Weiner: GOP Is 'Wholly Owned Subsidiary Of The Insurance

[jillian]

again, that is not the primary issue in the problems with health care.

your priorities are off. you want to hurt patients and not regulate the insurance industry. there are far more pressing issues.

btw, doctors don't practice 'defensive medecine' because they're afraid of getting sued. they run tests because they make money on them.

It may not be the primary issue, but it is an issue that seems to be getting ignored. And no, I do not want to hurt patients at all, please feel free to reread my earlier post on the subject.

In regards to doctors using tests as a money maker, I suppose you have a study to back up your claim/opinion? I was actually able to provide a study to back up the claim that doctors are doing these tests to prevent being sued. If you have issues with that, it appears your issue is with the study and not me.

-TSO

its not an issue that's being ignored. it's one that's being raised before the real issues are being addressed... which is my objection.

i can only tell you that i can't even count the numbers of doctors i know who buy into MRI facilities, etc. They do this because there is huge profit in them.

I also know that ny is filled with 'no fault' mills where people are shuttled from one practitioner and testing/treatment facility to another... and that these cases are clogging ny civil courts by the thousands each day (among all 5 civil courts). i also know it's the insurance companies would rather spend 1500 on a doctor to testify in these cases than pay a $40 claim in some instances... even when they know they are going to lose.

if you want information on that, feel free to google the numbers.

In other words, health care reform is being used by the right as a means to create windfalls for insurance companies and stick it to patients.

It also can't be disputed that we spend more per capita than any civilized nation on health care...and get less for it and that in 10 years half of our GDP will be spent on health care if we don't do someething.

fix that...

and then talk to me about gifts for insurers who deny claims in the hopes that the insured will die...

or cut off coverage after someone gets sick. THAT should be your focus.

 

[Mr. Peepers]

Amen, Jillian! Well said.

 

[uscitizen]

once more for the uninformed:
2% of insurance company income is spent on defense of malpractice suits.

most malpractice suits must go through a merit panel prior to being filed in court

the average malpractice action costs upward ot $50,000 and attorneys do not generally risk that type of money on anything that is not going to bring a return.

save your 'tort reform' for another subject. it has nothing to do with health coverage.

when doctors limit the damage they can do to people by malpracting, i'll be all for limiting their liability. until then, keep your gift to the insurances companies of 'tort reform'.

now, if you want to get rid of the anti-trust exemption for insurances companies, i'm all for that.

It's not the 2% from the insurance industry that is the issue (so enough with the "uninformed" bullshit), it's the defensive medicine/testing that doctors have to practice that is the problem. In regards to elimination of the anti-trust exemption, I'm fine with that.

-TSO

What you are calling practicing defensive medicine I just call practicing thorough medicine.

 

[TheSuaveOne]

What you are calling practicing defensive medicine I just call practicing thorough medicine.

From the earlier linked study...

Physicians were asked about their use of seven tests and procedures: plain film X-rays, CT Scans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRIs), ultrasounds, laboratory testing, specialty referrals and consultations, and hospital admissions. The results were self-reported by the physicians responding to the survey.

The results showed that 83 percent of the physicians surveyed reported practicing defensive medicine and that an average of 18 to 28 percent of tests, procedures, referrals and consultations and 13 percent of hospitalizations were ordered for defensive reasons.

That's a lot of wasted money right there. If those numbers were to drop, there would be a huge drop in healthcare costs.

-TSO

 

[gautama]

again, that is not the primary issue in the problems with health care.

your priorities are off. you want to hurt patients and not regulate the insurance industry. there are far more pressing issues.

btw, doctors don't practice 'defensive medecine' because they're afraid of getting sued. they run tests because they make money on them.

It may not be the primary issue, but it is an issue that seems to be getting ignored. And no, I do not want to hurt patients at all, please feel free to reread my earlier post on the subject.

In regards to doctors using tests as a money maker, I suppose you have a study to back up your claim/opinion? I was actually able to provide a study to back up the claim that doctors are doing these tests to prevent being sued. If you have issues with that, it appears your issue is with the study and not me.

-TSO

its not an issue that's being ignored. it's one that's being raised before the real issues are being addressed... which is my objection.

i can only tell you that i can't even count the numbers of doctors i know who buy into MRI facilities, etc. They do this because there is huge profit in them.

