Has anyone considered sitting down with health insurance CEO's and discuss the problem of high cost? (companies, politicians)

[EinsteinsGhost]

Originally Posted by alphamale

This is not a "takes one to know one" argument.

He is the leader of the free world (or holds that position). He should be able to bring people to agreement.

That's what leaders do.

No they don't. Their responsibility is to lead, not appease everybody. In fact, the very idea of appeasing everybody can get a person in trouble. It is impossible thing to do, even more than you and I agreeing on something.

[Captain Obvious]

Yeah why don't we do this with everything. Why doesn't a leader sit down with all of the senators and congressmen and decide where the cuts will come to social security, Medicare, and the military.


The following is one artists rendition of said meeting.





The fact is that the insurance companies like the status quo. So, unless you threaten them with either single payer health care or a low cost government insurance that can negotiate volume discounts, they have no interest in talking.

Personally I was hoping that the Supreme Court would strike the mandate down so that we could try this again, but no such luck.

[scratchNsniff]

That would involve canceling tee times. Do you know how hard it is to get a tee time at the Hartford Country Club?? No, you don't.

[jmking]

Has anyone considered sitting down with health insurance CEO's and discuss the problem of high cost?
I'm just one of the little guys, however, I actually have. I talked to the CEO of Mid Atlantic BC/BS on C-SPAN one morning about the $1000 a month I was shelling out each month. Amongst other things his response was "Congress needs to address this issue and fix it." This was before Obama was the President.

[chielgirl]

Originally Posted by GregW

These people are making millions off the current scam. Why would they want any changes?

Busted! Health Insurers Secretly Spent Huge To Defeat Health Care Reform While Pretending To Support Obamacare - Forbes
They spent $102.4M to lobby against Obamacare in 15 months.

Originally Posted by stillkit

Uh...President Obama did do that....at least 27 times before his healthcare initiative was even passed.

Obama Has Met At Least 27 Times With Private Health Care Industry Executives

Why do I think that these threads are disingenuous at best?
I'm sure that your link, as well as mine, weren't difficult at all to find.

[donsabi]

The reason the US ranks 37th in health care is because of profiteering not actual costs.

Remember when HMO's started up. They sold themselves to either side, medical and the public, by selling one more profits though better management and less costs through better management. I questioned; how will they get paid? No answer there. Today we know how and our medical costs are through the roof.

The real problem with America and business is that the US is now an industrial corporate country that is run by big business of the benefit of big business. Our politicians are nothing more than actors like puppets on strings controlled by these businesses. We, the American people, have become nothing more than fodder for the financial blood sucking ticks of Wall Street. Only when and if we can get this country back to a government for the people by the people we will get medical costs under control.

[Mircea]

Originally Posted by alphamale

Has anyone considered sitting down with health insurance CEO's and discuss the problem of high cost?

The "insurance" companies (snicker) are not the reason for the high costs.

The reason for the high costs is the manner in which your health care is delivered, which is via the Hospital Model, which is the worst possible means of delivering health care.

Instead of talking to "health insurance" CEOs (snicker), you need to be talking to the American Hospital Association, but you cannot do that, because the AHA is one of Obama's biggest campaign donors, and they are one of the groups who wrote most of Obamacare, including Section 6001, which prohibits you from using the highly efficient and extremely cost effect Clinic Model, um, like Europe uses.

So, how, exactly, will you have an health care system, like Europe, if Obamacare prevents you from having an health care system, like Europe?

I don't suppose that any of you noticed that after the ruling was issued, hospital stocks, not health care stocks, I say again, hospital stocks rose.

Your health care system does not operate on Free-Market principles, and the property theory is not Capitalism, rather it is Feudal-Capitalism.

Supply & Demand is always functioning, always in play. There is no way to get around it, and you try to get around it, you suffer. Your health care system is heavily supply-sided. You have more health care than you actually. The Supply far exceeds Demand, yet you pay higher and higher prices.

Why?

Because the American Hospital Association interferes. It's astounding that no one can grasp the concepts.

Berlin, Germany has 3 Million people and 3 full-service hospitals or one hospital for every 1 Million people.

Bucharesti, Romania has 3 Million people and 3 full-service hospitals or one hospital for every 1 Million people.

Paris, France has 3 Million people and 6 full-service hospitals, or one hospital for every 500,000 people (but note that those hospitals serve the outlying Departments and I don't know what the total population served is, but it is more than 3 Million).

In the Cincinnati area we have 3 Million and 19 full service hospitals or one hospital for every 157,
000 people.

See the difference?

One hospital for every 1 Million and one hospital for every 157,894 people is not the same thing. One of these things is not like the others...

That's why your health care costs more, and continues to rise.

