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For the last decade, heath care costs have been moving in the right direction: up. With no competition, we raise rates as often and as high as we like — 29% in some cases, simply because, well, we can. To further maximize our gains we have a star chamber of insurance bureaucrats, backed by legions of anonymous temps, who adhere to strict cost-to-profit ratios when denying claims. But please don’t call them Death Panels; we prefer “Judge, Jury & Executioner.”
...[W]e say,‘What are you going to do about it? Choose a public option?’ Not with us paying lobbyists $1.4 million per day to kill it before it even gets out of committee. Is it any wonder that as healthcare reform inches ever closer to the grave, health insurers’ stock prices have shot up?
***
Thanks to our loyal foot-soldiers Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, we’ve raised the level of discourse to a cacophonous din. While some suggest Glenn & Co. are fomenting their audiences’ anger with lies, threats and intimidation, we simply call it creative messaging for traditional ends. At times, these teabaggers vent their anger in our direction. We’d like to remind these well-meaning folk that their fight is not with us, it is FOR us. Thank you! The check is in the mail.
For the last decade, heath care costs have been moving in the right direction: up. With no competition, we raise rates as often and as high as we like — 29% in some cases, simply because, well, we can. To further maximize our gains we have a star chamber of insurance bureaucrats, backed by legions of anonymous temps, who adhere to strict cost-to-profit ratios when denying claims. But please don’t call them Death Panels; we prefer “Judge, Jury & Executioner.”
...[W]e say,‘What are you going to do about it? Choose a public option?’ Not with us paying lobbyists $1.4 million per day to kill it before it even gets out of committee. Is it any wonder that as healthcare reform inches ever closer to the grave, health insurers’ stock prices have shot up?
***
Thanks to our loyal foot-soldiers Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, we’ve raised the level of discourse to a cacophonous din. While some suggest Glenn & Co. are fomenting their audiences’ anger with lies, threats and intimidation, we simply call it creative messaging for traditional ends. At times, these teabaggers vent their anger in our direction. We’d like to remind these well-meaning folk that their fight is not with us, it is FOR us. Thank you! The check is in the mail.
And WHY is it that insurance companies are exempt from antitrust laws???
"Billionaires in tuxedos and evening gowns protested Michael Moore and his anti-billionaire agenda by singing patriotic paeans to Capitalism (”Battle Hymn of the Insurance Companies”), and pop Champagne while holding placards that read “Let Them Eat Advil”, “Our Death Panels Turn a Profit” and “Fight Socialism: Abolish Medicare Now!”"
It's the McCarren Ferguson Act from 1945. Here's the post made on CD by sickofny:
"For the last six decades, insurance companies have enjoyed immunity from federal anti-trust investigation and prosecution. The bipartisan bill introduced today would give the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission the authority to apply antitrust laws to anti-competitive behavior by insurance companies.
Big Insurance went nuts (surprise, surprise) when this bill came out, and Insurance Journal published an article about it, with Big Insurance citing all the usual doom and gloom scenarios without providing any foundation for the apocalyptic tales. Incredulously, Big Insurance claimed that taking away their immunity would stifle competition!! Competition makes them SICK! Interesting theory: preventing collusion DECREASES competition.
Unsurprisingly, the bill was not passed (and New Orleans is still a disaster). However, the same bill has been reintroduced this year again by Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR). No significant movement has taken place on this bill."
MyDD :: Big Insurance's Competition Immunity (http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/8/17/21730/8042 - broken link)
"The federal government has not been able to attack the insurance companies through federal anti-trust laws for over 60 years. Under the McCarran-Ferguson Act passed in 1945, insurance companies (and Major League Baseball!) are specifically excluded from federal anti-trust laws as long as the state regulates in that area, and federal anti-trust laws will apply ONLY in cases of boycott, coercion, and intimidation."
For the last decade, heath care costs have been moving in the right direction: up. With no competition, we raise rates as often and as high as we like — 29% in some cases, simply because, well, we can. To further maximize our gains we have a star chamber of insurance bureaucrats, backed by legions of anonymous temps, who adhere to strict cost-to-profit ratios when denying claims. But please don’t call them Death Panels; we prefer “Judge, Jury & Executioner.”
...[W]e say,‘What are you going to do about it? Choose a public option?’ Not with us paying lobbyists $1.4 million per day to kill it before it even gets out of committee. Is it any wonder that as healthcare reform inches ever closer to the grave, health insurers’ stock prices have shot up?
***
Thanks to our loyal foot-soldiers Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, we’ve raised the level of discourse to a cacophonous din. While some suggest Glenn & Co. are fomenting their audiences’ anger with lies, threats and intimidation, we simply call it creative messaging for traditional ends. At times, these teabaggers vent their anger in our direction. We’d like to remind these well-meaning folk that their fight is not with us, it is FOR us. Thank you! The check is in the mail.
For the last decade, heath care costs have been moving in the right direction: up. With no competition, we raise rates as often and as high as we like — 29% in some cases, simply because, well, we can.
It's odd that those fun loving, non-angry, not dried out repubs don't post in this humorous thread....
It seems to be the wrong kind of entertainment
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There was a thread here on CD in which that topic was discussed! Amazing, isn't it. Let me see if can find the posts.
