Kucinich: "...a Government of the Lobbyists, by the Lobbyists, for the Special Interest Groups..."

[Echo In Light]

Rep. Dennis Kucinich appeared on CSpan recently. I found myself asking why Kucinich is in such a philosophical minority in Washington when everything he says addresses the serious economic and physical realities grinding down the American citizenry. Kucinich speaks with passion, clarity and empathy.

Kucinich admits that Obama received an “unmitigated mess” from George Bush. But he contends Washington is now too paralyzed to restore justice. He warns that we can’t afford to get gridlocked by partisanship. “The country is collapsing!” he declares. Kucinich maintains that health care is one of a three-pronged crisis. Our broken political system is not providing jobs, universal health care or saving homes for its citizens.

Our administration and Congress are not holding insurance companies accountable for the price gouging happening and even profoundly escalating right now. Kucinich believes the proposed health care bill has a CENTRAL FLAW. It is LOCKING IN PRIVATIZATION. There is no process for control of premiums. Kucinich’s rhetoric does not hold back. He calls this government a “cash cow” for corporations. It is providing corporations such as insurance companies with a “license to steal.” At one point he warns of us becoming “slaves on a health insurance plantation.”

Kucinich says the accusations of socialism attributed to Obama’s plan are laughable. He proclaims that we are a government “of the lobbyists, by the lobbyists, and for the special interest groups.” Special interest groups being the banks, Wall Street, insurance companies, megacorporations outsourcing more and more of our jobs, etc. Our government is enabling the “money machine” to keep on mowing us down as it diminishes our democracy, redistributes all the wealth upward. Kucinich says we can either stop it or we can turn our backs on it.

http://www.correntewire.com/kucinich_government_lobbyists_lobbyists_special_interest_groups

DK's appearance on CSPAN:
http://cspan.org/Watch/Media/2010/03/03/HP/A/30248/Rep+Dennis+Kucinich+DOH.aspx

Good line from the 'comments' section below: "I wonder why WE aren't howling about "fascism" the way the partiers are about socialism. The danger of fascism looms, well, soft facism as Cindy Sheehan claims is here."

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. K&R The "government of the people, for the people, and by the people" has become a pleasant myth.

[quiet.american]

2. I'm sorry, but at this point Kucinich is plain lying about what's in the bill. nt

[inna]

3. Please prove your baseless and bullshit assertion.

[quiet.american]

10. Since you asked:

Kucinich quote: There is no process for control of premiums.

You know it's easy enough to make a pat statement like that if you don't plan to back it up with a specific discussion yourself of why the controls that are in the bill don't work for you (with "you" meaning Kucinich). I heard Kucinich make a similar claim on Countdown that insurance companies can just keep raising premiums by double-digits and there's nothing to stop them - when this bill is signed, by law, insurance companies will not be able to charge you over a certain percentage of your income in annual premiums -and for most of us, that percentage is pretty low - a range of from 2.0%-9.5%, for income ranges of $22,000 - $88,000/yr. And if you think those percentages are still too high, gov't subsidies kick in to defray the cost.

Another cost control is that insurance companies will not be able to place a coverage limit on your insurance. That, coupled with annual caps on out-of-pocket expenses also goes a long way towards cost-control.

Further, in the words of the president's proposal:
-------------

One essential policy is “rate review” meaning that health insurers must submit their proposed premium increases to the State authority or Secretary for review. The President’s Proposal strengthens this policy by ensuring that, if a rate increase is unreasonable and unjustified, health insurers must lower premiums, provide rebates, or take other actions to make premiums affordable. A new Health Insurance Rate Authority will be created to provide needed oversight at the Federal level and help States determine how rate review will be enforced and monitor insurance market behavior.

--------------

And did anyone notice that outside of the bill, the House took the first step in smashing insurance company monopolies by repealing their anti-trust exemption?

Plus, if there are no cost controls, how is it that CBO projects this bill will reduce the deficit by $132 billion in the first decade and in the decade after that by $1 trillion?

