FILE - In this Feb. 4, 2010 file photo, (click title to entry - thank you) Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. In a letter to the president of Anthem Blue Cross, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Monday, Feb. 8, 2010, she was very disturbed to learn of the planned increases, calling them "extraordinary." She said they were hard to understand in light of the profitability of Anthem's parent company, WellPoint Inc.(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Cenetafile) (Manuel Balce Ceneta - AP)
The Republicans in the House or Senate are not taking the circumstances of the nation's health care system seriously. These are the very dynamics the Obama Administration has been warning everyone about for the past year.
LOS ANGELES -- The Obama administration on Monday asked California's largest for-profit health insurer to justify plans to hike customers' premiums by as much as 39 percent, a move that could affect some 800,000 people....
The President, in attempts to bring bipartisanship to the process of legislation that would contain the exploitation of the nation's health system for profit, has included Republican's suggestions into the bill. That is what was found so objectionable in the Senate Bill.
The Senate Bill excluded the Public Option which the House Bill contained. The purpose to the public option was to add a dimension to competition in the market place to contain exploitation by 'for profit' insurance companies.
Thirty-nine percent is very high and the Secretary goes on to explain who astounding that percentage actually is:
"I believe Anthem Blue Cross has a responsibility to provide a detailed justification for these rate increases to the public," Sebelius wrote. She said the company should also make public what percentage of customers' premiums go to medical care versus administrative costs.
In a statement, Anthem Blue Cross of California blamed the weak economy and rising health care costs for the rate hike, while pledging to reply to Sebelius' query promptly.
The rate hike "highlights why we need sustainable health care reform to manage the steadily rising costs of hospitals, drugs and doctors," the statement said.
Sebelius said Anthem Blue Cross' parent company, WellPoint Inc., "has seen its profits soar, earning $2.7 billion in the last quarter of 2009 alone."
Not counting roughly $2.2 billion it gained from the sale of a pharmacy benefit management subsidiary, WellPoint earned $536 million in the final three months of last year.
In a rare move, California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner is hiring an outside actuary to determine whether Anthem is abiding by state regulations and spending at least 70 percent of premium dollars on medical care as opposed to administrative costs.
Poizner's spokesman, Darrel Ng, said that's the only recourse because rate hikes do not need to be approved by the state...
The Republicans in the Federal House and Senate are dangerously close to breaking their oath of office by using every issue as a reason for obstruction for political volleys.Reuters has it exactly right. The Health Care Summit the President has set into his calendar is to bring a better concensus regarding health care to move it forward. That does not mean there is capitulation on the issue in the bills currently passed by the House and Senate. It does however mean that the nation will have to come to terms with the politicalization of their well being by the Republican Party.
Is it a trap for the Republicans? You betcha. They are obstructing reform and the nation's wellness systems are heading into skyrocketing costs.
This is no game. Although the Republicans want to treat it as one, especially Joe Lieberman whom caused all the grief over the Public Option in the Senate bill due to his density of insurance companies in Connecticut. This would have been done already if Lieberman didn't have to pay off his cronies.
Obama's healthcare summit sets stage for end-game (click here)
There is no starting over. I think it was HR 3400 the Republicans are stating is THEIR bill. Yes?
H.R. 3400 - Empowering Patients First Act (click here)
To provide for incentives to encourage health insurance coverage, and for other purposes.I believe what I stated was that 'incentives' were money giveaways to insurance companies. That incentives were not necessarily control and did not necessarily provide insurance to the under or uninsured.
I suppose I need to read it. I already know what I am going to find.
The Republicans need to get serious. They are delaying the reform the country needs and it is time the House and Senate use reconciliation to get this settled if necessary.
I'll be honest, with a 39% rate increase, the country is going to have to go to Single Payer.
Why?
Lot of reasons.
No one is going to be able to afford it, it will leverage 'employees pays' into a downward spiral, collapsing the tax base from recovery with any jobs bill as employers will have to pay more of the health insurance costs.
It will limit the growth of small businesses that already provide health care insurance for their employees.
People will lose their homes if they have to pay skyrocketing prices for health care.
When I state the Republicans are approaching impeachable territory it is a fact. When an elected official has no answers for their citizens' problems while others do and they simply act to obstruct necessary legislation (Which is reaching a tone of emergency legislation - which gives the Executive Branch some leverage to its authority until Congress acts.) they are entering into a breach of their oath of office.
Besides that, for Republicans to continue down their 'gaming' road, is complete stupidity. People will realize soon enough that their elected officials are harming their lives AGAIN and after their 'palling around' with Wall Street. What are they thinking? Health Care is real. This is a real emergency for the people in California. California's economy does not need this, yet obstructionists are causing hardship already.
It is time to jettison the Republicans ideas of fun.
This doesn't surprise me. The Republicans aren't prepared to be friends to the American people.
