“So I pass a signature piece of legislation where we finally get health-care for all Americans, something that Democrats had been fighting for a hundred years, but because there was a provision in there that they didn’t get that would have affected maybe a couple million people, even though we got health insurance for 30 million people and the potential for lower premiums for a hundred million people, that somehow that was a sign of weakness and compromise. …people will have the satisfaction of having a purist position and no victories for the American people.”
The reforms?
Expanded Medicaid, is a true reform, but one affecting AIHIP and PhRMA not in the least. There was no potential for the new Medicaid clients to be profitable to the health insurers, so they allowed them to be dumped on taxpayers.
People can no longer be denied coverage due to preexisting conditions, but it isn’t the health insurance companies that offer that coverage. People formerly turned down for coverage are still turned away, but sent to state exchanges. Those exchanges suffer from adverse selection, and so offer lousy coverage with high premiums. People are staying away in droves – when the premium subsidies finally come through, low-income people will be able to get this coverage, and the health insurance companies will be paid to manage the exchanges, but will not actually face risk exposure.
Preventive care must be covered, indeed a real reform, good public policy. We who have insurance can now go to a doctor for a physical, or a man-ogram, and the insurance company has to pay for it. Here’s how my insurer, Anthem Blue Cross, handled this matter: They now cover preventive care, as required by law, but no longer cover any other office visits of any type.
Frankly, this is the worst possible outcome for our health coverage crisis – fake reform. Democrats told us that we should take what was offered because we could always come back and fix it later. Not on this planet – there will never again be an opportunity like that, and their squandering of that chance is an historic betrayal of their mission and constituency.
There are other parts of the bill that might benefit us, but it is all done under the hovering shadow of AHIP and PhRMA. Before passage of the bill, typical private insurer overhead was 20% – Wall Street watches this number very carefully – if “medical losses” exceed 80% of premiums, stock prices go down. (A Harvard study found that total medical overhead in this country is 31% – that other 11% is hospitals and doctors share of the burden). The Obama bill, in a striking reform, mandates that their overhead not exceed …. 20%. There was a push at one time to get that number down to 15% … it disappeared in the reconciliation process.
Yes, we will have health insurance. We’ll be required to buy it, and if we can’t afford it, the government will pay … the insurers. There’s very little in the bill regarding quality of coverage – deductibles and co-pays, policy premiums – all of that untouched. Lifetime coverage caps are gone now – perhaps that is the one thing that the insurers did not like, as it introduces a wild card feature into their rate structure – they cannot precisely define their risk. But it all gets built into the premium structure anyway, and so will not affect their bottom line, as they are free to charge whatever they feel they need as a buffer.
Screw you, Democrats, screw you, Obama. You are worthless. We cannot afford your good works, don’t need that kind of help anymore. The tragedy of business-run America is that as bad as the Democrats are, and they are truly bad, our only other choice is worse.
Piece of Mindful 
Your program will ultimately end in disaster – you may not end up suffering that disaster, but that will merely mean you’ve passed that suffering onto your kids or their kids.
As long as you believe you can force someone else to pay for your needs, you will continue to task toward the destruction of the economy, and with that, the risk of destruction of the nation, and with that, the probable destruction of Western civilization.
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I try to avoid people who claim to know the future. I only ask a prediction here and there to play out in the immediate future to add some credibility. Give it a try.
You forgot to use the word “theft.”
And as Ed Abbey might remind us, The failure of industrial civilization lies in its inability to recognize the multidimensional non-economic values of untrammeled land—aesthetic, ecological, and spiritual—that are essential to human well-being. You’d do well to read him. He claimed to be an optimist, agreeing with you that industrial civilization must fail someday.
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Mark,
Then you must really get annoyed with people who say the sun will rise tomorrow, and the next day after that too!
It is a predication – a certainty of consequences.
You take from others that you did not earn and you do it by force -whether direct or by proxy.
The consequences of such action -always, always, always- ends badly.
You may avoid these consequences and reap your ill-gotten gains to your benefit.
But that only puts such consequences on others – your kids, or their kids.
But the cost will be paid, and it will be dear for it will come – as it always does – when they are least able to afford it.
I’ve already given my predication – and they are coming ’round. Inflation is up, dollar is down – and the deficit is growing beyond control.