I also know that ny is filled with 'no fault' mills where people are shuttled from one practitioner and testing/treatment facility to another... and that these cases are clogging ny civil courts by the thousands each day (among all 5 civil courts). i also know it's the insurance companies would rather spend 1500 on a doctor to testify in these cases than pay a $40 claim in some instances... even when they know they are going to lose.

if you want information on that, feel free to google the numbers.

In other words, health care reform is being used by the right as a means to create windfalls for insurance companies and stick it to patients.

It also can't be disputed that we spend more per capita than any civilized nation on health care...and get less for it and that in 10 years half of our GDP will be spent on health care if we don't do someething.

fix that...

and then talk to me about gifts for insurers who deny claims in the hopes that the insured will die...

or cut off coverage after someone gets sick. THAT should be your focus.

Obamarrhoidal Jillian, You can blatantly falsify the facts such as the CENTRAL ISSUE: "It also can't be disputed that we spend more per capita than any civilized nation on health care...AND GET LESS FOR IT (caps mine)".

It is a known IRREFUTABLE FACT that AMERICA HAS THE BEST HEALTH CARE SYSTEM IN THE WORLD.

And BULLSHIT ARTISTES like you can try to obfuscate THIS IRREFUTABLE FACT all you want with your MOUNTAINS OF BULLSHIT.........and you are just wasting your time.

Even your fucking Obamarrhoids at the phoney Obamarama Circus claimed that we have THE BEST HEALTH CARE IN THE WORLD (with the addendum that Obamacare improves it).

And, we all know how EVERYONE who can afford it........try to avoid the MONTHS and YEARS of the WAITING they have to go through before they get the INFERIOR.....I repeat...... INFERIOR....... RATIONED HEALTH CARE in the Socialized Medicine Countries (that you are trying to model America after) AND FLOCK TO AMERICA IN NEVER ENDING MOBS !!!

So take your OBAMACARE BULLSHIT that will BANKRUPT OUR COUNTRY, and in effect MURDER our Senior Citizens because of RATIONED OBAMACARE (in order to parcel out an ADDITIONAL THIRTY ONE MILLION FREELOADERS TO GET FREE OBAMACARE)......AND STICK IT UP YOUR MONEY-MAKING ARSE !!!

 

[The Rabbi]

once more for the uninformed:
2% of insurance company income is spent on defense of malpractice suits.

most malpractice suits must go through a merit panel prior to being filed in court

the average malpractice action costs upward ot $50,000 and attorneys do not generally risk that type of money on anything that is not going to bring a return.

save your 'tort reform' for another subject. it has nothing to do with health coverage.

when doctors limit the damage they can do to people by malpracting, i'll be all for limiting their liability. until then, keep your gift to the insurances companies of 'tort reform'.

now, if you want to get rid of the anti-trust exemption for insurances companies, i'm all for that.

Do you axtually read what you've written or are you just regurgitating Leftist talking points?
You dont even make any sense.
2% of insurance company income is spent on malpractice? What does that mean? Insurance company? Do you mean health insurers? Do you mean malpractice insurers? What? 2% of which income? Premium income? Investment income? And how much is that number and where does it come from?
No answers on any of it.
Most malpractice suits probably never make it to court but are settled prior to actions being filed. So the number is misleading.
We are not discussing the "damage that doctors can do." We are discussing limiting "jackpot justice" awards in intangibles like pain and suffering. Not eliminating them, mind you. Just setting a reasonable cap
I'd be happy to get rid of anti trust exemptions as soon as anti-competition regulations are gotten rid of too.
In all, yet another poorly written poorly reasoned post by the self proclaimed 2 decade attorney.

 

[Gadawg73]

Hidden ?Bundles? of Lobbyist Giving Show Full Court Press by Health Care Donors — Making Government Transparent and Accountable - Sunlight Foundation Blog

YouTube - Hidden 'Bundles' of Lobbyist Giving

We found that Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee and author of the main health care reform bill now being debated in the Senate, was one of the biggest beneficiaries of this one-two punch from lobbyists and the interests they represent. Between January 2007 and July 2009 (the period we studied), Baucus collected contributions from 37 outside lobbyists representing PhRMA, the pharmaceutical industry’s chief trade association, and from 36 lobbyists who listed drug maker Amgen Inc. among their clients.

