1.4 million a day lobbying against reform during the January to March reporting period, and we’re like to find out in the next day or two how much more was spent in the April-July quarter.
That’s $1.4 million every day from January until March, $126 million in total. That’d pay for a lot of health care. With the average annual premium for a family pegged at $12,680 annually, in 2008, the money spent by the industry on lobbying in the first three months of 2009 would pay the premiums for 9,936 families.
No wonder AHIP President and CEO Karen Ignani has completely rejected any form of competition in a plan, even Kent Conrad’s watered down “compromise” of co-ops, that great plan that’s supposed to bring in Republicans to support the Baucus Committee plan. With this kind of money at stake, competition is the last thing these free-market Republicans want.
Big business is bad medicine for health care, much worse than big government. Now they have organized mob scenes of right wing nit wits shouting lies to undermine health care reform. Never mind the 30 or 40 thousand Americans who die each year because they don't have the money to seek health care until it is too late.
Comment By Loren Petty, 8-09-09With all of the money being thrown to Members of Congress by health care concerns it is unlikely that any meaningful reform will occur in this session of congress. More likely is more "incremental" change toward a somewhat more equitable system that disallows some of the more draconian practices of health insurers such as dropping people who become ill and insurers refusing to accept people with pre-existing conditions. In exchange the health insurers will get the boon from a government mandate for all persons to carry health insurance. High premiums, and health care bureaucrats refusing a myriad of treatments, will likely continue setting the stage for continued battles regarding health care and continued collections of millions of dollars in contributions for insatiable politicians. Health care, like every other problem in the United States, will not be solved because doing so would remove one huge source of funds for political campaigns. As allways, it is in the best interest of Members of Congress to do as little as possible, or nothing at all, to address a serious problem for U.S. citizens. We do have the best Congress that money can buy.
Comment By Ryan, 8-09-09Health Care has so many issues… and I’m far from a pro, but why is it that the insurance companies always come out as the “evil” entities? Didn’t the doctors, nurses, hospitals, and drug companies (not to mention the companies that create everything that fills a hospital - like the fancy beds and x-ray machines) all make a profit? I don't like lobbyists anymore than the next guy... but that is part of the dance. Every group has them.
“For Profit” is a good thing. Sure, it can go too far - but that is why there should be competition. What I see as the “real problem” is that too many health insurance policies are through businesses as part of a compensation package. The duty to check rates and move insurance companies is a big ordeal and a lot of work for someone that probably already has a lot of other work they also need to do. This means that their job is easier if they stay with their current insurance company. Rates don’t get shopped like they would if individually you or I were buying the policies ourselves. Think of your Auto Insurance policy. If your buddy told you that they were paying hundreds of dollars less for their policy, you’d probably do a little checking (shopping) around to see if you could get a better deal… but if your health insurance is through your company, that’s not possible.
That’s just the start. Doctors and drug companies can also charge huge rates because insurance companies have to pay the majority of the bills. If you had to pay for everything yourself, you’d be much more conscious of the doctor bills and would check around with doctors to find a good combination of a quality doctor and a reasonable price. Instead, it normally doesn’t matter what doctor you go to… just if they are part of the HMO or not. As an example: I have to pay the vet bill for my dogs all on my own. You bet I don't go to the most expensive vet in town (and they are treated better than me)!
As the economy goes down hill, people get laid off… not only do they lose their jobs, but their insurance too. But don’t worry - there’s COBRA…. a policy that is so expensive it is worthless anyways. If you had your own personal plan, you wouldn’t lose it when you change jobs (and it would be an affordable plan that you chose from the beginning). You’d keep it just like you keep your Auto Insurance. No changing doctors or anything!
As I said at the beginning… there are lots of issues with Health Care, and there needs to be regulations. However, profit is a good thing. After paying lots and lots of money to an Insurance company, the last thing you want is for them to go bankrupt when you need them.
The lowest hanging fruit that would affect the entire industry from the insurance companies to the connecting chain of actual health care costs would be for individuals to receive higher salaries and allow them to shop for their own insurance plans. Let us choose the expensive or cheap plan. Let us choose which company we want to buy from. Group plans claim to offer a less expensive policy for the “whole." These "one type plan for everyone" is the wrong answer. A family of 4, a 45 year old woman, and a young 20 year old all could benefit from different plans.
Companies paying for employees health care is a major contributor for many of our problems.
Does anyone here know what's in the health care bill?
Does anyone here know what's in Obama's health care bill?