One of the most despicable moments in the past few years came when CIGNA denied one of their customers, 17 year-old Nataline Sarkysian, a liver transplant. Bowing to public pressure after several days, CIGNA reversed itself and approved the transplant – but not before Sarkysian died. It was a perfect example of how insurance company CEOs get rich off of denying care. Americans United For Change remembered this sorry episode in a new political ad airing in Washington.
“This year Cigna CEO Ed Hanway will retire with a $73 million golden parachute. Seventy three million dollars. That’s 292 liver transplants. Nataline only needed one. If insurance companies win, we lose.”
Insurance companies are winning in some of the latest iterations of the health care bill in Washington, closing in on getting an individual mandate for everyone in the country to buy insurance, while maintaining a monopoly on the under-65 market by scuttling the public option, which would compete with private insurers and offer a not-for-profit alternative. They would get millions of new customers while potentially passing increased costs on to their customers. Nevertheless, they are still bellyaching about the meager changes to their bottom lines that would be more than offset by a forced market:
The insurers “would prefer to have absolutely no public plan on the table,” said Ana Gupte, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Company. Still, Ms. Gupte said, the insurers should benefit from the expansion in coverage — especially under Mr. Baucus’s proposed rules limiting the premiums that insurers would be able to charge from one person to the next. Under his proposal, premiums could vary by 7.5 times from the least expensive policy for the same benefits to the most expensive policy, based on age and other factors like use of tobacco.
Insurers also say they are worried about many of the new fees and taxes being proposed, including Mr. Baucus’s idea of charging the industry $6 billion a year in fees, in addition to taxing the most generous policies.
The industry also points to proposed cuts in payments to private insurers that now cover the elderly under Medicare — cuts that could amount to more than $100 billion over 10 years. “It’s a major issue,” said Ms. Ignagni, adding that health plans might not be able to continue to operate in some areas if the Medicare payments were cut too much.
There are still plenty of ways to ensure quality and affordable coverage for everyone under this plan. Insurance companies could be treated like regulated public utilities. They could have competition with a public insurance option that would force them to lower prices and improve quality. They could see an end to their corporate welfare in the form of Medicare Advantage payments, where they get free money from the government to run Medicare plans without any significant increase in quality. Any number of things could occur that would still allow insurers to skim off the top of a trillion-dollar industry and make very good livings.
But they want it all. And they traditionally have gotten there through denial of care, necessitated by a relentless drive for profit. The Sarkysian family knows this pretty well.
Obscene.
I'm a 41 year old male that got laid off and lost my insurance. Started working at 8 yrs old, had kids at 17 and have been with the same great woman since I was 15. Raised 2 kids and tried to do everything right w/o ever asking for help. I have a few minor psyical issues that I cat afford to get attention for and now I just wonder if I can work a 40 hr per week job because of it. Without a public medical system all I have is advil and web MD.
So I guess what I'm saying is “This is the help I get from the country I love?” Geez, Thanks.
Take a holiday to Cuba, extend your stay for a bit longer, and ask for medical treatment.
You will receive quality medical treatment and they will charge you symbollic ammount of money.
I hope your condition is not very serious.
I really did think of that. The transpotation costs would be cheaper than paying for it here. NY of all places!!
I know that, but since you are relatively close to Cuba, you can fly over there in couple of hours, catch some sun, have a good time on the beach, get your medical treatment and still save lot of money.
There has been an option put forward that would allow for personal insurance premiums to be completely tax deductible and allow for that deduction to be put into a private trust that could be used to pay for your insurance premiums in case of a layoff. And this would be with no government intervention except, an oversight committee protecting against fraud and abuse.
If I has put forward this option I would have demanded a committee of private citizens also have oversight power after witnessing the number of regulatory commissions lacking any fiduciary responsibility.
Crucial words are “has been”. Now, that does not sound as bad option, and is deffinetelly much better than the current health care situation. But …
What happened to that option?
Nice ad, but no explicit link to public option.
As a military brat, I'd like to see an ad that featured veterans speaking about their positive experiences with “government run health care” and how that experience has led them to support the public option.
There is a movie, a rather old one, made in 1976-77. No nude women, no shooting and killing, not at all like movies you like to watch.
It is “Network”, and it addresses certain issues which are still present today.
You should see it. And do some thinking about it.
More things are changed, more things remain the same.
Obama is not going to bring a change. He is just another illusionist.
Well now, we agree on something, Obimbo is just “another politician”! Obimbo is a gifted orator but, when you start taking apart his sophist lawyer language, his lies and half truths become glaring.
Obimbo = the “public option”, will not add one dime to the Americas deficit?
Congressional Budget Office = the “public option”, will add between $1 and 2 Trillion over 10 years period to the national deficit!
This only one example of the lies Obimbo repeated in his address to the Congress.
Another excellent movie dealing with the shameful and sometimes deadly practices of some sleaze-bag insurance companies is “The Rainmaker”. This movie spotlights the need for an in-depth inquire into the shady practices of insurance companies.
I did not see that one, but I will.
More I analyze health care “reform”, more I am sceptic about it.
That “solution” can be very easily used against people, and they ask people to trust them, while it is apparent that whole US goverment is pile of Bravo_Sierra.
US is slipping into totalitarian fascist state.
They are starting to push laws that will first create conditions for government to track all arms in posession of US citizens, just to make it easier to confiscate them later.
After that happends, paramilitary organizations like Black Water will impose over civilian police, and you only need some dude in brown shirt to act like Hitler to make the story complete.
FEMA is bulding concentration camps, with infrastructure, and gas furneses.
That reminds me of Auswitz, Mathausen and Birkenau.
One other thing, we can not disagree on everything. It is not normal.
Willie, as a fellow observer from outside the American experience looking in, isn't it fascinating, mind boggling watching this healthcare debate unfold.
America is an amazing country, in both good ways and in dispicable ways.
Senator Olympia Snow just said on Face The Nation that a bill with the public option WILL NOT pass the Senate. This is a dead issue, it's over and any further effort to try and force the public option on anyone will fail.
There will be NO PUBLIC OPTION. WHAT DON'T YOU GET ABOUT THAT?
US health care system is among worse in the world. What are the real plans to repair situation? Or is it just going to get worse for US people?
You obviously are not paying attention or are incapable of understanding. The “real plan”, the health care plan that will pass will eliminate pre-existing conditions, eliminate insurance termination of ill patients and eliminate caps on lifetime treatment.
The quality of health care in America is the best in the world, the doctors, medicines and technology is far and away superior. That is why people come here from other countries by the thousands to receive treatment. The problem is access and affordability and the bill that Obama signs will address that.
“The quality of health care in America is the best in the world”
USA is ranked as 37, while Sweden is on the first place.
“The problem is access and affordability”
In other words, US health care system is not existing.
You are referring to a World Health Organization's ranking of the world's health systems which was last produced in 2000. They no longer produce such a ranking table, because of the very unscientific way it was tabulated.
Why are you referring to a discredited study that was done almost a decade ago? If you believe you can get better treatment for heart disease let's say in San Marino, Andorra and Malta . . . be my guest you are not credible.
I don't have to be credible, my sources are.
US health care system is the most hypocritical in the world. It is sick by all standards.
Anybody thinking US health care system is good should go to have his head examined, and nearest good doctor for US citizens is in Canada or Cuba.
Well, I agree, There is so much good people in USA, and they have been, I must say, opressed by bunch of criminals, yet giving them illusion of democracy, while in reality, it is a totalitarian and fascist state with closed society, and there are lot of evidence to support it.
Treatment of broken wrist costs $6000 in USA. It is over hundred times more compared to any other country in the world.
Medicine and health care is not about profit, it is about helping people in need.
US health care system is an abomination.
You really don't make sense, you are not very articulate or educated and your grammar is poor. You really embarrass yourself. The nearest good doctor is Cuba? After you get treated in Cuba you can expect that the Communist dictatorship will imprison you for telling anyone what you think.
It's clear you are an American hater and that's your agenda. I'm sorry I wasted time responding to someone as ignorant as you are.
John, you are busted flat.
LOL :)
Only dictatorship I know of is in Washington, with its secret prisons and concentration camps.
USA has a GULAGS and CONCENTRATION CAMPS.
Guantanamo, Abu Graib, secret prisons in Spain, Jordan, Litvania, carring out executions on aircraft carriers …
That's your USA.
Now wave your little flag and shout “USA USA USA”.
That is your whole identity based on fear from unknown enemy, which does not exist by the way.
Man you are one sick freak! Sorry I came to this blog – how pathetic. Have fun I am outa here.
CLOSE GUANTANAMO AND ABU GHRAIB AND ALL OTHER US CONCENTRATION CAMPS!!
Willie, remember that freak – “TheTruth”?… the guy who was thrown of this site for being a rude jerk?… well your talking too him.
tell you what I understand from that John, the system that over 70% of the populace wants in just about every survey isnot going to even be on the table… there is no democracy in America.
No words can change reality, but, above all, I hope that the Sarkysian family takes a small measure of comfort from the millions of humans standing by them (http://playingforchange.com/episodes/2/Stand_by_Me). And from knowing that none besides trolls like bustedflat stand by the likes of Cigna CEO Ed Hanway (see? he's already “outa here”).
