This is an insightful and telling article written by former Cigna Executive turned whistle blower, Wendell Potter:
The media had lots of health care news to obsess about last week. A federal judge ruled the health care reform law unconstitutional, and Senate Republicans tried in vain to repeal the law. But most of the press paid virtually no attention to a potentially much more important development — a multi-pronged effort by five major insurers to strip from the law key regulations and consumer protections that aren’t to their liking.
The insurers do not want the bill repealed or declared unconstitutional. Congress gave them exactly what they wanted by including in the legislation a requirement that all Americans not eligible for Medicare or Medicaid buy coverage from a private insurance company. That provision alone will result in hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue and profits the insurers otherwise would never see.
Read full article at The Huffington Post.
One response to “The Insurers’ Real Agenda for Change”
I know Canadians. They LOVE their system. You have to ask yourself. If as the Rightists PROCLAIM that Canadian Single Payer is a disaster. Canada is a DEMOCRACY. They have FREQUENT elections. If it were TERRIBLE, the Canadians would have abolished their system and adopted OURS. They haven’t done that and that SPEAKS VOLUMES! Single payer is the only REAL WAY you’re going to control costs in any case. California should show the US how it’s done and pass SB 810 yet again. Given the numbers California spends NOW on health care just for it’s state and local workers, just shifting these folks into a single payer system would save billions. And the 6 million + Californians who are UNINSURED plus the added MILLIONS who are underinsured cost the state and other policy holders huge amounts of money. That state deficit would evaporate if you can actually slash health care costs by closing the gravy train to Blue Cross and the other insurance companies!