The Senate Bill Allows Big Insurance to Take Over Completely

[HappyTexan]

Originally Posted by Old Gringo

I seriously doubt that the big insurance companies would have lobbied so long and so hard against it if it was going to be to their benefit.

Their lobbyists were instrumental in writing the draft of the bill as well as talking points papers for our reps to use at their Town Halls.

Both big pharma and insurance did their back room deals with the government.

[texdav]

No matter what we certainly saw that mnay of the ligberals made sure thier states di not get the axe proposed by them for other states and inserted spiall provisions. The number of votes bought thru this shows what washington politics really has gotten to be.

[roysoldboy]

Originally Posted by texdav

No matter what we certainly saw that mnay of the ligberals made sure thier states di not get the axe proposed by them for other states and inserted spiall provisions. The number of votes bought thru this shows what washington politics really has gotten to be.

I have started wondering if maybe this hasn't always been done and not reported because most of the bills just weren't as controversial as this one. Both parties have been known to do this very thing but this time Dirty Harry forced himself to do it because he told Republicans that he didn't need them to get it through and he had only a bare minimum of the votes needed. He lost Collins when he through out public option and that left him with Dems only.

[Sagran]

Originally Posted by pghquest

I'm not disputing that Republicans supported it, you are disputing that Democrats didnt..

Your reading comprehension issue surfaces again. Rather than read what I wrote, you read into what I wrote what you think a good liberal would write. Of course, you are wrong.

[Danno3314]

Originally Posted by HappyTexan

Their lobbyists were instrumental in writing the draft of the bill as well as talking points papers for our reps to use at their Town Halls.

Both big pharma and insurance did their back room deals with the government.

I don't know about lobbyists writing the draft but, the staff includes people that had worked at big insurance companies in the past.....who else would get to do it though other than people that are from the industry. What I have found though (working as an health insurance broker) is that middle management at the home offices of insurers, are the ones that know how things are done. It's not unusual for upper management to have enough "YES" men under them (for what ever reason), to keep them uninformed as to how things actually work.

You have to remember, the federal government doesn't usually write insurance law (that's why they're not very good at it), it's normally done at the state level....so it's not like they have a full staff that always handles it.

Big pharma didn't do any back room deals....they were the first ones to cut a deal with this administration and did it right out in the open:

Obama's $80 Billion Deal with Pharma Is a Very Bad Deal for Us | Health and Wellness | AlterNet

That's why throughout this entire health care mess, you didn't see any fingers being pointed at the drug companies. They have all the money.....all the lobbyist....not the insurance companies that deal in health coverage. That's why the administration has been blaming them for everything from the start....if they really had all the money and lobbyists people think they have in Washington, they would have remained invisible (just like the drug companies have).

Insurance carriers have to compete with each other to get business....that means keeping rates as low as possible and making money off of volume, not giving people large rate increases and then losing business when they cancel their policy and go elsewhere.

If your doctor puts you on medication and it's a brand name drug (not available as a generic), you can't go elsewhere to get it...you have to get it from the drug company that's making it at whatever price they charge. If you have insurance, then guess who's going to pay for it....your insurance company. That's why the drug prices are as high they are in the U.S. in the first place...because most people buy them with a prescription card that comes with their health insurance. I heard a while back that prescription drugs used to account for 5% of all the claims submitted and now (with all the maintenance drugs) it's 35%. The drug companies have literally turned every drug they possibly can into a maintenance drug and instead of lowering the price (because they'll be selling so much of it, since people have to take it every day), they want hundreds of dollars in many cases for a one month supply of just one maintenance drug. That's where the price gouging is happening but, you won't hear that coming out of a politicians mouth.

The other place we're getting gouged, is from the hospitals themselves....the whole idea behind outpatient surgery was to free up rooms and lower the cost of getting a procedure performed. It freed up rooms but, prices are out of this world for routine surgery. I've seen bills for outpatient surgey for a hernia operation come to $35,000 (before the discount)....and that was over 19 years ago too. They go under the disguise of being non-profit often and a lot of people think that means they don't make any profit....they do, it's just not called "profit" nit's called a "surplus" instead and it must be reinvested into the hospital and/or whatever it's goals are as an organization. You can make plenty of profit, you just have to make sure you spend it....that's why hospitals are always in some state of construction or remodeling.

[cobolt]

Originally Posted by Sagran

I've been posting about this stuff all along. The woman who actually wrote the bill is a former insurance company executive. She was hired as an aide just to write the bill.

I don't understand the logic in villifying the insurance companies and then having a former exec write the bill.