Dean Baker: Can Health Insurers Whine Louder Than Bankers?

[marmar]

from Truthout:



Truthout Original

Can Health Insurers Whine Louder Than Bankers?
Monday 27 April 2009

by: Dean Baker, t r u t h o u t | Perspective


The Wall Street bankers have impressed the world with their ability to take or borrow trillions of taxpayer dollars and then complain about excessive government intervention into their business. This display of audacity is extraordinary even by the standards of US politics. However, the health insurance industry is gearing to give the bankers a serious contest for top spot as the biggest whiners on the national stage.

At the moment, they share a common complaint over the Democrats' plan to leave open the possibility of including student loan and health care reform measures in a budget reconciliation bill. The Democrats are pursuing this maneuver to allow them to pass these measures with a simple majority of both houses of Congress instead of the 60 votes in the Senate needed to overcome a filibuster.

While President Obama and the Democratic Congressional leadership have indicated a desire to negotiate bills that garner Republican support, they are reserving the option to move forward even if the Republicans take a stance of solid opposition, as they have done repeatedly this year. Contrary to the claims of the bankers and the insurers, there is no fundamental principle at stake in this move; the Republicans pursued the same parliamentary procedure to pass President Bush's tax cuts.

Of course, there is real money at stake in both cases. For decades, the banking industry has been making billions of dollars issuing government guaranteed student loans. This was a sweet deal for the banks because they got to keep the fees they earned issuing the loans, while the government took all the risk in the event that the loans went bad. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthout.org/042709B

[valerief]

1. Aren't they all the same? nt

[truedelphi]

2. Listened to two Repug Congressional leaders last night

Listing all these statistics - one of which is that under private insurers, women have a 98% shot at their breast cancer going into remission and remaining so for five years, while, they say, if Universal Health Insurance, Single Payer style, should go into effect, that stat would fall to 78%

What a pack of lies. Women who cannot afford insurance (Or are excluded from insurance by pre-existing conditions) don't have a shot at 98% remission. They don't have routine mammograms - and often if those are provided for free, but since treatment for the cancerous mass, if detected, is very expensive, a lot of women forgo the exam.

What point is there in knowing you have a tumor that no one will take care of?

Single Payer Universal Health Care - and let's have it now.