Insurance Industry To Disappear...And Who Would Care?

[marmar]

from the Working Life blog:



Insurance Industry To Disappear...And Who Would Care?
by Jonathan Tasini

Wednesday 09 of September, 2009


The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that the president will push for the public option in his speech tonight before Congress--though there seems to be massive wiggle room in this comment: "White House officials say the president will detail what he wants in the health-care overhaul, as well as say he is open to better ideas on a government plan if lawmakers have them."...

But, what caught my eye was this:

Insurers oppose the public option, saying it will lead to excessive government control of health care and could eventually drive them out of business.

And this is a bad thing? How many people would care about that? ZERO. This is the industry that ranks right up there along with the gun and chemical industries in terms of the toll of sickness and death that it has caused to millions of people. Good riddance.

I would add that if we were about the get rid of the insurance industry by enacting HR676--a single-payer system--that piece of legislation would allocate several billion dollars to retrain and place the rank-and-file workers in the insurance industry into new jobs.


http://www.workinglife.org/blogs/view_post.php?content_id=14480

[seabeyond]

1. i would care about job loss. nt

[Soylent Brice]

2. move them to the gov positions that would open up with

the creation of a public option.

they're going to need staff.

[seabeyond]

5. they will need staff. they wont need sales and other positions. nt

[FLDCVADem]

7. Yep,

Plus, if the whole idea is to lower overhead, they obviously won't need as much staff.

I oppose single payer for other reasons, but job loss is a concern as well.

[RaleighNCDUer]

10. But without the insurance industry siphoning off billions of dollars from

the rest of corporate America, there would be plenty of potential for new positions in other companies. The money not going to the bloated insurance industry could go for new ad campaigns for their latest widget.

It would all balance out.

[seabeyond]

11. you can do all kinds of supposes, but.... industry goes away, there are job losses.

i dont want to see anyone losing job trying to feed family. not to mention effect on economy. not to mention all the other business that would be effect adn job losses there

i am not saying industry is going ot go away. it isnt. it was an answer to so what if it does.

[imdjh]

15. They can reabsorbed by the businesses which cut staff to afford insurance premiums.

General Hospital is running on lower staff levels because even they are struggling to pay private insurance profit-premiums. So when Aetna cuts workers, those workers go to work for the hospital, or the restaurant, or hotel, or GOD FORBID FOR THEMSELVES.

[imdjh]

13. agreed

[Soylent Brice]

19. true. someone mentioned down thread about green jobs.

i agree. a large majority of insurance company employees can be shifted towards new and other growing industries.

it could work.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

14. The insurance co. bureaucrats who deny claims can get jobs

on the new gummint death squads that will report to a new Obama-appointed Death Tsar. In the spirit of bipartisanship, Dick Cheney would be perfect for the job.

:hi:

oh, yeah, sarcasm smiley
:sarcasm:

[Soylent Brice]

20. Death Tsar

:rofl:

!!

[CrownPrinceBandar]

6. +1............n/t

[TheDebbieDee]

3. Insurance industry disappearing my butt..........

There's still auto insurance and life insurance.

[marmar]

4. I think he meant health insurance industry......for those hooked on semantics.

[treestar]

8. The 2.5 million people employed

And anybody who works for companies that supply them with anything, from paper to computers.

What is the point of blind hatred of a type of company? There is nothing wrong with selling insurance. You talk as if every single claim is denied. Then no one would buy it. They do cover many people for many things.

Why not blame prior generations for not getting a public plan through? that is why insurance companies have been involved for so long. It would be just as logical.

And the whole point of the plan is to help the completely uninsured. The idea is to get them insured so they won't go bankrupt in the event of illness.

[marmar]

12. Sorry, but our for-profit health insurance system is ultimately unsustainable......

...... and the "blind hatred" of the industry is from the author of the piece, not me.....though I suspect he and I are of like minds on the subject.

[imdjh]

16. They won't completely disappear. It's not like they don't bribe congressmen (and have sex with them)

[Johonny]

9. because there's like no way to make money in that industry

I mean looking at other western nations with more universal coverage plans and we see no insurance industries... oh wait. Never mind.

[Festivito]

17. They can go the way of the auto workers they didn't care about.

At least auto workers made something we want and need. We don't need denial of health care, and that' all they give us.

[OneBlueSky]

18. if Obama tied the demise of the insurance companies to some other program . . .

and offered training for insurance company employees so they could enter a new field, everyone would win . . .

say, for example, he announced a national goal of energy conservation and the weatherization of homes and businesses across the country . . . while some insurance company employees would undoubtedly be needed to help administer the new single payer program, others could be offered training in this new field and help with finding jobs with the myriad of companies, new and old, that would benefit from the energy conservation initiative . . .

just a thought . . .