Tuesday, March 20, 2012

If we're able to restore this land as the United States of America, this must be the first order of business

Paul Ryan's latest version of his Path to Prosperity plan.

15 comments:

  1. More of your TP hyperbole, if not outright lying. Gimme a break again here with your restore this land by fattening the coffers of private ins cos eith fed bucks. They will continue to cherry pick the best risks, leaving the rest to the govt. Google RYAN BUDGET INSURANCE CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS. We would be restoring both his and the industry coffers, not America. I do not share your faith in either Big Business or Republican Party, I suppose in your mind that means I do not share your patriotism either. Its shameful the way youse Pubs paint yourselves as the only true Americans.

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  2. And what is wrong with financially healthy insurance companies? That's the only kind of insurance company that can continue to provide the public with quality products. And, of course, you well know that the LID position is that government has no place in insurance or health care or most of what it's currently involved in.
    And of course the insurance industry is going to contribute to political candidates who look favorable on freeing it up to conduct business without government interference.

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  3. If private insurance companies would go broke covering high-risk people, what makes you think the government wouldn't?

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  4. There is nothing at all with financially healthy anythings, individuals and corporate entities included. What are we subsidizing when we allow federal $$$ to go to private insurance carriers who can cherry pick the risks and leave the rest to the government? Are you so naieve as to think that the government money all goes to treating sick people? No, a substantial proportion goes for wages, salaries, commissions, bonuses and stockholder dividends. Great news for the well, but what about the unwell? Oh, those likely to be unwell because of preexisting conditions and or age or likelihood of illness, they go to the government because the private carriers won't take them. Insurance is a bit different than making dough on widget manufacturing.

    What that young whippersnapper, that Xer Paul Ryan you TPers diefy is doing is coddling up to the corporations who of course legally pad his coffers. Nothing wrong with that, just that it is clear where his allegiences are and who is free to do what in both his and your America you wish restored in your hyperbolic rantings.

    Cherry picking risks is very profitable. This is because people who have been quite healthy in the past are likely to remain quite healthy in the near future (i.e., the fixed-premium duration of the policy), and have low expected medical costs for that period. They are cheap to insure, and, since individual policies inefficiently pay out only about 65-75 cents in medical bills for every dollar paid, there is plenty of room for profits.

    There are variations on "cherry-picking" that can also happen with employer insurance. These depend on the insurance rules in the state, and usually affect small employers differently than big employers. Big employers self-insure, and this can be an incentive for them to "cherry pick" by just having healthy or young employees. (See the Walmart memo.)

    There is also an economic mechanism where, even if you get through pre-existing-condition screens and get an individual policy because your health is good now, the rates can tend to get really, really high in the long term if you do ever get some chronic illness, or your health becomes just less than perfect. This is discussed in the box just below. 2/16/10: I suspect the 1 year rate rises averaging 25%, as high as 39%, happening to 700,000 people with individual Anthem/Wellpoint policies in California (article here) is due to this mechanism.

    Stay patriotic and firm in your resolve to restore your great land for you/yours!

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  5. The private insurance lobby and your dissent over the past 100 years on unto today made the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act the FUBARRed mess it is today and of course you love it. There are those that are in the fight for a universal single payer plan who still won't go away. Fight on, fight on you patriots. There are patriots on the other side as well, though you vehemently protest and disclaim it.

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  6. Government already has a firm place in insurance. Sorry, you already lost.

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  7. No, we haven't already lost, since the aim of us freedom-cherishers is to completely reverse that and get government out of the insurance business. And I'd take issue with the idea that someone can be a proponent of single-payer health care and be a patriotic American, since the one is such an anathema to the other.

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  8. You really think the basic concept of insurance is a crooked proposition, don't you?

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  9. Social insurance has been with us for our entire lifetimes and I never heard my god and country loving progenitors who were its beneficiaries trash it. Fie on you for suggesting they were somehow less fervent patriots. The actual 9 most terrifying words in the English language are: "I'm a Republican and I'm here to fix Medicare."

    Medicare and OASI are social. Insurance which is the purest form of insurance where all are in the risk pool. I work in insurance. I have worked in home offices. Out of my home, in the trenches, for major international carriers, regional too. Large and small, private and governmental, handling just about all lines you can think of and learning learning learning, continuing to learn all I can about the process and procedure both on the job and out of books, journals, formal classwork with designmations. Your brash and completely uninformed remarks are the mark of a moron, of which there are many in your TP tainted Republican party. Pricks Perry and Santorum are prime examples of your simplistic bombast, often inserting huger appendages in already oversized pie holes.

    Currently in Florida working for a state insolvency fund where all the policyholders in the state have to chip in to complete the clzims of mismanaged insolvent carriers. Before now and likely in the future I will. Do duty with the largest carrier in the state. No, its not AllState or State Farm. They dumped the unprofitable risks and left. Them to the govt. When the state has to insure 1.5 million properties they are actually being subsidized. Ten years following their subsidization they cry foul and want their premium income back but not really the risks. The health carriers don't want older Americans either which is why social plans were implemented. Would you have those poor bastards die on the hospital steps? Insurance in America has been bastardized by crony capitalism. They are as lobby laden as any other selfish private interest. A strong case can be argued that it is the pubs under Nixon and Reagan did more to make this country less than what it was. 2 words: drug war.

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  10. If Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are so great, why do they all have such huge unfunded liabilities?

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  11. The basic concept of insurance is spreading the risk. All chip in smaller amounts to indemnify those fewer numbers suffering covered losses. It is socialism at its finest.. until the greed barons build their house and always win. Their house always wins. Nay, its not the basic concept of insurance I abhor. Its that of the capitalist casino. And most major religions I am familiar with are in agreement with my thinking.

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  12. To answer your own question follow where the huge surplus at the end of 20th century went. Also, it appears you have already made up your mind. Like a century ago so I will forego confusing you with the facts. Your ilk lost those epochal social insurance bnattles decades ago and a huge army of lifetime premium paying senior citizenry will fight you off unto death following what should be the best health care on the planet.

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  13. I'm. Against very wealthy people attempting to or influencing elections. But as long as it's doable, I'm going to do it."--Sheldon Adelson, casino magnate

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  14. But, you see, those premiums were pissed away years ago. Spent like they were general-fund money the day they arrived at the Treasury.

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  15. Yes. That must be stopped. Kinda like AIG whcih Bush bailed out now with new vigga.

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