On Countdown, Kucinich also cited Jacob Hacker, "father of the public option" to support his own position of being against HCR. But what he did not say, is that Hacker STILL supports the Senate bill and in an article, made a series of suggestions to bring the Senate bill closer to what he'd wanted the public option to accomplish, many of which, if not all, Obama has included in his proposal:

Jacob Hacker, Why I Still Believe in This Bill
http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-treatment/why-i-still-believe-bill

At this point to keep insisting "There is no process for control of premiums" is wrong. And Kucinich is smart enough to know he's wrong. So, I can only conclude that he's lying.

[inna]

12. "There is no process for control of premiums" - sorry, it's a fact.

But... Be in denial all you want, I don't really care.

[quiet.american]

13. You see how this goes. You demand backup from me, yet offer none of your own.

Not even an acknowledgement of the actual facts I presented. Just repeating what Kucinich says.

Then -- this is rich -- you declare that *I'm* the one in denial.

Unbelievable.

[ipaint]

16. Here is where they will fuck us all over.

"When WellPoint’s CEO Angela Braly boasts that a 40 year old woman can purchase $1,500 deductible coverage from them for only $156 per month, it’s important to see how they define that coverage.

"Although Angela Braly didn’t state which $1,500 deductible plan has a premium “as low as $156,” let’s look at the Anthem Blue Cross $1,500 deductible CoreGuard plan as an example. Under that coverage, a 40 year old woman would have to pay twelve monthly premiums, the first $1,500 of In-Network care, the first $1,500 of Out-of-Network care, one-half of allowed In-Network charges after the deductible (coinsurance), 70% of allowed Out-of-Network charges after the second deductible (coinsurance) (Anthem Blue Cross paying only 30% of allowed charges!), an additional $500 per day for up to three days for hospitalization (a copayment on top of the coinsurance!), all maternity care (Anthem Blue Cross paying nothing!), and… well… you get it.

When Anthem Blue Cross promotes this product as a $1,500 deductible plan, they are being so deceptive that it is dishonest. They call these “look alike plans” – it looks like a $1,500 deductible plan, but it isn’t. The patient is paying most of the health care costs while Anthem Blue Cross pretends that this is insurance.

The more sophisticated insurance purchaser might look at this plan and recognize that it is almost worthless except that it has an out-of-pocket maximum of $3,500 for the year. So maybe it is worth the premium as a catastrophic plan, limiting losses to $3,500. But look closer. The fine print excludes the deductible from counting towards the out-of-pocket costs, so it is really $5,000, but only for In-Network services. Another $9,000 ($7,500 plus $1,500 deductible) has to be paid for Out-of-Network services as well. So the exposure is the total of monthly premiums, the In-Network $5,000, the Out-of-Network $9,000, all Out-of-Network costs in excess of the allowable charges, and any services, such as maternity care, that are not a benefit of the plan. This is another one of those you’re-covered-if-you-don’t-get-sick plans.

To show how ridiculous this can be, using the same benefit guide (link above) for a family with a $10,000 deductible plan, the out-of-pocket maximum looks like it is $7,000, but it is actually $17,000 for In-Network services ($7,000 plus $10,000 deductible), plus $25,000 for Out-of-Network ($15,000 plus $10,000 deductible). In addition to this $42,000, the family must pay monthly premiums, all Out-of-Network costs in excess of the allowable charges, and any services that are not a benefit of the plan (no maternity benefits for a young family!)."

http://pnhp.org/blog/2010/03/01/michael-hiltzik-asks-why-do-we-need-insurers/



This type of plan is what our taxpayer subsidies will help pay for. Anyone see access to care anywhere? The person will be insured but can't afford the care.

This will be widespread and folks will be legally mandated to pay for this bogus "health care" plan. In addition our bought and paid for government can't regulate themselves out of a paper bag. They don't know what the word means.

And if folks think they will be able to wrangle that mandate out of the death grip of ins. companies after they drop the ball once again, those same folks and their children are about to learn what being an indentured servant feels like.

