Real world example of why we need a non-profit public option in the health insurance exchange

[BREMPRO]

http://wamu.org/programs/dr/09/09/10.php#27359

At the 39 minute mark on the first hour of the Diane Rehm show today (guest hosted by Frank Sesnos) there was a self-employed caller - Deborah from Plymouth Michigan- who just got a letter from her insurance company (Blue Cross) that said they were raising her family's premium by over 33% (from $1000 to $1330/month) because they said they were now going to be required to cover pre-existing conditions! She is a small business owner with a family who is now faced with an increase that may cause her to drop insurance because she can't afford it anymore.

My interpretation of this is it's just an excuse by Blue-Cross to raise rates for more profits and a sneaky way to turn the public against health insurance reform. It's obscene, and unethical, and these increases will hurt independent small business owners who are a growing part of our economy.

It occurred to me that the reason that Medicare/Medicaid passed in the first place was that it was a compromise to get the insurance industry on board. They dropped their objections to Medicare when it was modified to cover only the elderly and poor. So now they could make more profit by covering only younger and healthier customers and push the elderly and more expensive care to the taxpayers. This compromise increased the profits of the insurance industry. Now look what they have done with it? Used their windfall to lobby against further reform and just continued to increase their profits and decreased coverage. Same thing they've done in the states that have passed tort reform- they just pocket the savings instead of passing it on to consumers.

THIS IS WHY WE NEED A PUBLIC OPTION!!! The private insurance industry will find some way to keep/increase their profits unless they have competition from a some form of non-profit public option.