You see, the U.S. healthcare system is all about the hunters and the hunted.
The for-profit, Murder by Spreadsheet insurance industry are predatory hunters. The American people are the victims being scammed into buying shit junk insurance.
Predators come in many shapes and sizes.
This morning, I invite you courtesy of the front page of the New York Times, to spend a few minutes reading about predators selling government-approved Medicare Advantage Plans. But the duping of the population doesn't stop with seniors. "Mandates" are quickly becoming the new buzz word for healthcare reform. Soon, we'll all be required to buy snakeoil junk insurance very similar to Medicare Advantage.
Insurance salesmen, selling conning and coercing seniors into buying junk insurance which is called Medicare Advantage.
Delivering affordable healthcare to all the American people is not the imperative in the United States.
Don't believe a word I write, here's what Ezra Klein has to say.
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Writing in The American Prospect, in one of the finest articles I have yet read, Ezra Klein compares the U.S. system with those in Canada, Germany, France and the U.K., Ezra makes many critical points well worth noting.
And I recommend you stop reading this diary and read his article. It will make you very sad, and you will ask yourself, what crime did the American people commit? Why do we have one of the worst and certainly the most expensive healthcare system in the world? Why do we allow this?
Here's his sad, tragic conclusion.
That's not to say that there's no room for profit within the American health-care system, but that it's time the discussion stopped focusing on how to preserve the interests of moneyed stakeholders and started asking how to deliver the best care, for the lowest cost, at the highest quality -- to every American. Such a system will probably still have private insurers (at least at the high end of care), pay enough to encourage pharmaceutical innovation, and allow for choice and competition and market pressures. But it will take as its guiding principle the health of the populace, rather than that of the providers. That, in the end, is what all the model health-care systems have in common. Except ours.
Returning to the American private, for-profit system, here's how the game gets played in the United States.
And make no mistake, it's a game with prizes and trips to Las Vegas to the most successful snakeoil salesmen.
The New York Times is reporting this morning that these heavy handed sales practices have become the norm in many areas of the country.
THE PREDATORS:
Insurance salesmen
Hard Sell Cited as Insurers Push Plans to Elderly
Insurance companies have used improper hard-sell tactics to persuade Medicare recipients to sign up for private health plans that cost the government far more than the traditional Medicare program, federal and state officials and consumer advocates say.
Bobbie S. Whatley of Columbus, Ga., said a young man who showed up on her doorstep in November and talked to her about insurance forged her signature, and a month later she received mail thanking her for joining a plan. "It turned into a nightmare," Mrs. Whatley said.
Tracking Growth Insurance agents, spurred in some cases by incentives like trips to Las Vegas, have aggressively marketed the private plans, known as Medicare Advantage plans. Enrollment in them has skyrocketed in the last year, and Medicare officials foresee continued rapid growth in the next decade.
THE PREDATOR ENABLER:
AHIP-America's Health Insurance Plans
The scum liars at AHIP, remember them, the trade association for the for-profit insurance industry, commission bogus studies designed to showcase "happy seniors". AHIP wants the American people to believe that tragedies that would befall senior citizens and the nation if there were no Medicare Advantage.
Why does AHIP do this? Because AHIP has its own mandate, to preserve the for-profit status quo. Follow the money. There's huge money in the privatized Medicare Advantage Plans for AHIP members. And as the system devours itself, AHIP will turn itself into a lying corporate pretzel to manufacture these fraudulent bullshit "reports".
Most doctors say Medicare Advantage cuts would harm seniors;
Satisfaction with Medicare health plans rises
(Washington, DC) – Thirty-five percent of seniors – including 62 percent of low-income seniors – enrolled in Medicare Advantage say they would skip some of the health care treatments they currently receive if the option of choosing a Medicare health plan is taken away, while three-fourths of physicians believe that seniors will be harmed if Congress cuts the Medicare Advantage program.
