Tonight on Bill Moyers' Journal: What's Right and What's Wrong with this Health Care Reform plan

[marmar]

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/index-flash.html


March 5, 2010

As Democrats in Congress and the President move forward on health care reform, giant health insurance companies are back in the news, and they aren't winning many friends. Some of America's largest insurers caused an uproar recently by raising individual premiums, in some cases by as much as 39%. The move seemed so tone-deaf, that two FOX BUSINESS reporters scolded a WellPoint executive for the bad timing. Host Charles Payne asked, "Didn't someone though, wasn't there a committee that said listen, let's take Wall Street's lead, do the minimum we can, wait for this to blow over and maybe a year from now try to hike rates?" Co-host Stu Varney continued, "You handed the politicians red meat at a time when health care is being discussed. You gave it to them!"

To get an inside look at what health insurance companies might be thinking as health care reform gains momentum, Bill Moyers turns again to former insurance insider Wendell Potter. When Potter first sat down with Bill Moyers on the JOURNAL, his exposé of insurance industry media practices sent ripples through the health care debate. He returns during the Democrat's final push for comprehensive health care reform to discuss the insurance industry's strategy, what's good and bad about the bill, and why he'd vote for it if he were in Congress.

Potter believes that profits drove the most recent rate increases, "Well, these companies are for-profit companies, and they think first and foremost about their shareholders. That's the first stakeholder that they consider. And they know that they have to meet those expectations or their stock prices will suffer."

As for the seemingly bad timing, Potter thinks the insurance companies aren't concerned, knowing that they've invested millions of dollars on lobbying and campaign contributions to members of Congress. With that kind of influence, says Potter, "They do this because they know they can. And they're willing to take whatever lumps they might take in the public and before Congress."

Ultimately, according to Potter, the health insurance companies will continue to be profitable whether or not the reform passes — by requiring people to buy health insurance, the government is delivering insurers millions of new customers — but that's not a reason to vote against the bill, "It will bring a lot of people into coverage. And it will help people be able to afford coverage. 45,000 people die every year in this country because they don't have coverage. We can't go on another year and let 45,000 of our people die, just because of that." .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/03052010/profile.html


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March 5, 2010

Dr. Marcia Angell, a single-payer advocate, doesn't think there's much in the President's plan to feel good about. But it's not just the particular version that she objects to — rather that the bill doesn't address what's fundamentally wrong with the American health care system.

"We have chosen, alone among all advanced countries, to leave health care to for-profit industries, to leave health care to businesses, that then distribute health care as a market commodity according to the ability to pay. And not according to medical need. So we have left the financing of health care to private insurance companies that have learned that they can thrive not by providing health care, but by not providing health care to sick people, by avoiding sick people."

The U.S. ranks highest in total cost of care, but according to a recent report by the Commonwealth Fund, it also ranks last among industrialized countries "in preventing deaths through use of timely and effective medical care." In a recent FRONTLINE report comparing the health care systems of five other capitalist democracies, "Sick Around the World," WASHINGTON POST reporter T.R. Reid notes that, "The World Health Organization says the U.S. health care system rates 37th in the world in terms of quality and fairness. All the other rich countries do better than we do, and yet they spend a heck of a lot less." ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/03052010/profile2.html

[Captain Hilts]

1. Thanks for the 'heads up'. nt