FYI, I made this post in bobswern’s “Some Experts, Like Krugman, Supported Single Payer Until Bernie Sanders Put It in His Platform” and was asked to publish it as a diary, which is completely my pleasure. Thank you for asking, Relevant Rhino.
The original promised cure for private insurance overcharging for health insurance was competition, especially the competition that would come from a Public Option. IMHO, Wendell Potter had it exactly right when he wrote the brilliantly titled piece: Elimination of ‘Public Option’ Threw Consumers to the Insurance Wolves
Soon after that, though, [Obama] began to waffle. It became clear to me as well as public option supporters in Congress that industry lobbyists had gotten to him [...]
Knowing the industry as I did, I told the committee that if Congress failed to create a public option to compete with private insurers, “the bill it sends to the President might as well be called “The Insurance Industry Profit Protection and Enhancement Act.” *
*Note, ThinkProgress has taken the original article down off of it’s website. An archived version is available at http://archive.fo/qRdPG
If you don’t know who Wendell Potter is, you really need to fix that. The most excellent place to start I think is here: a Bill Moyer’s interview conducted in 2009 called “Wendell Potter on Profits Before Patients.”
WENDELL POTTER
With almost 20 years inside the health insurance industry, Wendell Potter saw for-profit insurers hijack our health care system and put profits before patients. Now, he speaks with Bill Moyers about how those companies are standing in the way of health care reform.
The ACA without a Public Option was a wet dream for insurance companies. There is not a viable mechanism to keep costs down without legitimate competition for the profit-driven and literally inhumane insurance companies.
We are at the mercy of the insurance companies now. We are at the mercy of the wolves, and so many “Democrats” either don’t see it or don’t care. “Defending ACA” is a laughable goal in it’s present state, which will become increasingly obvious as time goes by.
A recent NYT article (that an HRC fan helpfully provided to me) contains this:
And the big rate increases sought by some health insurance companies for 2016 are less significant than they appear, administration officials maintain, because most people buying insurance through the Affordable Care Act’s public exchanges receive federal subsidies that cover most of the premium. They do not need to worry about the “list prices,” officials said, and if they do, they can switch to less expensive plans.
Don’t worry about the prices charged by the insurance companies, because most people buying on the ACA are getting subsidies.
Translation: Don’t worry about the prices charged by the insurance companies, because Uncle Sam is picking up the tab.
Do you see the scam? Health insurance companies have managed to have laws enacted that make it a crime to not buy their product. They can still overcharge for their product — but those in charge of the ACA says not to worry, don’t worry about list price at all, because if you cannot afford to pay for it than Uncle Sam is going to pick up the tab. What a sweet deal for the health insurance companies — they make large profits, courtesy of the taxpayers.
Isn’t this essentially the same kind of sweetheart deal that BIG PHARMA got with Medicare Part D enhancements that contributed greatly to the national debt?
Do I need to explain the problems caused by the increased national debt? I’ll limit myself to saying that conservatives are currently using the high national debt (that was primarily caused by two unfunded wars, unfunded enhancements to Medicare Part D, and the Bush Tax Cuts) as a rallying cry to cut Social Security and Medicare.
Clinton is promising all kinds of good things, it sounds like a wish list created from focus groups. But without true competition, the industry that is exempt from the Sherman Anti-Trust Act is essentially going to be gaining tremendous profits that were paid for with the national credit card.
And Republicans will yell “Tax and Spend Liberals” and they will absolutely fucking be right.
Sanders is telling us he wants to fight for Universal Health Care. The most reasonable short-term compromise would be a Public Option as another choice available from the choices available on the ACA Marketplace.
By denouncing Sanders goals, and not proclaiming support for a Public Option, Hillary is putting her full support behind the “The Insurance Industry Profit Protection and Enhancement Act.” BIG INSURANCE will be happy, and continue to give her big contributions. This is how the oligarchy does it, friends.