Everyone of the 19 hospitals here have "birthing clinics" which they spend $Millions on advertising on billboards, magazines, newspapers, radio and television (and even the damn transit buses) to tell that their birthing clinic is the best in the area.

If you have 1 hospital bed for a newborn infant, and newborns average a 3-day stay, how many infants will 1 hospital bed support on average?

Well, gosh, 365 days in a year divided by 3 days per stay = 121 newborn infants.

But, these 19 hospitals have 418 beds -- multiply by 121 = 50,578 newborn infants.

Wow! Fantastic! Except the average annual birth rate is about 11,000 per year.

What about the 39,000?

That's wasted spaces. That's excess. That's over-abundance; over-supply; gluttonous; greedy; gormandizing; edacious; crapulent; swinish; pampered; overfed; over-gorged. And even that wouldn't be so bad, but from the links I posted on another thread, the rooms have plasma TVs.

You think plasma TVs fall out of the sky for free just because someone wishes upon a star?

I just described your entire health care system: morbidly obese, excess to the max. That is why it costs you so much.


You live in Bremerhaven, Germany and you need an heart-bypass. You go to the hospital, right? Wrong. Not there. So you drive 60 miles down Highway B6 to Osterholz to their hospital. Nope, can't do it there. So you drive another 30 miles to the hospital at Bremen. Nope, can't do it there either. Where can you have your heart-bypass surgery? You'll have to drive 4 hours to Hamburg.

Get it?

That's why Europeans can afford health care, because they don't have gluttony and excess. They don't have an heart-lung machine for every 30 people. If that's how you intend to run your health care system, then you're going to bankrupt.

Again, if you want a system like Europe, then you have to make changes, which include closing about 60% of your hospitals.

And "health insurance" (snicker) costs are not high.

Here's how "health insurance" (snicker) works in America:

You: Here's your small plain cheese pizza.
Me:But I wanted a triple-large double topping meaty-beatty-big-n-bouncy-cheesy lover's pizza.
You: Uh, okay, but you only paid for a small plain cheese pizza.
Me: I don't care how much I paid. I want the damn triple-large double topping meaty-beatty-big-n-bouncy-cheesy lover's pizza, and I want it now! Help! I'm being repressed. Help! I'm being ripped off by CEOs. Help! Obamapizza to the rescue.

Everybody wants $10 Million in health care benefits, but they're only willing to pay $5 for it. Try getting you car insured for $30,000 for just $1/month in premiums.

And you don't have "health insurance" because if you did, it would be affordable. Just like your homeowner's insurance, you would have choices. Do you want earthquake coverage? Flood damage? Hurricane? Tornado? Well, do you need the stuff? Because if you don't live in an earthquake zone or an area that gets flood, there's no point in purchasing it, right?

For your car, do have full coverage rammed down your throat, or do you get to choose between liability and full-coverage? And if you choose full-coverage, do you want collision and comprehensive? And at what deductibles?

If you had real health insurance, you would be making the same choices. Do you want emergency room coverage? If so, then at what deductible? Do you want coverage pregnancy? If you can't get pregnant, then why pay for something that you don't need? You don't pay for boat insurance if you don't have a boat, right? Do you want doctor's office visits covered? Or only visits to specialists? And what deductible do you choose?

If you had real insurance, you could tailor it to your needs or the needs of your family, and then you would pay a premium related to the inherent risks, and then you would be covered.

But clearly you can see the issue with that. He got a Care Bears band-aid and I only got a plain ordinary band-aid. Help! I'm being repressed! The Liberal paradigm is nothing more than Penis Envy and Butt-Implant Envy cloaked in the mantra of Compassion to hide the stench.

"After a time, you may find that having Obamacare is not so pleasing a thing, after all, as wanting Obamacare. It is not logical, but it is often true."

Let the spending spree begin....

Mircea

[wehotex]

Originally Posted by A Common Anomaly

I am somewhat amazed that people still don't know about this, as I am when they tout the false rhetoric that this bill was forced down the insurance industry throats.

The insurance industry is a big winner under Obamacare, as Obamacare seeks to expand the private insurance market and deliver millions of customers to their doorstep. The AHIP has no problem lauding Obama and his efforts.
America's Health Insurance Plans - Affordable Care Act

AHIP threatened Obama if the individual mandate was not part of the deal. The "public option" people weren't even allowed at the negotiation table. There is a good Frontline show which talks about this. It's definitely worth going online to find the archived show on their website.

[waterboy7375]

Originally Posted by Memphis1979

If you think that no one talked to them during the debate before this law was passed, your wrong. The individual mandate the healthcare CEOS loved.

Of course they did. The only reason it was put in was to get them on board.

[waterboy7375]

Originally Posted by florida.bob

Insurance Cos respond to the costs, they don't create them.

Bob speaks the truth on this one.