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This week on the JOURNAL, Bill Moyers spoke with Wendell Potter, a former health insurance executive who left the industry to become an advocate for health care reform. Potter discussed the industrys history of denying care to members and its extensive efforts to prevent the federal government from creating a public option for health insurance to compete with private plans. Potter said:
Bill Moyers Journal: Assessing a "Public Option" for Health Care
CBS News has learned a former executive for a major health insurance company, Cigna, will speak out for the first time before Congress tomorrow on practices that he is expected to characterize as deceptive by the health insurance industry.
Wendell Potter, the former Vice President of Communications for Cigna Insurance Company in Philadelphia is scheduled to testify at 2:30 pm before the Senate Commerce Committee. He is expected to describe how the health insurance industry purposefully uses "confusing language" for consumers as part of its business strategy. He worked in the health insurance industry for 20 years for both Cigna and Humana health insurance companies.
they make a profit by denying procedures and extended stays in the hospital. they are a middle man...the top pays them to screw the bottom...and on it goes
You have something to say to me, say it in public, cocksucker.droooollllbabbledrivel
you have no clue.I think that you have totally missed the point. We can all agree that the health industry absolutely needs an overhaul and needs to be reformed. The way to do this is through the legislature by passing laws and regulalting the health care insurance companies. They do screw individuals and it's time that stopped,
But if you think that you are being screwed now, you just wait until we have a nationalized system, which will ration care and tax you out of your mind.
Have you ever dealt with the IRS, now that's what I call a beaurocrat and believe me you don't want that person in between you and your doctor.
Can you name ONE thing that the government manages well?????Do you really want a government employee telling you what you need and what you don't need when it comes to you and your family's health????
You have something to say to me, say it in public, cocksucker.droooollllbabbledrivel
purposefully uses "confusing language"
Is our flag a half moon and a sickle, I have to wonder sometimes. I think Obama is a communist dressed in American clothing.
Why do conservatives advocate bureaucrats being between you & a doctor?...
Funny how the private companies spend about 31 cents out of ever dollar on administration. Medicare spends about 3 cents.Why do conservatives advocate bureaucrats being between you & a doctor?...
It's the same as the government being between you and a doctor with universal healthcare. The only difference is the government will put all the competition out of business and then Americans will have only one provider. At least with our current system there is some competition.
Do you really want a government employee telling you what you need and what you don't need when it comes to you and your family's health????
Funny how the private companies spend about 31 cents out of ever dollar on administration. Medicare spends about 3 cents.Why do conservatives advocate bureaucrats being between you & a doctor?...
It's the same as the government being between you and a doctor with universal healthcare. The only difference is the government will put all the competition out of business and then Americans will have only one provider. At least with our current system there is some competition.
That's why the private companies can't compete ... they're bloated.
...
But like many core beliefs of the left, the claim that government-run health care has lower administrative costs than private care is just plain false. New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, for example, likes to cite data showing that Medicare only spends 3% of its total outlays on administrative costs compared to 14-22% for private care. The numbers themselves are correct, but measuring administrative efficiency by a percentage of total costs is completely useless. Heritage fellow Robert Book explains:
Imagine, for a moment, that Fred and Jane each have a credit card from a different bank. Fred charges $5,000 a month, and Jane charges $1,000 a month. Suppose it costs each bank $5 to produce and send a plastic credit card when the account is opened. That $5 administrative cost is a much lower percentage of Freds monthly charges than it is of Janes, but that does not mean Freds bank is more efficient. It is purely a mathematical artifact of Freds charging pattern, and it would be silly to compare the efficiency of bank operations on that basis. Yet that is how many analysts compare Medicare with private insurance.
A much more accurate way of capturing each systems true administrative costs is by a per-patient basis. When this is done, government-run health cares administrative costs are routinely higher than private care. In the years from 2000 to 2005, Medicares administrative costs per beneficiary were consistently higher than that for private insurance, ranging from 5 to 48 percent higher, depending on the year. This is despite the fact that private-sector administrative costs include state health insurance premium taxes of up to 4 percent (averaging around 2 percent, depending on the state)an expense from which Medicare is exemptas well as the cost of non-claim health care expenses, such as disease management and on-call nurse consultation services.
Morning Bell: The Truth About Medicare’s Administrative Costs » The Foundry
Do you really want a government employee telling you what you need and what you don't need when it comes to you and your family's health????
Do you want an insurance company employee telling you what you need and what you don't need when it comes to you and your family's health?
It is EXACTLY the same thing.
I've had clinic bureaucrats come between me and treatment because, even though I flashed a pocketful of $100.00 bills in their faces, I had no insurance.Do you really want a government employee telling you what you need and what you don't need when it comes to you and your family's health????
Do you want an insurance company employee telling you what you need and what you don't need when it comes to you and your family's health?
It is EXACTLY the same thing.
