POLITICAL INACTION: What makes Markos, Scarborough, Tavis Smiley, and Ed Gillespie Agree?

Sunday, December 20, 2009

What makes Markos, Scarborough, Tavis Smiley, and Ed Gillespie Agree?

That this 'healthcare reform' is not really reform. Joe Scarborough reiterates what Howard Dean has over the weekend---that insurance company stocks reached a 52-YEAR HIGH on Friday when it became clear there were 60 votes for the bill. David Axlerod (and Obama) always claim that "we took on the insurance companies, this is real reform, they're against it", but it seems to me like insurance companies are really the only ones who profit from this bill.

Money quotes:
Kos: "This is allowing more people--30 million people--to buy into the existing, broken system.....it's REWARDING the existing system."
Scarborough: "He's made a lot of people with insurance stock a lot richer."

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11 Comments:

Anonymous said...: If I had a vote yes or no on single payer/Medicare for all, I'd vote yes because in the broadest possible picture I do think that would be best for the American people.

But I also have personal experience. My daughter is a leukemia patient and I honestly believe that the insurance company's case manager nurse saved her life about 10 days after her initial discharge. Long story short, her own doctor was unreachable and the hematology fellow didn't ask the right questions so she (the doctor) had a "Lets see how she feels tomorrow" attitude. The insurance company case manager nurse just happened to call for her weekly check-in with us (a lot of people resent those calls, but they are wrong) and her attitude was, "I am calling the hospital and telling them you are coming in for tests; maybe she needs a transfusion." If money was all they cared about, that case manager would have just accepted what the hematology fellow said. My daughter had hypercalcemia and her kidneys were failing.

I don't go along with the demonizing insurance companies. That case manager and her supervisor were the most concerned, caring, try-to-do-anything-to help people we experienced, actually. I have perspective that people who have good insurance are wary that the government will get involved and it'll be like the post office where I watch the clerks take as long as they possibly can to do anything. "Dodging the heavy package" as one of them once confided to me. They try to dodge as much as they can, heavy or not, take little boxes from one end of the room to the other one at a time with a line 20 people long.

This bill is a big advance and a lot of us are feeling a lot of relief that they're really going to do something.; 1:43 PM
DP@WFNY said...: I'm glad that one person at that one insurance company cared enough for your daughter. Truly.

But, for every story like that, there are tens or hundreds of stories of people being flat-out screwed by insurance companies.

You're right that it's impossible to paint all companies/people that work for them with one broad brush, but I'd say your experience is far more the exception than the rule.

For example, my brother needed an MRI on his back a few months ago. He had to wait 10 fucking days for someone at the insurance company to decide if they'd cover it, even though his doctor needed to have it done to diagnose his herniated discs. So, in that case, the insurance company forced my brother to wait an additional two weeks just to get a diagnosis on something that made him nearly unable to walk or bend over and tie his shoes.

Just sayin'.; 4:31 PM
Anonymous said...: DP,
Thats a shame your brother had that experience; he must have been in a lot of pain and worry. One thing I've learned over the past couple years - because now I'm more alert to it - is that a lot of people don't know their insurance has caps and limits and fine print until they are in a health catastrophe. That was the problem with the "healthcare issue" this year, people think they won't get sick and if they do "I've got insurance."; 6:18 PM
Brian Francis said...: What don't any of you get? This bill wad always going to be good for insurance companies..the house bill or the senate bill. We are mandating that millions of people buy their products. They just got 30 million new customers. Of course their shareholders are happy. The issue is whrthr or not we are paying less for insurance, which we are, gaining critical reforms, and we are, and covering 30 million people in the mean time. What did you think, that insurance companies were going to be told they have to cover 30 million people and not collect any type of premiums/fees to do so? Medical care in this country isn't free. Those nurses making 50k a year, and doctors making 200k get paid some how. If 30 million people have to now be covered, there are going to be fees associated. It is th job of he insurance companies to pool said premiums, and pay all costs associated with their medical care.

This is a non issue. I find it funny that the liberals thought they were going to get everything for free. Either the government is collecting all this money an paying healthcare costs, or the insurance companies are. So what you are really arguing about, again, is a public option. You are right medicare has much better costs associated because it doesn't have the same 30% overheadthat insurance companies do, but that isn't politically feasible.

They produced a bill that covers 30 million more people, and saves $120 billion on he deficit over ten years. A single payer would save more, be amuh better system for families and businesses, but at the moment, the American people aren't there yet.

I think the senate and house produced the best bills they could have. The insurance industry gained, and the amrican people gained to. The problem is that the insurance industry acceptable a deal that kills their business model. They got very favorable terms in this senate deal, but they can't ever go back. Obama has moved the ball so far downfield, that the next step is an expansion of Medicare, especially in 5 to 10 years when people start talking again about needing to reduce the cost of healthcare. The only way to squeeze more saving is by moving away from profit. As things become clearer, which this healthcare bill accomplishes, the insurance industry loses margin for error. They can't cloud The debate. It becomes evident that they, and not govt intervention, are the problem the moment Obama signs the legislation.

But keep trying to slit the democrats throats liberals. It is going to do you a bunch of good to downplay president Obamas signature legislation. You need to stop being spoiled brats, genon board, and shut the fuck up if you don't have anything good to say about the bill.; 6:45 PM
Brian Francis said...: Sorry it reads like I was drunk. Posting from an iPhone can't be a motherfucker sometimes.; 6:47 PM
megan said...: last time I checked, bart stupak isn't a liberal......; 7:38 PM
Brian Francis said...: Stupak's issues are abortion related. Has nothing to do with rewarding the existing system.

Markos is a fool, who lives in a dream land. He is as much of a zealot as Sarah Palin. It is hypocritical for Palin to criticize him, or him to criticize her.

To achieve what liberals want, a single payer system, there has to be a two step process. First, you have to get in the door with reform, which is what Obama has done, to wean the public off the employer based system. Once that is done, you can pool everyone together for a national system. While, I believe a single payer won't have the overhead costs, it really doesn't matter if the system is private or public, as long as the rules are governed by the people, and not the insurance companies, and as long as there is vigorous competition. The market will figure the competition side out, it is just there is no competition right now because the companies monopolize markets, and employers only offer one plan. There is no semblance of competition in the market right now, which is why everything is so screwed up.; 8:07 PM
megan said...: "There is no semblance of competition in the market right now, which is why everything is so screwed up."

EXACTLY WHY LIBERALS ARE FIGHTING FOR THE FUCKING PUBLIC OPTION.

At this rate, the insurance companies are going to continue making a SHIT-TON of money while waiting for this 'second phase' of reform you claim will happen. This 'reform bill' does not even begin to introduce any resemblance of competition.; 9:00 PM
Brian Francis said...: just because liberal writers without business degrees, nor any understanding of the free market say there is no competition in this bill, doesn't mean they are right, Megan.; 10:48 PM
megan said...: and just because you claim there is as part of your new-found intensity with which you hate liberals doesn't make it so, either.; 11:14 PM
Brian Francis said...: I voted for Obama, not liberals. Right now, the liberals are bringing Obama down from the inside, and I don't think he has the margin of error to recover from it.; 12:30 AM