There's a hugely important story this morning in the New York Times which I urge all of you to read.
Here's what I think.
The for-profit health insurance lobbyist organization, recognizes that healthcare reform is in the wind. They're making a grotesque, ill-conceived, desperate and bogus play for respectability.
This is known as putting lipstick on the pig.
I call bullshit on America's health Insurance Plans (AHIP).
Insurers Seek Bigger Reach in Coverage
Acknowledging that too many people simply cannot obtain health insurance on their own, the insurance industry plans on Wednesday to propose a series of steps the companies say would let more individuals, even those who have health problems, obtain coverage.
The proposals, approved by a board of the industry’s main trade group, would make it harder for insurers to cancel policies or deny coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions. The steps would also limit the premiums that could be charged for such people. The trade group also called on states to provide individual coverage for people who were likely to incur very high medical bills.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
What's going to come next? The if her lips are moving, she's lying Ms. Ignagni, the AHIP lobbyist in chief, is going to say, she's really a good person, she's taken Jesus into her heart.
So, before the for-profit insurance industry is driven from the face of the earth, or regulated out of existence, they want to make nice. You might call this gambit, their next- to-last act.
AHIP'S denouement, will be sealed when they turn to The Lewin Group, "the (cough, cough) gold standard of independent healthcare analysis", to make their smarmy cooked-up case supporting for-profit healthcare.
Is AHIP ready to acknowledge its crimes against the American people? Don't count on it.
Since AHIP believes reform means we're all going to be forced mandated to buy their Junk Murder By Spreadsheet insurance, they are in the process of crafting a new (we feel your pain), kinder and gentler image.
They want to buy themselves all the seats at the healthcare negotiating table and at the same time, pretend to offer "solutions." But these "solutions" are as self-serving and phony as a three dollar bill.
There is only one solution to the AHIP created healthcare catastrophe: Single-payer. And until we get to single payer, for profit Murder By Spreadsheet health insurance must be beaten into submission and strangled with air tight consumer protections and intense regulation.
If you want, you can read their proposal garbage here. You decide.
Here's an excerpt. If it weren't so deadly serious, you'd wet your pants laughing.
Our Commitment
we are recommending a series of reforms to give consumers peace of mind, including limiting the use of pre-existing condition exclusions, restricting rescission actions, and establishing a new third-party review process for pre-existing conditions and rescission decisions.
The members of AHIP offer these solutions to help the nation meet its health care challenges and stand ready to work with other stakeholders and policy leaders to make sure all Americans have access to affordable health care coverage.
http://www.ahip.org/...
It's all bullshit!
What follows is from the article in the Times.
The effort is meant to help address the problem of 47 million Americans without health coverage. And it signals a willingness by insurers to abandon practices that have seemed aimed at excluding all but the healthiest individuals.
"We are taking responsibility for ensuring that no one falls through the cracks," said Karen Ignagni, the chief executive of the trade group, America’s Health Insurance Plans, which is based in Washington. While the group is proposing that the states cover the most costly individuals, private insurers would offer policies to everyone else. "We are providing essentially a coverage safety net," she said.
I say to AHIP, read my lips: Criminals take responsibility only when they have to--when they're cornered.
When a felon is facing a lengthy prison sentence, only then does he express contrition for his crimes and "take responsibility."
If not tomorrow, then the day after tomorrow, for-profit healthcare is facing a death sentence. The American people will demand accountability from the political class--they will demand that a knife be driven through the heart of this murderous industry.
AHIP: Jesse Grimsley is one of your victims.
He used to provide his employees 100% coverage, then he had to share the cost. Now, he's had to drop health benefits completely because neither he nor his employees can afford the premiums.
AHIP: Jim Dawson is another victim.
Mr. Dawson, 61 years old, had health insurance through his employer, but had maxed out his plan's $1.5 million lifetime cap halfway through his long hospital stay. In addition to the bill from CPMC, Mr. Dawson owed tens of thousands of dollars more to scores of doctors who were involved in his care. Mr. Dawson and his wife's combined assets totaled a fraction of their medical debt.
"I had never thought in a million years that anything like that could ever happen," says Mrs. Dawson.
As spending on health care has climbed to almost $2 trillion a year, or 16% of the U.S. economy, the number of Americans burdened with massive medical bills has soared as well. According to a 2005 survey by the Commonwealth Fund, an estimated 34% of adults aged 19 to 64 face problems with medical bills or have accrued medical debt. A majority of those people -- 62% -- had health insurance, the survey found.
http://online.wsj.com/...
No, AHIP, no mercy for you. Get back inside your rathole bunker with fellow criminals like Saddem Hussein and members of the Bush regime.
We'll see you at a Congressional Hearing, where you'll be testifying under oath.