I would like to see an online health insurance industry wall of shame (patterned after the Vietnam War Memorial). Cigna would have one block; Aetna another, and Blue Cross et al., their own blocks. Each entry on the Wall of Shame would consist of a name–or whatever referent the victims' families choose (“my dad,” “my cousin,” “my daughter”). Each name or referent would be a link: the name “Nataline Sarkysian” would appear in the Cigna block and could link to this film.
We who have not yet lost a loved one to the death-eaters hear of isolated horror stories like that of this family (even the President mentioned a few). But nowhere do we get a sense of the enormity of the devastation our for-profit “health” industry has wrecked, the real price of $73 million multiplied over the 1000-plus “health” insurers in this country.
US government is not interested in providing quality health care for its citizens.
That's the bottom line of the “reform”.
Excuse me, where did you come up with 70% nonsense when all the polls are saying just the opposite? The “public option”, is off the table because the overwhelming majority of Americans don't want the government dolling out medical care and meddling in their private lives. Nor do they want their children and grand-children paying for Obimbos shot at presidential (misguided) immortality.
No Democracy? Your watching Democracy in action! It's not “them the socialist power-mungers”, it's still “we the people”!! Did you forget?!!
Again, (that's twice) I agree with you. Obimbos health care bill is not about helping the citizens, it's about power and subjugating as many citizens as possible to the government. It's about promising a free lunch without telling you what it's going to cost you.
We come from different backgrounds, and it is normal to have a share of dissagreements.
TC, I saw some reactions of people in Austin and Houston about that Texas Transportation something Corridor, which will sell central part of Texas to Spanish company, to build a highway and use US tax dollars to pay for it, with royal rights on that land and highway.
I have seen this kind of robbery elsewhere but I did not expect it in USA.
This is how is it done: They sell “something” to “somebody”, while that “somebody” does not pay, but he just promises to pay, usually by some bank guarantees, but guarantees are never put to, how to say, to be effective mean of payment, and remains as fairy tale.
After Texas, they plan to go north, all the way to Kansas, where they plan to build some kind of duty free zone, but it is going to be Mexican (!!) sovereign territory.
I saw lot of angry people, and some of them were shouting “Come and get it!”, and if it means what I think it means, there will be some argument about this.
Texas is on the front line.
Bloody hell, front line is everywhere.
Craig, it would not be a public health care like we know. I realized it after a long thinking of what is going on in USA.
They are taking their civil liberties. They can not complain any more. If they do, they are harassed against constitution.
What if that puppet government, after introducing public option brings a decision that civilians do not have a right on healthcare, unless somebody from family is not part of armed forces?
As I remember, those things happened before in many countries in similar circumstances.
TC, it is not we the people. Not after Patriot Act and extra power bill which grants US president absolute power in USA.
Yes, US president can do whatever he wants, and there is no institution to stop him.
It is no longer democracy, it is totalitarian regime introduced by the law.
They knew it is against Constitution, and that Constitution should cancel that law, but it takes people to take Constitution in their hands and cancel those fascist criminal laws.
This is the crux of this issue with you isnt it TC? What you want is a massive decoupling between yourself and government. I can kinda empathise with that argument.
At least with this program you would get a lunch to eat, for your military industrial complex serves you nothing and has only helped to end your dominence in the world through vast corruption and reprehensable costs.
But according to you that is a “necissary evil”…what nonsense. Its hard for me to take you seriously when you prattle on about fiscal responsability TC, I am sorry.
American always count the cost of something they need, and never count the cost of something they don't need, but pay for it anyway.
Same is with this health care – terror war dilemma.
They need health care, but they will not be allowed to give up terror war.
Without those wars, US would be just fine, one might think. But they have enourmous debt, international and internal, and it looks like US is going toward major crisis.
I came to a conclusion that suggesting rational solutions to US problem will not get us anywhere because they can not implement rational solutions. That is the core of the problem.
They will do some lunacy and they will call it democracy, but they will not think where it would lead them.
[...] The effect on people’s lives, meanwhile, is tragic. Nataline Sarkysian, featured in the Americans United For Change advertisement, lost her life after CIGNA repeated denied her a liver transplant, despite the family having full [...]
In line with your remark about the military industrial complex, I would agree. One of our best presidents, Eisenhower, warned of just that problem.
President (idiot) Bush took us to war on bogus, outdated military security information that even our own CIA said was unreliable. And that was backed up by a UN team sent to Iraq to investigate. They found nothing!
So what was this war all about? I, and whole lot of other people think it was personal. Saddam Husein threatened to send a kill squad to assassinate Bush's father. I believe this was the overriding issue that was Bush's psychopathic reasoning when forcing Congress to attack Iraq. Weapons of mass destruction was used as the catalyst because Bush had to have something justifiable to point to, to pull off his “get even”, scenario!
Do I think there are times when a “necessary evil”, must be used to protect this country?