You should give it a try – work out for yourself how “theft” destroys society. (Made your day – used the ‘word’)
Ed Abbey is not an economist. He tries to tell you what color the Middle-C note sounds like, and thus ends up sounding bizarre.
But you buy into such nonsense – thinking it has some spiritual truth in it somewhere. You are adept at championing irrationality.
His optimism is anti-human – a bizarre attitude to take if you are human. He is definitely not on my side as I try to avoid people who champion mass death of humans.
I am optimistic. People realize daily how destructive government action is, and how much it has taken from them.
When the government checks bounce, there will be a sudden awakening. What comes after that….? ….. well, in that, your guess is as good as mine.
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You are much too literal. Take Abbey for what he was – a gifted writer. His essays were superb, and reading his meanderings as he drifted the rivers of the Southwest was liking putting on a comfortable old pair of slippers.
Didn’t care for his fiction. My favorite line from him was “Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of a cancer cell.” True, he wasn’t an economist. That too was one of his gifts.
That’s bizarre, it’s so wrong. British aristocracy has been stealing for centuries, and I see no end. Wall Street has been stealing from taxpayers since they named the street. I see no end. Most great fortunes start with a crook, and are sanitized by passage through an estate.
You don’t know what you’re talking about, in my view.
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Mark,
Exactly what I mean
Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of a cancer cell.”
An idiot can make irrational analogies.
I mean what if I said:
“Man is like an atom, pound it with neutral, middle of the road ideas, like neutrons, and he’ll shatter into an explosion”
Completely irrational!
Yeah, the last thing we need is another ignorant economist.
As you are blind to the teetering economies of today…. indeed, when one is blinded as you are, it is hard to understand the world
Your study is utterly superficial.
True some fortunes were gained by theft at behest of the State or by the State itself.
However, you are richer than King Henry VIII – and unless you are a great thief, some other alternate explanation for your wealth is in order.
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Oh yea, and I want predictions – inflation, the stock market, price of gasoline, state of the (known) wars in one year.
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Mark,
I don’t know if you have a mental block or something, but it has been explained to you – over and over again –
Inflation will go up.
Stock market will go up.
Price of gasoline will go up.
War will continue.
Take that to the bank.
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How high will inflation be?
What level will the stock market be at?
How much will a gallon of gasoline cost?
How many wars, secret and public, will we be fighting?
You’re not predicting – you’re using safe harbors, hedging with common sentiment. And the funny part is, except for the last one, you have no clue what is going to happen.
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Mark,
How high will inflation be?
What difference to your strategies will be made if it is at 5% or 8%?
What level will the stock market be at?
What difference to your strategies today will be made if it is at 11,000 or 13,000?
How much will a gallon of gasoline cost?
What difference to your strategies today will be made if it is at $3.50 or $4?
How many wars, secret and public, will we be fighting?
What difference to your strategies today will be made if it is three or four?
You’re not predicting – you’re using safe harbors, hedging with common sentiment.
You are muddled.
The difference in my strategies to prepare for the future do not depend on a 50c difference in fuel.
The difference in my strategies depends on whether inflation or deflation occurs, whether the troops come home or more are sent aboard. It also depends on whether these things increase or decrease or be stable.
Only a fool demands extreme finesse of strategies for the future – are you that fool, Mark?
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Not only am I not a fool, but I also do not make predictions. If I have, and they have come out right, as winning a football bet, it is only luck, as football games are deeply affected by random chance. And so is all of life. Only a fool thinks he can intuit the future.
Not only is Abbey’s analogy not irrational, but it is coming to pass with climate change. We cannot grow infinitely on a finite planet.
Regarding fortunes, I don’t think you understand two things – luck, and sociopaths. The people who run Wall Street right now are sociopaths – when not trading during the day, they are snorting cocaine and doing $1,000 per hour prostitutes. The quest for money, more and more, is generally left to people who get no other joy out of life. It’s called “the game.”
It has no meaning for most of us.
I charge for my services by the hour. I don’t employ anyone, and so make no money off of other people’s labor. I steal nothing. Virtually all my clients stay with me. I’m no saint, but I’m not greedy, and so don’t much worry about things. That, to me, is living. I am not rich. I am very happy.
