Imagine every citizen in the US functioning as a pneumatic tube of dollars into a single industy

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

private dollars, public dollars, employer dollars, employee dollars.

Every single citizen becoming the means of transfer of 15-20% of every health dollar spent going towards insurance industry overhead and PROFIT, enshrined as LAW

Far from being dismantled, reformed or regulated, the insurance industry will have enough money to buy up media, politicians at will, think tanks ,PACS, journalists, basically anything and everything.

Anyone who is naive enough to think that after this passes that something better will come along later is beyond pathetic.

[Fumesucker]

1. Yes, imagine 300,000,000 of these things..

Should speed up global warming a bit.. :)

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

2. alright you forced me to look up what those drive up teller things are really called

I guess vacuum tube was incorrect. Thanks!:hi:

[Fumesucker]

4. Let me guess, pneumatic tubes..

I didn't look it up..

Thing is, I grew up with vacuum tubes, I was our family's TV tech I had to take all the tubes out about every other month or so and take them to the drug store, stick them in the tube tester and find out which one had gone bad this time..

I even remembered the tube number 12ax7 from back in the sixties..

Don't ask me what I did yesterday though.. :)

[asdjrocky]

3. I say it again and again-

Capitalism finds the very things we need to survive, shelter, food, heat, health, and they find a way to make money off of it.

It's the system that needs to go.

[ProSense]

5. As opposed to

the 150 million Americans currently pumping 30% of every dollar into the industry?

Also, it's not every single citizen because 30% of Americans have some type of public coverage. The other 64% being covered under the bill included additions to the public rolls and others who will have access to at least one non-profit plan.

Still, the industry loses 10% to 15% on every dollar from Americans, including the 150 million they now serve.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

7. You can't seriously be suggesting that the insurance industry loses

10 -15% on every dollar they take in are you? Gee, how do they stay in business Pro Sense? They ALWAYS make money, because they just pass through costs. How do you think they afford the bazillions in executive compensation?

Did they wake you up to respond really fast? Where are the hot links and the shaded excerpts and the links to your own posts?

[ProSense]

10. What?

The proposed MLR is 80/85%, that's up from about 70%.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

13. And yet you purport they managed to lose 10 -15 % even with a

30% margin. They must be very very bad managers. Why do we entrust our healthcare to them?

I know the MLR is 80-85 - that's where I got my 15-20% figure from in my OP. The difference is that the 30% was a heist they were pulling off on their own. Now we have given them a captive audience with no options and a guarantee of 15 -20% when in reality they should have had their asses regulated to the max years ago.

[ProSense]

14. Simple math

100% - 70% = 30% (current MLR)

100% - 85% = 15% (proposed MLR)

difference 15%

Now, you can argue it should be less, but you can't pretend it's not an improvement.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

15. Stop the presses! I am going to apologize to Pro Sense.

In rereading our back and forth, I now get that you are saying that they WILL LOSE 10- 15 % of their profits because they currently screw us out of approx 30% per health dollar spent and the reform will scale that back to 15-20%. Okay, I get that now, but your post was unclear and required a lot of mind reading fill-in-the-blanks to figure out what you were trying to say.

Now, will they actually lose? Personally, I would say NO. They are entrenched, their profits are now legislated with a far greater base to draw from. They have proven themselves to be a morally bankrupt industry in the first place, so I would say this is a big win that ensures they survive and survive well when previously their very existance was in question (for those outside the Beltway loop who didn't know the fix was in)

[ProSense]

16. I still think they will lose.

They will not be allowed to drop anyone based on a pre-existing condition. Also, I don't think people take into consideration that insurance companies will be covering millions more while dealing with a reduced profit margin. They are not looking forward to this.

In fact, the CBO projected that a 90% MLR would effectively put them in Medicare territory. It may very well get to that point. There are so many ways that people can benefit from these proposals, the community health centers, non-profit plan and vouchers. Time will tell.

[Sebastian Doyle]

8. So what does that tell you?

That the industry itself is inefficient and corrupt as Hell, or that it should be rewarded with MORE customers and MORE money?

Bottom line - the health insurance industry serves NO valid purpose whatsoever, and should be eliminated, not rewarded.

[Xipe Totec]

6. Money is an illusion

It's not about money; it's about power.

Of which you and I have none, and the powers that be, do.

Money is just a way to keep score.

PS: We lose.

[stevedeshazer]

9. Well, Ted Stevens saw it that way.

:hide:

[notesdev]

11. Haven't they already?

>Far from being dismantled, reformed or regulated, the insurance industry will have enough money to buy up media, politicians at will, think tanks ,PACS, journalists, basically anything and everything.


I'm pretty sure I have witnessed them demonstrate just such widespread ownership over the past 6 months.

[unblock]

12. see what happens when you take the red pill?

[Leftist Agitator]

17. Vacuum tubes do not work that way.

[Laelth]

18. k&r for the truth, however depressing. n/t

:dem:

-Laelth