These are among the key findings of two new surveys released today by America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP). The survey of Medicare Advantage beneficiaries and a companion survey of physicians who treat Medicare beneficiaries illustrate the critical role Medicare health plans play in the health security of more than 8 million seniors.
"Seniors and their physicians agree that Medicare Advantage is a vital health coverage option," said Karen Ignagni, President and CEO of AHIP. "As members of Congress engage in budget discussions, they will be hearing from their low-income and minority constituents who count on the essential benefits and lower out-of-pocket costs Medicare health plans provide."
Here's Michael Leavitt, the HHS secretary spewing force lies. In the United States, lies trump truth.
THE REGIME THUG LIARS AND ENABLERS:
REMARKS BY:
Michael Leavitt, SecretaryPLACE:
Washington, D.C.DATE:
Thursday, March 22, 2007Remarks as Prepared to America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP)
It was a great American success. Children helped parents. Churches helped parishioners - senior centers, libraries, shopping centers, hospitals, pharmacies and doctors' offices - all became enrollment centers.
I came to realize that Part D was much more than a new federal program. A grassroots outreach effort came together around Part D to help seniors enroll. It was a truly American moment.
Many of you were very directly involved in that. Our meeting last January was a memorable and important milestone.
Your insights at that meeting helped me to get a better grip of the early problems we faced with the program.
When we spoke last year, competition among plans had driven average monthly premiums down from an expected $38 per month to about $25 per month.
Since then, competition has continued to drive costs down and satisfaction up.
Today, premiums are even lower than last year. They average around $22 per month. Beneficiaries are saving an average of $1,200 per year, in part, because plans are negotiating rates.
For the same reason, taxpayers will save about $113 billion over the next 10 years.
What's more, surveys have found that at least three out of four beneficiaries enrolled are happy with their plan.
It's clear that competition is working.
This should come as no surprise. In every industry, free-market competition drives costs down and value up.
We have also seen this kind of result in another important program: Medicare Advantage.
As you know, Medicare Advantage plans allow beneficiaries to receive their benefits through private insurance companies rather than through the usual fee-for-service structure.
The program reimburses plans through a competitive bidding process. It relies on the power of the marketplace rather than bureaucratic government rate-setting.
These plans have been a tremendous success, particularly among low-income, minority, and rural consumers.
That's because plans are competing to attract business. Most of them are offering more coverage than fee-for-service plans. For example:
More than half of Advantage plans cover eye glasses;
More than three fourths of plans cover eye exams and extra days in the hospital; and 90 percent extend coverage for stays in skilled-nursing facilities.
What's worse, so many of the "reform" proposals play right into the hands of the predators.
Here's what the Los Angeles Times is reporting this morning. Universal healthcare being embraced by business leaders, sounds good at first blush, but it isn't.
What it's all about is throwing more bodies into the corrupt, Murder by Spreadsheet clutches of the for-profit insurance industry. It's about "mandating" that every man, woman and child in American buy junk insurance.
Healthcare reform's unlikely ally: big business
A big-business coalition, breaking ranks with smaller firms, will lobby Sacramento and D.C. to expand coverage to all.SACRAMENTO — Abandoning the business lobby's traditional resistance to healthcare reform, a new coalition of 36 major companies plans to launch a political campaign today calling for medical insurance to be expanded to everyone along lines Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing for California.
Founded by Steve Burd, chairman of the Safeway grocery chain and an ally of the governor, the coalition could boost efforts in Sacramento and Washington, D.C., to overhaul healthcare laws. It also formalizes a growing division over the issue among businesses.
The coalition includes some of the nation's largest companies: PepsiCo, General Mills, Pacific Gas and Electric Co., Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co., The Kroger Co., a number of Safeway vendors and grocery item manufacturers such as Bumble Bee Seafoods LLC.
It also includes insurers and drug firms that probably would benefit from mandated health insurance: Aetna, Blue Shield of California, Cigna HealthCare, Eli Lilly and Co. and PacifiCare.
This is not my vision of universal healthcare. Where is the Democratic pushback?
Crossposted at Daily Kos
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