America’s health insurers have come forth with a new proposal for saving money – it is being trumpeted as being worth $2 trillion. For some reason it made me think of an old Letterman Late Night bit where the curtain rises, and some oddball does an act, like twirling several hula hoops or creating sparks with a grinding wheel against parts of a metal costume.
Letterman and Paul Schaffer then have to decide whether it is “something”, or “nothing”.
This proposal seems to have been thrown together like a late night sandwich, probably in response to public pressure for either single payer or at least a public option in health care insurance. But President Obama jumped all over it – an anonymous spokesperson called it a “game changer”, and Obama himself a “watershed event”. That smacks of cheerleading for the industry. Why?
Timing is everything. There’s nothing in the package that could not have been done last year or twenty years ago. But health insurance companies are hugely profitable, and therefore have seen no need to rectify problems like soaring costs or millions of uninsured. As long as investors were getting a good return, there was no talk of change.
But right now there is pressure for change, and they are under intense scrutiny. What better time for a grand and meaningless gesture?
The cost savings would be welcome, but as with ever-elusive future projected shrinking federal budget deficits, are probably not going to materialize. The gesture is most likely just some good political gamesmanship, a way of keeping the insurance industry in the health care game. It also offers political cover for Democrats as they work with the health insurance industry to preserve … the health insurance industry.
Health insurance companies are the problem. We need to get rid of them. They know this. This grand gesture is, in the end, not a “game changer” so much as a “bacon saver”.
I vote that it’s “nothing”. What do you say, Paul Shaffer?
Piece of Mindful 