[ipaint]

18. And don't forget we are all going to continue to pay for this-

"Aetna, Cigna, Humana, United Health, and Wellpoint scored record profits totaling $12.2 billion. In 2008, Ron Williams, CEO of Aetna, received over $24 million in compensation, about $450,000 per week. His weekly compensation would be enough to pay the yearly salary of three family doctors, whose median income in the United States is $159,000 per year.

While middle class families were struggling to pay their escalating health insurance premiums, rising deductibles and co-payments, Wellpoint’s profits increased by 91 percent in 2009, $2.3 billion over the previous year. Not content with this level of profiteering, Wellpoint’s subsidiary, Anthem Blue Cross of California, seeks to raise its premiums for some by an astounding 39 percent this year.

A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association last week reports that physician fees, adjusted for inflation, decreased by 25 percent between 1996 and 2006. This coincided with a decrease of 5.7 percent in the number of hours that doctors worked per week, a reduction that amounts to the equivalent of a loss of 36,000 doctors from the work force, had the hours per physician not changed.The authors’ suggested “the possibility that economic factors such as lower fees and increased market pressure on physicians may have contributed, at least in part, to the recent decrease in physician hours. Further reductions in fees and increased market pressure on physicians may therefore contribute to continued decreases in physician work hours in the future.”

Will President Obama’s health reform proposal, crafted to gain bipartisan support from a Congress that has been lobbied by the Big Five with $16. 8 million last year, actually reform health care? Not a chance, because the proposal preserves a central role for the for-profit insurance industry."

http://pnhp.org/blog/2010/03/03/a-bonanza-for-the-robber-barons/



I still can't find the access to health care. Just a crappy ins. product that is a get rich quick scheme for those at the top.

[quiet.american]

21. The articles at the link actually point to what the status quo is, not what it would be w/HCR.

Last week, Obama joined a meeting of insurance company executives and read a letter from a woman that was similar to the situation you posted. He read it as an example of why health reform needs to happen. Under the bill, this type of plan would not be allowed to be sold in the exchanges. I'm not even going to bother to post the language in the bill that prevents it, because I'm sure it will be a futile endeavor, but the plan listed is exactly the type of vicious nonsense from the insurance companies that would no longer be allowed by law. I posted the links to the bills in my previous post, so anyone can look it up for themselves.

Edited to add:

Just realized I hadn't added the links to the bill in this thread, but for the sake of expediency, here's a WH Q&A page that speaks to the scenarios in the article:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/health-care-meeting/questions/buy-own-insurance

[ipaint]

23. Never happen.

But I've been through this type of PR on nafta, de-regulation, welfare reform, etc. There will be a hidden loophole you could drive a truck through for every attempt at regulation. Bar none.

Some people are just going to have to learn and those of us who pay the price for that unnecessary lesson will continue to be in the lower working class. It's been that way for thirty years and the money continues to be shoveled to the top 1%.

The comfortable middle class is so delusional in this country they won't notice a damn thing is wrong until the suffering once again begins to bite at their heels a decade or so from now. True to form and after 3 decades of unnecessary suffering and death among the lower working class and the poor the better of still can't do the right thing and they still fall for the same bucket of lies.

Obama read a letter to the ins execs. wow. big fucking deal. Did he make them stand in the corner, too.

[ipaint]

24. Not enough reform to matter.

To keep premiums at a level that maintains their market, the insurers have reduced benefits and and have increased cost sharing, especially through much higher deductibles and greater coinsurance. Compared to copayments, coinsurance, as a percentage of charges, shifts much more of the costs to those who need a greater amount of health care.

These innovations are resulting in a transformation of the market into a choice of new options, referred to internally by the insurance industry as “downgrade options.” The consumer facing outrageous premium increases would have new choices – either deceptive “look-alike” plans with reduced benefits, or new innovative products such as CoreGuard. With CoreGuard, for a reduced premium, you can have a plan with family cost sharing of only $59,500 plus the cost of products and services that are not included as a benefit.

Of course, these downgrade options represent an expansion in the market of underinsurance products. Downgrade options are a devious method of shifting health care cost increases to those individuals who need health care. It is bad enough to be sick or injured without having to face intensifying financial hardship and perhaps bankruptcy, even if insured.

