Dylan Ratigan: "mandating everyone to buy into an unreformed, predatory monopoly"

[Hissyspit]

Run time: 03:15 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9i6jP-bRWQ   Posted on YouTube: December 17, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: December 17, 2009 By DU Member: Hissyspit Views on DU: 1178

 
HAMSHER: Insurance Companies Got What They Wanted. All The Money Goes To Them.

MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan Says It For Me….

By: Jane Hamsher Thursday December 17, 2009 7:49 am

I was on MSNBC with Dylan Ratigan this morning. I was still laughing about David Axelrod’s contention earlier on Morning Joe that the insurance companies hated this bill, and that’s why they were fighting against it so hard.

Seriously? They were fighting tooth and nail to get the public option out of the bill so all of the money would flow directly to them, and when it came out, they declared victory:

With the Senate shifting sharply away from a “pure public option,” an insurance industry insider who has been deeply involved in the health care fight emails to declare victory.

“We WIN,” the insider writes. “Administered by private insurance companies. No government funding. No government insurance competitor.”

The Senate’s package is an enormous giveaway to the insurance companies and the drug companies, but I didn’t even have to make the argument. As Ratigan says, 40 million new customers forced to buy your product with no competition and no regulatory body to oversee it is a pretty sweet deal.

I’ll add that whether they vote for it or not, it’ll be a bloodbath for anyone with a “D” next to their name in 2010 if it passes.

TRANSCRIPT:

RATIGAN: "Jane, I'm curious what you feel you would need to see in order to feel that there is real reform in health care?"

HAMSHER: "Well, No. 1, I question that 94% of the people are covered. What's happening is that they're being forced to buy insurance from insurance companies that can then pay that money - 30 percent as Howard Dean says in the Washington Post this morning - to multi-billionaire CEOs..."

RATIGAN: "Hold on, Jane. What's so wrong with the government mandating the creation of new customers for health insurance companies as long as the health insurance companies aren't forced to compete and are protected by the government. That sounds like a real win if I run an insurance company. I get new customers and I have no competition?"

HAMSHER: "I'm curious how Bank Hardin thinks that this is not a win for insurance companies, having the government mandate 40 million new customers for you, and then using the IRS to enforce penalties if you don't pay, eight percent of your income. I don't know how that's a lose and not a win."

RATIGAN: "Well, I also love it because you leave the insurance monopoly intact. I'd be one thing if you forced everyone to participate, which, there's a rational argument for a mandate because everybody ultimately will need healthcare, but mandating everyone to buy into an unreformed, predatory monopoly makes you really wonder what country you live in, Jane."

HAMSHER: "Well, as you know, Ben Nelson, they were going to try to take away the anti-trust exemption for the insurance companies in this bill, but as the price of getting his cloture vote, Ben Nelson made them take them out."

RATIGAN: "No, I'm aware. I know, I know. I think it's brilliant."

HAMSHER: "It is. You know, David Axelrod is this morning saying 'Why are the insurance companies fighting this so hard?' They're not. They got what they wanted. There is no public option competing. All the money goes to them. And that's what they wanted."

RATIGAN: "And they don't have to compete on the exchange, and people like myself can't leave my current insurance plan and go onto the exchange and buy health care..."

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[Jefferson23]

1. Sickening what we are expected to accept as reform. K&R

[subterranean]

2. Without the PO, there's no incentive for the insurance cos. to reduce costs.

In fact, they'll be incentivized to INCREASE the cost of health care because that's about the only way they'll be able to increase profits, which is their sole reason for existence.

[tomm2thumbs]

3. D I S G U S T I N G .... Democrats in the Senate need to vote NO

I guess Obama got what he wanted - he has united America! Both the right and the left are against this terrible bill

[ProgressOnTheMove]

4. Strip out the mandates and pass the bill that works for me, then just pass wind well ...

it would still stop pre-existing condtion clauses and recision so that's a start. No PO, no mandates that should be the mantra from here on in. And definitely no Stupak he can get heck out of there.

[katty]

5. mandating insurance with no options or real competition....

how is that "helping" uninsured and often out of work americans, exactly?

[burning rain]

6. Ezra Klein & the WaPo's other dickheads can explain.....

but I warn you, their arguments may make you :puke: