McCain response to the uproar: I was talking about ATMs

[Enrique]

yeah, right :rofl:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/20/AR2008092001746.html?hpid=topnews

McCain wrote, "Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation."

(...)

"So let me get this straight -- he wants to run health care like they've been running Wall Street," Obama told the audience. "Well, Senator, I know some folks on Main Street who aren't going to think that's such a good idea."

(...)

McCain's campaign, caught off guard by the uproar caused by the article, called the criticism from Obama a red herring. What McCain was referring to, one of his advisers said, was the change in regulations that allowed banks to operate across state lines, thereby opening up more competition while providing easier access to services for consumers.

"This is absurd," McCain senior economics adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin wrote in an e-mail sent to reporters. "If Barack Obama thinks that today's financial troubles were caused by policies which allowed Americans to use an ATM anywhere in this country, then it is better that he continue to be silent about solutions to the crisis on Wall Street. That crisis arose from corruption and regulators asleep at the switch. It's also possible Senator Obama is simply a dishonest politician who will say anything to get himself elected and just isn't ready to be President."

(...)

[sandnsea]

1. We already have laws

that allow us to use medical services across state lines. Why would we need new ones. Oh yeah. He was talking about insurance companies to grow without any regulation, merge, be about as useless and corrupt as banks have been, and then collapse.

[1Hippiechick]

2. It's also possible that McInsane's advisor is dishonest &will say anything to get MCINSANE elected,

who isn't ready to be president.

re: It's also possible Senator Obama is simply a dishonest politician who will say anything to get himself elected and just isn't ready to be President."

Edited to correct spelling.

[lligrd]

3. Obama Will Take Our ATM's Away?

ROFL!!

[Iterate]

4. Please McCain, say what you mean the first time.

Then stick with it. I'm getting tired of re-checking.

How does this guy ever order dinner? "This is a steak, and you know full well that when I ordered "steak", I really meant "fish".

[mediaman007]

5. His dinner comes from a blender! :-)

[nolabels]

7. I like fish and eat it all the time but.....

mixing it up in blender with other things to drink :puke:

[Princess Turandot]

6. Even if he only was referring to opening up interstate barriers, as they claim....

this would be a big problem. The only leverage that patients, hospitals and doctors have now when insurance companies don't pay their claims, is their state's insurance department. When a hospital in Boston has 30% of its ER visit claims denied as 'non-emergency' (a favorite insurance company scam, in particular with HMOs) by an insurance company in Idaho, I somehow suspect that they won't get any satisfaction from protesting to the insurance company or to the Idaho insurance department. At a hospital where I once worked, we had 40% ER claims rejection from one HMO in particular. NYS eventually passed a law that requires a 'prudent layperson' standard be used, not the ultimate diagnosis of the patient. i.e. a patient is experiencing bad chest pains which turn out to be gastritis, they can't deny the claim because it did not turn out to be a heart attack. They also passed a law requiring insurance companies to pay for inpatient post-mastectomy care, as opposed to treating the very traumatic surgery as an outpatient service.

It would also require hospitals to entire into fee contracts with 100's of insurance companies which realistically, is likely impossible. I don't even want to think about how it would complicate claims billing.

And the notion that this will greatly reduce the cost of health insurance is total bullshit. There's no way that an insurance company based in Toe Tapping, Idaho is going to charge a rate that does not reflect their estimated claims costs in the specific area where the insured lives. Someone in NYC will not be able to buy a policy for the same price as someone in Wyoming.

[jefferson_dem]

8. Why does Obama hate ATMs?

Watch for the ad.