Also see:
Curious Clusters of Cash: Major Lobbyist-Client Connections among Health Care Interests | OpenSecrets

The chart below highlights the members receiving the highest number of health-related client-lobbyist "bundles" of contributions since 2007. Last year's expensive presidential contest partly explains why Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is, by far, the leader in this category among his congressional colleagues. The table below provides the detailed figures, including the amount of money individual members of Congress have received from the lobbyists of health-related organizations that have also themselves contributed money to the same congressional member. Organizations on this list must have hired at least 10 outside lobbyists who gave to the same members of Congress as the organization's own PAC and employees. Data reflects contribution and lobbying activity between 2007 though the second quarter of 2009.

(see chart at link)

All of the above relates to some of the bigger health industries but obviously not all of them. Also remember it's not just about heath care providers. By keeping the Republicans out of the room when writing "health reform" one of the R's main plan points does not even enter into the "debate" and that is tort reform. Who would that hurt? Trial lawyers! Now if one were feeling particulary partisan, one might say Democrats are a "'Wholly Owned Subsidiary Of The Trial Lawyer Industry'. But that's not my style.

When a family suffers tragic malpractice from a drunk doped up doctor that has just been released from a private secret rehab center 4 days before he operated where do they go other than to trial lawyers?
The facts above are from a case I know of now.
Your naivete is a result of Madison Avenue marketing by the insurance lobby.
News for the uninformed: Insurance companies have the most trial lawyers and they pay the most cash to trial lawyers TO DEFEND THEM.
JURIES, not lawyers, correctly award damages against bad and corrupt doctors. Insurance companies want to change that.
It is understandable when Americans watch McDonalds commercials and want totake the kids there as a result of that marketing. Believing the "tort reform" myth is scary and endangers the very foundation of America, the jury system.

 

[goldcatt]

I would support some limited tort reform, depending on how it's done, but only if the other two (and much larger) legs of the golden healthcare triangle were also cut.

The problem is cost and availability. Cutting a little fat from the 2 - 3% spent on legal costs is nowhere near enough. Opening up competition across state lines so we can have a race to the bottom isn't enough. Pharma, practitioners and insurers have to understand they have a right to profit, but that they also deal in a product with national health, economic and security implications and those have to be factored into the equation when we're talking about cost and availability.

Of those three, insurers are the worst by far because they're feeding on both sides of the trough - health and liability. And driving up costs for not just consumers but employers and providers while drowning all of them in a labyrinth of expensive and time-consuming paperwork. It ALL has to be on the block.

 

[Wry Catcher]

It may not be the primary issue, but it is an issue that seems to be getting ignored. And no, I do not want to hurt patients at all, please feel free to reread my earlier post on the subject.

In regards to doctors using tests as a money maker, I suppose you have a study to back up your claim/opinion? I was actually able to provide a study to back up the claim that doctors are doing these tests to prevent being sued. If you have issues with that, it appears your issue is with the study and not me.

-TSO

its not an issue that's being ignored. it's one that's being raised before the real issues are being addressed... which is my objection.

i can only tell you that i can't even count the numbers of doctors i know who buy into MRI facilities, etc. They do this because there is huge profit in them.

I also know that ny is filled with 'no fault' mills where people are shuttled from one practitioner and testing/treatment facility to another... and that these cases are clogging ny civil courts by the thousands each day (among all 5 civil courts). i also know it's the insurance companies would rather spend 1500 on a doctor to testify in these cases than pay a $40 claim in some instances... even when they know they are going to lose.

if you want information on that, feel free to google the numbers.

In other words, health care reform is being used by the right as a means to create windfalls for insurance companies and stick it to patients.

It also can't be disputed that we spend more per capita than any civilized nation on health care...and get less for it and that in 10 years half of our GDP will be spent on health care if we don't do someething.

fix that...

and then talk to me about gifts for insurers who deny claims in the hopes that the insured will die...

or cut off coverage after someone gets sick. THAT should be your focus.

Obamarrhoidal Jillian, You can blatantly falsify the facts such as the CENTRAL ISSUE: "It also can't be disputed that we spend more per capita than any civilized nation on health care...AND GET LESS FOR IT (caps mine)".

It is a known IRREFUTABLE FACT that AMERICA HAS THE BEST HEALTH CARE SYSTEM IN THE WORLD.

And BULLSHIT ARTISTES like you can try to obfuscate THIS IRREFUTABLE FACT all you want with your MOUNTAINS OF BULLSHIT.........and you are just wasting your time.

Even your fucking Obamarrhoids at the phoney Obamarama Circus claimed that we have THE BEST HEALTH CARE IN THE WORLD (with the addendum that Obamacare improves it).

