I Talked With A Person In The Health Insurance Industry - He Says......

[global1]

the insurance companies are really afraid of the passage of this HCR bill with taking away their ability to use pre-existing conditions; dropping people that are high risk and removing lifetime caps. Now he says the insurance companies are taking a different approach to kill this bill. They are trying to use us Dems and Obama supporters to do it. They are trying to put out the meme that the bill is crap and that it should be killed in total and started again from the beginning. They know that if the bill is killed that it probably won't get back on the docket again for many, many years.

From reading the posts here at DU - it appears that the insurance companies are being successful in tainting the minds of us Dems. Also - polls seem to be turning against this HCR as well. It looks like the insurance industry is succeeding.

The final bill hasn't really been formulated to the point that it could be brought to a vote yet. We need to wait until that happens before we criticize.

I'm still of the belief that in the 11th hour the Dems will come through. I got to believe that there is a strategy being played out here to make things look dire and that there is an ultimate game plan in the offing that will take the Repugs and the insurance and pharmaceutical industry by surprise.

I still think the Dems will come through for us. We need to give them a chance to play this out.

[Brickbat]

1. I have to say that I was surprised when I read elsewhere today that the bill still takes away the

right to refuse coverage for pre-existing conditions. IMO, that's huge. I would hate to lose that in any "new" or "redo" type of bill.

[iceman66]

2. This is very possible.

[superduperfarleft]

3. You say "in the health insurance industry."

What is his role? Can you name the company he works for?

[niyad]

4. they wrote the damned bills, basically. no oversight, no cost controls, 30 million serfs delivered

to them--yeah, I can see why they are scared.

[area51]

10. +1

The only thing that would actually scare the health insurance cartels is actual government oversight/regulation/nationalization or single-payer.

[emulatorloo]

15. they are spending 1.4 million dollars a day to kill it.

[dionysus]

23. are you trying to spoil a paranoid, speculative narrative?

[Junkdrawer]

26. +2

[derby378]

5. I can't help but think that this person is blowing smoke

Why wouldn't an insurance company welcome a new revenue supply that is mandated by law?

Let me be clear. I want a health reform bill to be passed. But if it includes an individual mandate, then it must, must, MUST contain a strong public option.

[YewNork]

37. Switzerland and the Netherlands have similar systems without a public option

They've shown that it's possible to have a system with a mandate using solely private insurers

I'm not saying that a public option wouldn't be preferable, but let's not cut off our noses to spite our faces.

If we can't get the public option now, let's at least get the system moving in the right direction. We can work
to get public option in place later. If we insist that the bill is killed then all we're doing is guaranteeing no change
for another 20 years.

[AzDar]

6. I think they're "putting out a meme" that they are "putting out a meme".

Can you dig it?:hippie:

[edhopper]

7. There is nothing in the Bill

to stop them from charging outrageous rates to those people.

[Love Bug]

20. Exactly right. That's how they will "cull the herd"

Instead of dropping members or using pre-existing conditions as an excuse to deny coverage, insurers will just raise everyone else's rates to help cover them and make their rates so high as to be unaffordable. Let's remember, insurance companies are not in the business of providing health care; they are in the business of making as much money as possible by denying benefits.

As for "shining a light" on insurers who raise rates: they don't care. Congress has proven they can be bought and there is no one else who can or will put limits on them.

[On the Road]

33. I Don't Believe Insurance Companies

will be able to set rates based on pre-existing conditions. Can anyone confirm that?

[laughingliberal]

39. They will be allowed to charge older people more and they will, overall, raise rates on everyone to

compensate for this.

[wolfgangmo]

41. Every commissioner of insurnance in every state of the union can confirm that.

Insurance rates are perfectly legal within defined "bands" or "classes" of groups insured. This is how insurance works, so they can't discriminate against the Prez but they can charge more to men over 40 from mixed race background who were born of an American woman and a foreign born man, both of different religious faiths who have held the highest office in the country.

Ahem. Facetious example but very very real.

[On the Road]

46. OK, So You're Saying That in Practice

Insurance companies couldn't triple rates for people with muscular dystrophy, but could use other factors to raise rates to a broad category of people who have a higher percentage of people with this preexisting condition.

I understand insurance companies can set different rates based on geography, age, smoking, and certain other factors.

What I don't see is how they would set differential rates to screen for big expensive diseases like diabetes or cancer. They're too diffuse to use the kind of screen you mention.

[niceypoo]

8. That is the Republican talking point

'We need to hit the reset switch'

Nice try

[bdamomma]

24. oh they would love to kill this, plus it is their way of discrediting Obama.

[dysfunctional press]

9. they SHOULD kill the bill and start over. with single-payer.

see how the insurance companies like that.

[napi21]

11. NO! If it dies now, it's DEAD! It won't be back in any form for

YEARS!

[dysfunctional press]

13. i don't believe that for a minute.

someone sold you a defective crystal ball.

[napi21]

16. I'm not using a crystal ball today, just using common sense.

If it was difficult to get 4 or 5 conservative Dems onboard this time, what chance do you think there would be in their election year? NONE!