What will President Obama’s proposal do to rectify the injustices of these downgrade options? For most individuals, almost nothing. They will remain in their employer-sponsored plans or other programs such as Medicare or Medicaid. For the minority who will be able to purchase plans through state insurance exchanges, the plans will have prescribed benefits and an actuarial value at a relatively low 70 percent (60 percent for some), meaning that cost sharing can still pose a major burden. Because these relatively Spartan plans will still be more generous than the downgrade options, the premiums will be higher.

The Obama plan specifies that a family will not have to contribute more than 9.5 percent of income to the premium (less for lower income families), as long as they don’t upgrade to a plan with the benefits that they should have. If they upgrade, they pay the entire difference. Obama’s plan also would limit cost sharing to current HSA limits ($11,900 per family in 2010), but that is misleading since considerable costs can be racked up outside of the plan.

http://pnhp.org/blog/2010/02/24/wellpoints-downgrade-options/


Smoke and mirrors.

[Echo In Light]

29. +1

[eridani]

25. The bill will reduce deficits by taking the money out of the hides of the little people

The "controls" amount to asking the bastards to pretty please not raise premiums so much. The insurance companies own the congress who will be recommending rate changes, which does not bode well at all.

[Donnachaidh]

5. exactly WHAT is he lying about -- please be specific, and no ass stats please

back up the bloviation.

[quiet.american]

11. See my reply #10 nt

[Binka]

19. #10 = #2

More baseless BS from you.

[quiet.american]

20. Baseless in what way?

(And do we know each other?) What is this "more."

[slipslidingaway]

4. Thanks :) n/t

[leftstreet]

6. K&R

[tnlefty]

7. Thanks!

And thanks Dennis.

[ixion]

8. Kucinich speaks the Truth

he's one of the few 'honorable' men who actually do.

[Echo In Light]

38. Yes

[rantormusing]

9. Awesome

KnR

I think he really should try and run. At least have one honest person per election cycle.

[LostInAnomie]

14. He's a joke.

Too bad he's a joke that collaborates with Republicans.

[GreenArrow]

26. Maybe he's taken Obama's "bipartisan" schtick seriously.

Of course, when G-Dub was President, his colleagues were the ones who did most of the "collaborating" with the Pubs. Ah, who could ever forget dear old Dicky Gephardt out in the rose garden with Dubya pimpin' that invasion of Iraq.

He's been pretty consistent in opposing bad bills and policies no matter which party is in power.

[flyarm]

32. and you are not....why? He is a US Congressman..what are you? You know more about the bill how?

yeah..just what i thought..I know who the "real joke" is..and who this joke of a bill is on..and who will be paying for this big piece of horse poop...too bad you won't catch on!!

eom

[Echo In Light]

40. Amazing, isn't it?

[salguine]

15. I just wish that we could get everyone in the country, on April 1, to stop any and all

payments to health insurance companies. Just stop. God, I would love to see what would happen if their cash flow just suddenly disappeared.

[Political Heretic]

17. Wow if Kuncnich posted that here a moderator would lock it.

:eyes:

[Arkana]

22. Ah, Dennis...

never one to skimp on the ridiculous hyperbole. No wonder FDL loves you.

[krabigirl]

27. This is why they want to primary Kucinich.

[Echo In Light]

30. +1

[Individualist]

34. This and the fact that he exposes DLC for what they are...

"The Democratic Leadership Council's agenda is indistinguishable from the Republican Neoconservative agenda,"

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

35. The joke is on them! The deadline passed!

[Greyhound]

28. ..

[freddie mertz]

31. K & R. We have someone here who is willing to speak the truth.

No wonder the dream-weavers and craven corporate compromisers can't abide him.

[Echo In Light]

33. Bump

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

36. Thank you Dennis. Truth to Power.

[upi402]

37. "Run a primary challenger against him" -DLCers here

None of that lunacy for THIS party!

[malaise]

39. He's right

Excellent post

[Echo In Light]

41. Bump