And, we all know how EVERYONE who can afford it........try to avoid the MONTHS and YEARS of the WAITING they have to go through before they get the INFERIOR.....I repeat...... INFERIOR....... RATIONED HEALTH CARE in the Socialized Medicine Countries (that you are trying to model America after) AND FLOCK TO AMERICA IN NEVER ENDING MOBS !!!

So take your OBAMACARE BULLSHIT that will BANKRUPT OUR COUNTRY, and in effect MURDER our Senior Citizens because of RATIONED OBAMACARE (in order to parcel out an ADDITIONAL THIRTY ONE MILLION FREELOADERS TO GET FREE OBAMACARE)......AND STICK IT UP YOUR MONEY-MAKING ARSE !!!

gautama, I hope you have medical insurance, and the insurance covers mental health. You surely need some 'mental health'.

 

[The T]

Weiner: GOP Is 'Wholly Owned Subsidiary Of The Insurance Industry'

The Republican Party is "a wholly owned subsidiary of the insurance industry," Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) charged on the House floor. When Republican Rep. Dan Lungren (Calif.) objected to the accusation and took the extraordinary step of asking that Weiner's "words be taken down," Weiner pushed back.

"You really don't want to go here, Mr. Lungren," Weiner said. Asking that words be taken down is a move on the House floor that is rarely made and carries great weight.

Weiner, after a pause, asked to have his words withdrawn and said he'd substitute new ones. "Make no mistake about it. Every single Republican I have ever met in my entire life is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the insurance industry," Weiner clarified.

Somehow, that failed to satisfy Lungren, who asked that those too be taken down. After a long pause, before the chair ruled, Lungren withdrew his request.

Go get em Anthony! He is a true Progressive! Imagine him as Speaker!

He's a fuckin' STATIST that belives that the Government should be the final arbitor in every aspect of American life.

Please continue to applaud this statist bullsqueeze.

You show yourself as a partisan HACK as that MORON that you applaud.

 

[The Rabbi]

The problem is cost and availability. Cutting a little fat from the 2 - 3% spent on legal costs is nowhere near enough. Opening up competition across state lines so we can have a race to the bottom isn't enough. Pharma, practitioners and insurers have to understand they have a right to profit, but that they also deal in a product with national health, economic and security implications and those have to be factored into the equation when we're talking about cost and availability.

Of those three, insurers are the worst by far because they're feeding on both sides of the trough - health and liability. And driving up costs for not just consumers but employers and providers while drowning all of them in a labyrinth of expensive and time-consuming paperwork. It ALL has to be on the block.

What is this "race to the bottom" meme I see repeated by leftists against buying over state lines? I have never understood this argument. Do we argue that deregulating the airlines has led to a "race to the bottom" for service? Is there a "race to the bottom" on phone service? What about brokerage rates? I don't see a "race to the bottom" there. All I see is people able to purchase exactly the service they want and avoid the expense of service they don't want. WHy should health insurance somehow be different?
As far as paperwork: it gets to the real issue, which is that the people buying healthcare and the people paying for it are not the same. Every proposal by the Democrats will make this problem WORSE, not better.

 

[oreo]

Weiner: GOP Is 'Wholly Owned Subsidiary Of The Insurance Industry'

The Republican Party is "a wholly owned subsidiary of the insurance industry," Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) charged on the House floor. When Republican Rep. Dan Lungren (Calif.) objected to the accusation and took the extraordinary step of asking that Weiner's "words be taken down," Weiner pushed back.

"You really don't want to go here, Mr. Lungren," Weiner said. Asking that words be taken down is a move on the House floor that is rarely made and carries great weight.

Weiner, after a pause, asked to have his words withdrawn and said he'd substitute new ones. "Make no mistake about it. Every single Republican I have ever met in my entire life is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the insurance industry," Weiner clarified.

Somehow, that failed to satisfy Lungren, who asked that those too be taken down. After a long pause, before the chair ruled, Lungren withdrew his request.

Go get em Anthony! He is a true Progressive! Imagine him as Speaker!

Mr. Wiener obviously didn't watch John McCain in Barack Obama's "face" over PHARMA & other special interests involved in health care--

Very interesting--how our politicians are "bought off"

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouzv3FYe_Cg]YouTube - Senator John McCain's Remarks at the Health Care Summit - Feb 25, 2010[/ame]