It's time to stop pussy-footing around with Insurance companies

[SoCalDem]

It's time to sit them down and tell them that they had a good-long looting -run.. 40 years or so, and the money-train has reached the end of the line..

It's time they returned to being insurance companies, instead of bag-men, handling pay-offs. Their 30% "take" is just more than we can bear, and we're done with it.

They need to dust off their actuarial tables, and start issuing policies for things that are "unlikely to happen", instead of the hysterically idiotic plan they have sold us on for decades. "Insurance" paid monthly for something that IS definitely going to happen is a pretty stupid plan..for all involved.

A better plan is to strip off all the money now paid into PREMIUMS, and switch that money into actual health CARE...health care paid out of TAXES on EVERYONE, since everyone will benefit.

If there is a "gap", then there is still a niche for insurance companies..to cover only that gap..

of course with small pickings coming in, the CEOs will probably have to cut back on their extravagant lifestyles, but hey.. they should have planned better for their own futures.. Isn't that what we all have been told to do?

[Vinca]

1. If the insurance companies are going to be allowed into the mix -

a huge mistake IMHO - they should be regulated like utilities. Give them a list of what they must offer and the maximum they can charge and who they must cover and how long they must cover them for. Any violation results in a "trigger" going off and that trigger is single-payer.

[SoCalDem]

2. Why do we even need them? Do you pay someone 30% on top of your electric bill

to have them drop it off at the electric company?
the PREMIUMs deliver NO actual medical care, they only sign you up so the insurance company can use other people's premium money (along with yours) to pay or NOT pay (their choice) some/most of your health care.( can you say PONZI?)..until you no longer have a job that even allows you to send them money every month.

[Vinca]

3. Apparently the 30% goes to the campaign coffers of politicians.

[SoCalDem]

4. exactly.. the wheel goes round & round

and the campaign money ends up annoying the hell out of us, in the guise of commercials..and it starts all over again..

[Daphne08]

13. They are paper pushers who skim money off the top. n/t

[Vidar]

5. Great idea , but it presumes on our having many politicians who are

courageous & honest.

[drm604]

6. I agree with most of what you say

except the part about covering only things that are unlikely to happen. If we're paying for health care than we should get necessary health care regardless of how common or how rare an affliction happens to be.

That said, I'd prefer single payer, but I realize that that's unlikely to happen.

[starroute]

7. The point wasn't one about common vs. rare afflictions

The poster was trying to say that everybody gets sick sometimes and that this is expectable and predictable and could be covered by most of us for less than the amount we're having sucked out of us for insurance. The "unlikely" part refers to illnesses or injuries that require major surgery, lifetime reliance on expensive drugs, or other things that go beyond that annual budget. If we all paid only for catastrophic illness insurance, it would be a relatively modest amount out of pocket but the coverage would be there for those of us who needed it.

That's what most insurance does, after all. It insures again auto accidents but not routine repairs, against hurricane damage but not against normal wear and tear on your house. Health insurance is the only kind where you pay someone else so they can skim 30% off the top and then cover your routine bills.

[SoCalDem]

8. I meant unlikely to happen..as in your boat catches fire

or your car gets crashed into.. Insurance companies should have NEVER been allowed into health care.. at all.. ever..

[branders seine]

9. Our fine President took single payer off the table. You might have heard.

It was in all the papers.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Uncle Joe]

11. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, SoCalDem.:thumbsup:

[Cleita]

12. K&R

[blindpig]

14. Expropriate without compensation. n/t