The Only Way To Make Them Do It
Posted on May 27th, 2009 by Jason Rosenbaum in Profits Before People
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Turns out, the voluntary agreement by insurance companies (and drug and device manufacturers and hospitals) to hold down health care costs might be illegal:
President Obama’s campaign to cut health costs by $2 trillion over the next decade, announced with fanfare two weeks ago, may have hit another snag: the nation’s antitrust laws.
Antitrust lawyers say doctors, hospitals, insurance companies and drug makers will be running huge legal risks if they get together and agree on a strategy to hold down prices and reduce the growth of health spending.
It's not terribly surprising that there are anti-trust concerns in the health care industry. We've known for a while that the industry is more collusive than competitive, with 94% of markets in this country near-monopolies. I'm not sure why anyone was surprised when these corporations got together and offered up more collusive behavior.
Now, I never believed that the insurance industry would actually make good on their pledge. And in fact, they've backed away from their promises themselves. However, as it turns out, the only way to make these near-monopolies hold down costs is to, you know, make them hold down costs. By writing regulations into law and passing a public health insurance option to force competition.
I really liked the request to DOJ to investigate these insurance companies for violations of antitrust laws due to their regional monopolies.
The true way to keep the insurance monopolies in check is not to legislate as you propose but to have single party which Obama USE TO STATE HE SUPPORTED and which his backaway from is loosing support for him…..you can tell him for me and for the nurses but then we already knows he doesn't give a rip about us like every other politician….single party proponents weren't even invited to speak at the table…
The only way to take down the health insurance industry is to hit them in the only place that matters, the pocketbook. I suggest a nationwide boycott on the payment of health insurance premiums by both individual policyholders and those paying premiums for employer-sponsored plans - a call to all to become a part of the growing sea of the uninsured. I for one am willing to risk my health and life to be heard and empowered; as it is now, most of us will soon be uninsured in any case.
Hey i know we use the Public Option that's in our hands as i speak and write we don't need to wait around for some mess of Corporate Mafioso types to say oh my let's let the people have what the had to start with. Folks, all of you HCAN water-boys and girls schlepping the medical insurance industry with your corp ruse and phony populism 'public option' can get it …
We are in the public option NOW and we choose Single Payer. How hard is that to comprehend? If you were at any of AIG Baucus's listening sessions you'd know how overwhelmingly massive the Single Payer crowd… This is the issue Single Payer.
Now with Single Payer in force your boss who's paying you to schlep this ruse of public option and anything the doesn't absolutely say SINGLE PAYER will no longer have a Golden Parachute to say the least. It will be over for the Profit laden Stockholder model of health insurance. OVER done you won't have keep any more records of the thieves and lying insurance conglomerates…buh bye
HR 676