Democrats
hate the insurance industry. Hate its guts. Yet their partnership
with the ambulance chaser wing of the American Bar Association, and an
inherent inability to understand the profit aspect of the business
model, have made the industry integral to daily life, and a recession
(if not gummint) proof business.
It's not unusual for yearly automobile insurance premiums to exceed the
cost of the "preowned" junker being insured. Not when the
potential cost of a fender bender includes the price of a trip to
Lourdes and a miracle neck injury cure. The state helps out by
making insuring yourself against lawyers a condition of driving. For a while, there were attempts across the land towards No Fault insurance. Who complained? Lawyers. Their television blitz against any No Fault legislation rivaled anything Billy Mays ever launched.
Health insurance rates also skyrocketed, as physicians were forced to
cover themselves against malpractice suits. Medical doctors must
purchase extremely expensive lawyer insurance, which cost is passed to
the patient. That insurance will require them to order
exhaustive CYA tests on stuff that used to warrant iodine and a Band Aid. More cost.
This recently happened to me.
I've had a sore in the
middle of my back for weeks; it causes a periodic shooting
pain I asked Doc to look at it during my last visit. He
said it looked like a clogged pore, commonly known as a pimple,
or an ingrown hair, but didn't look infected. End of exam.
Last night it killed. I bitched to MoSup this morning that he
should have treated it then and there. She said, he's not a
surgeon. I said, so what, he's a physician. She said, yeah,
but he's required to refer you to a surgeon who would submit a
biopsy specimen. I'm not making this up.
Now I read that the Democrat House leadership have given up on getting
the Obamacare government option. Which is good (but stop me here
if I'm missing something). But, this trillion dollar - for
starters- monstrosity of a healthcare bill that nobody wants will do
what? It will add 30-40 million currently uninsured people into
the pool, and force them
to buy insurance from ... insurance companies. At the same time,
Obamaiacs are screaming bloody murder over this greater insurance
industry presence in health care. Pelosi will announce plans to punish them for this. Are you following?
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other senior Democrats told President
Barack Obama in recent meetings they want the legislation to strip the
insurance industry of a long-standing exemption from federal antitrust
laws, officials said. That provision is in the House-passed measure,
but was omitted from the bill that the Senate passed on Christmas Eve.
They also want the final measure to include a House-passed
proposal for a nationwide insurance exchange, to be regulated by the
federal government, where consumers could shop for private coverage.
The Senate bill calls for a state-based system of exchanges.
Additionally, House Democrats want to require insurers to spend
a minimum amount of premium income on benefits, thereby limiting what
is available for salaries, bonuses, advertising and other items. The
House bill sets the floor at 85 percent; the Senate-passed measure
lowers it to 80 percent for policies sold to small groups and
individuals.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the negotiations are private.
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But, there's room for hope. Poll: Republican Brown Leads 48-47 in Mass. Senate Race
Even the threat of a Republican taking Ted Kennedy's senate seat
indicates what's in store for the Democrat party ten months hence. A
win by Brown would make a Republican senate majority possible, maybe
even plausible.
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