Hell yes I do! But, the justification must be so overriding that no other venue could do the job, and it must justifiable on every level with the American public.
Any future military involvement must have the full backing of the American public, not just the Congress. Their lack of even the most rudimentary investigation into the “weapons of mass destruction” charge would have told them the same thing thousands of us were yelling at them. Namely, look at the LACK of EVIDENCE, before you (Congress) decide to take us to war and put the men and women of our military, as well as other countries backing us, in harms way.
This idiot government isn't mistrusted for nothing. They have proved over, and over again their lack of common-sense, and fiduciary responsibility to the people who put them in power.
Free lunch? Their's no such thing!
I really hate agreeing with you on any level but, again I'm forced to partially agree with your evaluation of the Patriot Act. Although; some parts of the Act were justifiable, the Act was far too invasive into the privacy of legal citizens to be allowable.
When trying to get this Act passed, the government pushed the preposterous notion that our Constitution is a “living Constitution” and must change to suit the ever changing completion, and needs of the American condition?! This is the dribble used by this government when it serves their needs. Of course, the opposite is true when it serves their needs. The obvious result was passage of the UN-Constitutional Patriot Act. And where was the men and women of this Congress when they turned their back on the Constitution to pass this crap? Same place they were when they allowed the bogus Iraq war, hanging their hat's on anything, any wording, any bogus information that could be use as a plausible denied. In short, they did nothing but cover their worthless asses!
You ask why the American public doesn't trust this worthless government with our health care? Take a look at their track record!
This is a sore issue with the legal citizens of Texas. This is the federal government telling a sovereign state that a foreign country WILL have access to it's state roads with or without their approval. Of course, we have a scum-bag Governor who fully agrees with this fascist takeover!
Governor Rick (show me the money) Perry, actually stood on the floor of the Mexican legislature and said, there should no borders between the U.S., and Mexico?!! Are you God-damned kidding me!! This piece of dog-crap governor told the legal citizens of Texas, they are not a sovereign state, there is no such thing as legal citizenship, and our immigration laws are as worthless as the paper their written on.
Enough legal Texas citizens have put up such a ruckus that this garbage has been postponed. But for how long? If they can't get this crap through the front door they'll do it through the back door, incrementally.
This is the sad state of leadership in this country. People are fed up, to the point of civil unrest. I've been watching this government slowly circumvent the Constitution to the point, the Constitution is almost irrelevant. But before they completely takeover, there will be hell to pay.
Rick Perry is frequent visitor of Bohemian Grove, and Bilderberg meetings.
Analysis show he is most likely to be next US president, after Obama is sent on his marry way.
TC, Patriot act is unconstitutional, but after 2001. many worse laws were brought to power.
If people do not have their civili liberties they can not do anything to stop unconstitutional laws, decision and acts.
It is going to be worse for US people, not better.
I would agree with most of that with the exeption of your “necissery evil” argument. The only threat America is under is from reprisals to the crimes it is commiting abroad.
Its already in major crisis.
$52 Trillion is 150 Eiffel Towers of Solid gold. That is Americas debt.
http://middlezonemusings.com/wp-content/uploads…
Again, I agree with you. Irrational people, “our entire government”, with a few exceptions, using irrational reasoning, have put us in a protracted war costing hundreds of billions of dollars and the deaths and dismemberment of thousands of people in the military, and civilian, that should have never happened.
This is the type of government you can expect when a government by the people becomes a government by the “professional-politician”. Common sense, dignity, and depth of character are swept out the door when graft and greed take over.
The argument against term-limits has always been rebuked by those claiming, “the good-one's will be kicked out with the bad”. Does anybody see the absurdity of that statement, besides me? There are not enough “good-ones” in Congress to matter! If there was, we wouldn't be in this mess. The time to force term-limits on the Congressional-Rats is…YESTERDAY!!
Craig, one analyst describes situation of american citizens in following manner:
“US citizens are always forced to choose between two evils, and they always have to go for lesser one.”
That pretty much describes the situation in almost any field in US society.
That's not fair, and it can not be called a democracy, even in a joke.
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Its all about who control the tax dollars, its fight between rich and poor , Rich are already hooked on tax dollars they will never share with poor people, that will never happen, Republican party and health insurance companies are in bed together, You be fool if u think they care if your sick kid or your grandma dies of cancer or some other illness, second America is very poor nation , most of the sates and nation itself is bankrupt , wait another 20 years china will provide all Americans health insurance.
Its all about who control the tax dollars, its fight between rich and poor , Rich are already hooked on tax dollars they will never share with poor people, that will never happen, Republican party and health insurance companies are in bed together, You be fool if u think they care if your sick kid or your grandma dies of cancer or some other illness, second America is very poor nation , most of the sates and nation itself is bankrupt , wait another 20 years china will provide all Americans health insurance.