--- Meaning:
Insurance companies are nothing more than UNIONS who are "collective bargainers" for their members who pay Premiums. Their members (Premium payers) GIVE THEM money to NEGOTIATE rates & benefits with PROVIDERS. ... PERIOD - just like a Union.
Insurance Members (Premium Payers) pay Insurance Companies soley for two purposes:
a)pay the Insurance Company to collectively bargain for rates for that member - better rates than the "member" could bargain for individually and,
b)pay the Insurance Company to pay the member's Providers who have also negotiated in good faith.
Insurance Companies are taking their "member’s" money and bargain for rates then telling their "members" (Premium Payer) that they (members) may not benefit from what the member’s money paid the Insurance Company to bargain for collectively.
Insurance Companies intentionally, willfully, with forethought & malice DENY the member the full use of the member's money - Keeping the member's money that the "member" paid them solely to be used to bargain rates and pay Providers - leaving the "member" without their money and without benefits.
That's called:
Defrauding their "members" - THEFT BY DECEPTION.
What would the backlash be if Unions DID negotiate wages & benefits for their members and then told their Union Members that they did not really get the benefits that the Union was paid to collectively bargain for - benefits the Union had, IN FACT, successfully collectively bargained for.
Insurance Companies should not be For-Profit ... I repeat ... Insurance Companies should NOT be For-Profit .... they should, in fact, be set up as NON-PROFIT - just like a Union.
Here's why:
- Insurance Companies produce NOTHING - they merely "collectively bargain" for benefits for their clients.
- Just like any Union, Insurance Companies are merely in the business of "collective bargaining."
- The "Collective Bargainers" - a.k.a. Insurance Companies - TAKE their client's money and have TWO FUNCTIONS:
Insurance Companies TWO SOLE FUNTIONS:
a) Negotiate rates with PROVIDERS and,
b) Use a percentage of the member's money administratively to make certain, on a daily basis, that those PROVIDERS who negotiated rates are paid.
Compare Insurance Company's function to the function of a Union - who also have TWO FUNCTIONS:
a) take their member's money to negotiate wages & benefits and,
b) Use a percentage of the member's money administratively to make certain, on a daily basis, that ALL THEIR MEMBERS have full and uninterrupted compensation of those negotiated wages & benefits - (Administrative Function)
- The Insurance Company "Collective Bargainers" have been operating in BAD FAITH:
Insurance Companies DEFRAUD their Insurance Members by:
a) taking their member's money and,
b) DENYING COVERAGE OF NEGOTIATED PAYMENT TO PROVIDER and/or,
c) DROPPING MEMBER FROM THEIR INSURANCE ROLLS and/or,
d) keeping .. KEEPING & PROFITING FROM that denied/dropped member's money.
Envision a Union doing what Insurance Companies are doing:
a) taking their member's money and,
b) DENYING COVERAGE OF NEGOTIATED WAGES & BENEFITS,
c) DROPPING MEMBER FROM THEIR UNION ROLLS,
d) Keeping ... KEEPING & PROFITING FROM that denied/dropped member's money.
- Can you imagine the protests if Unions had, in fact, successfully bargained for wages and benefits yet cherry picked - after the fact - which "members" got compensation of those benefits? Then kept the members money leaving the member without any of the benefits that member’s money paid the Union to use to protect that Union member?
- Providers are getting screwed by the FRAUD perpetrated by the Insurance Companies:
The providers - who negotiated rates and payment schedule with the Insurance Companies - IN GOOD FAITH - are not getting paid. IF and when the Insurance Companies deny and drop the Insurance Member the Provider is NOT getting paid. Thus, they too, along with the Insurance Member are also getting Defrauded - intentionally, willfully, with forethought and malice - both the Provider and the Insurance Member are being Defrauded.
Again, imagine a Union operating that way.
WHAT IF: The Corporation or business - who negotiated wages & benefits with the Union did not get the work promised out of the Union Members?
Naturally we hear Teabagging GOPers in Congress say things like:
-- "Insurance Companies are in the business to make money and they should be able to make a profit"
-- "Don't interfere or regulate their market" and,
-- "Liberals just don't want anyone to make a profit."
Actually, the Teabagging GOPers are 100% wrong - again.
Insurance Companies are NOT in business to make money - they are in business to:
a) Collectively bargain rates for the members and,
b) Use a percentage of the member's money administratively to make certain, on a daily basis, that those PROVIDERS who negotiated rates are paid.
PERIOD ... that's it ... nothing else ... they produce NOTHING they are only "collective bargainers" like a Union & like Medicare.
IF: Insurance Companies were set up as Non-Profit - 501(c)3's - like Unions ...
and IF: As 501(c)'s, they operated in bad faith AGAINST their members, (Premium Payers) by not allowing their members to reap the benefits from which the member's Premiums paid them (Insurance Companies) to collectively bargain for ...
THEN: They would lose their members & their 501(c) status AS IT SHOULD BE ....
The only way to hold Insurance Companies accountable in their sole functions of being "collective bargainers" & paying the member's Provider is to force them to be set up under the same legal classification as Unions - and all other collective bargainers - 501(c).
Insurance Companies SHOULD be set up as NON-PROFIT organizations in the EXACT SAME MANNER AS A UNION because BOTH have the same exact MISSION.