[iceman66]

17. Single payer would not even make it out of committee,

in either house of Congress.

EVEN if a clear majority of Americans favored it and Obama himself was pushing for it.

That is how corrupt and out-of-touch our Congress has become.

[dionysus]

25. it wouldn't even get out of committee, or else they would have tried it.

jesus christ it's basic common sense...

if they couldn't even get a public option, what on earth makes you think these people will magically turn on a dime and support single payer?

[backscatter712]

31. Good luck with that.

I've seen this movie before. If this bill dies, all health care reform dies for another generation, and millions of people will literally die with it.

And if you thought getting a watered-down public option was hard, see if your single-payer bill passes the laugh test among the bastards in Congress.

Change and reform come incrementally. We've got to be pragmatic, take this increment, then start working for the next one.

Pragmatism - It Gets Things Done.

[the other one]

12. Interesting

Don't understand the unrecs

[superduperfarleft]

19. Well, I unrecced because I think the OP is making it up.

But that's just me.

[TorchTheWitch]

50. [phone]

[global1]

22. Maybe So Not Many People See This Post So They Will Continue To Dump On The Dems......

The insurance industry doesn't want you to know - so they have their people on DU - unrecommend. It dies in the wake of new posts and is forgotten.

[Stinky The Clown]

Ah ..... three level chess again

[emulatorloo]

14. Interesting, and I believe it. Killing it is a huge win for them Rec n/t

[Junkdrawer]

18. Horseshit. n/t

[bdamomma]

21. this is very true, and of course they want us to play right into their hands.

"They are trying to put out the meme that the bill is crap and that it should be killed in total and started again from the beginning. They know that if the bill is killed that it probably won't get back on the docket again for many, many years".

[Larkspur]

27. The health ins cos will jack up premiums to cover pre-existing conditions

Without a true public option, the law requiring health ins cos to not drop those with pre-existing conditions will be circumvented by the health ins cos jacking up rates to those with pre-existing condtions to the point people with pre-existing conditions will opt to pay the fine instead of the obscene premium.

[Fumesucker]

28. How do we know that what *you* are saying here is not the disinformation?

Not to put too fine a point on it but I don't trust much of anyone at the moment.

And if a "chance to play this out" is given and we get royally screwn, it's too late to do anything.

Which seems to me would play right into the insurance company hands.

[TwilightGardener]

29. I'm most interested in the proposal that they would have to devote 90%

of premiums to actual health care--that would really limit profit potential, if that comes to pass.

[backscatter712]

30. You're on the mark. We're getting a hell of a lot of purity trolling today!

If you're playing their ball game, the insurers will be laughing all the way to the bank.

[L0oniX]

32. What a huge pile of bull shit!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

34. Heh, I didn't need any insurance co. propaganda to tell me that this bill is crap

I decided that on my own by looking at the information available and doing the math.

Nice try.

[YewNork]

35. If we have to pass reform in baby steps then, so be it.

Republicans don't want the bill to be killed in order to start over. They want it to be killed to stop it, as well as to create "Obama's waterloo".

Let's get reform moving. We can always add to it later. Otherwise, if we just let it die, then it will be another 20 years before we get another chance.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

36. What a pile of shit

God knows what the OPs motives are, but this is a major DU low point.

[Lerkfish]

43. +1000

[sendero]

38. What a riudiculous head fake..

... I'm not buying it for a second.

This bill IS shit and I hope it doesn't pass.

[optimator]

40. weak

the bill IS crap.
mandates are poison.

[laughingliberal]

42. Sorry, just because the insurance assholes still see some downside to them in this bill

does not, in and of itself, mean it's good for us. Of course, they want to get rid of everything except the mandate that delivers 30 million more victims into their hands. That does not mean it's not going to be a huge financial burden on middle and working class Americans.

That "final bill hasn't been formulated..." crap has been used to pacify us from the jump. Every time an important, helpful part of the bill was compromised away that was used to lull us into believing that the president and some of our progressive representatives still had cards to play. It's horse manure. We know enough about the final bill to see it for what it is. The Senate plans to try to ping pong this bill to avoid the final conference with the House. And, although they'll bitch about it, in the end the House will pass it as it comes over from the Senate.

Nice try, though.

[KansasVoter]

44. LOL....the old "I know someone" story!

[DireStrike]

45. Well *I* talked with a person in the health insurance industry - he says....

"Hang on, I'll call you back later when I finish this flight on my new private jet".

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

47. B'rer Rabbit. nt

[Vinnie From Indy]

48. Is that you Wellpoint?

Thanks for coming to DU!

[librechik]

49. As far as our 2010 hopes go, the Pukkkes have us by the balls--if it passes the bill will be called

a horrible trespass against America, no matter what's in it. If the bill doesn't pass, it'll be because the Dems are a bunch of losers who can't push anything through, even with the majority.
So we are screwed as far as what they will say about us next year. We might as well go for the bill and try to make them wrong about whether it's horrible or not. They will say it is no matter what we do.