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Not only am I not a fool, but I also do not make predictions. If I have, and they have come out right, as winning a football bet, it is only luck, as football games are deeply affected by random chance. And so is all of life. Only a fool thinks he can intuit the future.
Not only is Abbey’s analogy not irrational, but it is coming to pass with climate change. We cannot grow infinitely on a finite planet. Again, I don’t know the future. Maybe a warmer planet will benefit us. I cannot say. I only know that too many humans is the problem.
Regarding fortunes, I don’t think you understand two things – luck, and sociopaths. The people who run Wall Street right now are sociopaths – when not trading during the day, they are snorting cocaine and doing $1,000 per hour prostitutes. The quest for money, more and more, is generally left to people who get no other joy out of life. It’s called “the game.”
It has no meaning for most of us.
I charge for my services by the hour. I don’t employ anyone, and so make no money off of other people’s labor. I steal nothing. Virtually all my clients stay with me. I’m no saint, but I’m not greedy, and so don’t much worry about things. That, to me, is living. I am not rich. I am very happy.
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http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Gas-pump-prices-close-in-on-apf-2605246459.html?x=0&.v=1
Told ya so…. it was buck when Obama was elected…
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Mark
You mean you doubt that the sun will rise tomorrow morning?
And that is the difference – I can’t tell whether the sun will peak through a cloud in the morning or the sky will be blue when it rises – that is not in my power.
But I can tell you that the sun will rise.
And similarly, I do not make predication of a price of gas, or the D/J index will be – but I can tell you it will be higher next year than today for both.
It is your demand of me that is irrational and not the extent of my predictive capability.
For all intents and purposes, the Earth is an infinite provider of any human demand.
Climate change is a fact.
Human-caused climate change is a fiction.
Make sure you are clear on what side you sit.
You do know that I play pretty high stakes poker, right?
I think I know more of the essence of luck then you possibly could understand.
Sociopaths – we have been done that road before.
You want to give them State power because you fear the power of rhetoric whereas I see your plan as horrific and catastrophic.
Why do you care so much about how other people spend their money?
Why are you always so interested in other people’s wallet?
Are you envious of them? Is that why you concern yourself so much with their business?
But you create such meaning. It is your concentration.
For some reason, you make their choice of whores important to you.
So you view yourself a slave of others, but righteous because you cannot offer employment to anyone else.
You are truly bizarre.
Perhaps, but you certainly advocate for it by proxy.
My lesson was to teach relevance. You are rich compared to 95% of people on earth.
You are richer than anyone 500 years ago.
You deserve to be happy – it sound like you earned it.
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I have no problem with Social Security – the fact that my earnings have been used to support seniors who supported those before them … etc. Not a problem, morally or any such thing.
My generation is different, however, in that we were asked to fund our Social Security in advance by paying in $3 trillion more than was needed for current expenses. Now they are saying it won’t be paid back.
Whose stealing from whom?
Re Wall street, sociopaths … if it were their money, it’d be funny to watch them dissipate. But my point was different – they are not like us. They have no emotions. They don’t care about people. That’s why they are there. It’s their only excitement – stealing, gaming, bubbling and crashing the economy, attacking currencies.
You’re a fine one to talk about theft! Wall Street is the spit and polish Mafia.
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Mark,
But that is not true.
Those seniors supported no one – check #1 of SS went to Ida May Fuller, a woman who paid in $24.75 and netted out almost $23,000
It is a Ponzi scheme and will end like all Ponzi schemes.
You are behind in your analysis.
This year the government paid out more in SS then it took in. This difference will accelerate as time goes by.
It appears almost everyone from almost everyone
– a great game of money musical chairs – the last one standing is the greater fool.
The best strategy: avoid playing the game.
I cannot disagree, however, their game is fueled by similar psycho’s controlling the lever of violence.
Without access to the government digital printing press of money, they would have had to play with their own – with very difference choices being made.
They are a consequence and not a cause.
The cause is government programs and their debt.
Without the need to create money out thin air to pay for their programs, government would not have had to use the Wall St. gang.
Then the gang would have had to find some other sources of money that were not nearly as desperate a client.
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Enough then, for today. Have a nice evening. We’ll talk again.
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Enjoy the snow and the sunset!
Cheers!
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