Mark Twain once observed, "A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can even get its boots on."
The Los Angeles Times is reporting this morning that entire categories of people are automatically excluded from purchasing individual health insurance policies in the largest state of the United States.
Health insurers in California refuse to sell individual coverage to people simply because of their occupations or use of certain medicines, according to documents obtained by The Times.
Entire categories of workers — including roofers, pro athletes, dockworkers, migrant workers and firefighters — are turned down for insurance even if they are in good health and can afford coverage, according to the confidential underwriting guidelines of four health plans.
. . .Such restrictions are legal in California, and state regulators have no authority to stop them. Health plans defend their restrictions as necessary to keep premiums down.
http://www.latimes.com/...
Indeed buying individual insurance in California is almost impossible but the reason for this has nothing to do with "keeping premiums down". It is about one issue and one issue only: keeping insurance profits up.
The insurance industry is lying to the American people. They are being aided and abetted by the political "leadership" at every level of government who refuse to speak the truth about their corporate benefactors. The people of the United States need to wake-up. The time has come to question the legitimacy of the for-profit health insurance industry in the United States, and to demand that the political class lead the charge.
Congressional investigations of this depraved industry must be moved to the top of the list.
Returning to lies. This is also a lie [it is a reference to the necessity of denying coverage to huge numbers of citizens of California].
"This is something that has been actuarially determined to keep insurance affordable for a very, very broad range of people," said David Olson, a spokesman for Woodland Hills-based Health Net.
I am ashamed to tell you something, but since this illustrates my point, I will. And it will also make you realize how people cling to long-entrenched lies. My beloved brother who graduated from Harvard, voted for Mr. Schwarzenegger. Apparently he bought the lie. The only question that remains unanswered is, does Mr. Schwarzenegger believe the lie? Stay tuned. He'll let us know when he delivers his long-anticipated State of the State address, which may be today. How does he meld his "mandate" with the refusal by the for-profit insurance industry to insure everyone? Talk about an absurdity.
Schwarzenegger has said he favors requiring individuals to obtain health insurance in the same way drivers must carry automobile coverage. People familiar with the development of his ideas say he also seems to understand that such a mandate wouldn't work if insurers were allowed to exclude all but the healthiest customers.
Still, the governor also sees affordability as key to expanding coverage, but insurers say loosening their underwriting policies would only drive prices up.
Here's another shameless lie.
Studies show "guaranteed issue can price people out of the market, and, as public policy, it achieves the opposite goal of getting more people insured," said Shannon Troughton, a spokeswoman for WellPoint Inc., the Indianapolis-based parent company of Blue Cross of California.
Focus on the following facts, then you'll really see the absurdity of the tragedy. California has the sixth largest economy in the world. Here's the ranking: U.S., Japan, Germany, U.K., France, California. The gross state output is over $1.5 trillion and the state produces close to 13% of the nation's output. Yet this is the state where it remains legal to deny vast numbers of American citizens health insurance and access to affordable health care. http://www.lao.ca.gov/...
Here finally is the T R U T H from an Op Ed this morning in the San Jose Mercury News by the man who should have been governor Phil Angelides. It's aptly entitled: To make health care affordable, attack insurers' greed
Since 2000, health insurance companies have doubled premiums to employers and families, raising them at four times the rate of inflation and faster than the cost of providing health care. As a result, the top seven health insurers are making record profits, triple what they made five years ago. Every year, more than $10 billion of the premiums paid by California businesses and families -- about 14 cents on each dollar of premiums -- are gobbled up in insurer overhead and profits and diverted from the medical care they are supposed to provide. By comparison, the administrative overhead costs in Medicare average about 3 percent. That $10 billion is more than enough to pay for health care for all of California's uninsured.
But that's only the beginning. Health insurers place an expensive labyrinth of middlemen between patients and health care providers, much of it dedicated to making a profit by dumping costs and risks onto someone else. They force doctors, clinics and hospitals to hire armies of people to deal with insurance claims, eligibility, contracting and utilization reviews. Researchers at the University of California found last year that insurance-related administrative costs consumed about 21 percent of health insurance dollars in California, or about $16 billion a year.
California law has long barred health insurance plans from spending an ``excessive amount'' on administrative costs, including executive pay. But that did not stop the Schwarzenegger administration from approving two mega-mergers of health insurance companies that triggered golden parachute pay-outs to executives potentially totaling nearly $1 billion. These huge pay-outs came in addition to already extravagant executive pay. In one instance, the CEO of a health plan was paid $24 million a year in salary and stock options. He also got life insurance totaling three times his base salary; the lease of an automobile; three country club memberships; and tens of thousands of dollars for financial and tax counseling. He even got money to pay his taxes. If that's not excessive, what is?
http://www.mercurynews.com/...
Finally, allow me to reduce this nightmare to the story of one citizen of California.
I just returned to New York from Los Angeles. While there, I received some terrible news. A very old and dear friend of my father's was diagnosed with a particularly evil form of cancer--throat cancer which has migrated to his tongue. It is advanced cancer.
This man had not been feeling for some time but did not have health insurance, hence he did nothing. He had applied years earlier for an individual policy and was turned down. He was waiting for Medicare to kick in. Finally it did. He want to the doctor and received this terrible diagnosis. It's probably too late.
So the taxpayers of the United States will pay for his very expensive healthcare. Perhaps had he been able to purchase affordable insurance, he would not be in such a dire condition and his treatment would be less costly.
What a revolting and shameful state of affairs.
By the way, how come Barbara Boxer and Ms. Feinstein aren't screaming about this every fucking day? And if they are, I withdraw this question. I can't follow every damn politician in the nation.