ObamaCare at Supreme Court hearing

[FORD]

ELVIS needs to talk to his REPUBLICAN state AG - He supports SINGLE PAYER!!

GOP Attorney General Suing Over Obamacare Supports Single-Payer: ‘I Trust The Government More’

By Scott Keyes on Mar 30, 2012 at 11:48 am

Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell (R)
WASHINGTON, DC — According to one Republican attorney general in the lawsuit against the health care individual mandate, the problem with Obamacare is that it’s not a government takeover of health care.

ThinkProgress spoke with Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell outside the Supreme Court on Wednesday. Caldwell opposes Obamacare and the individual mandate, but for a different reason than most of his fellow litigants: it props up the private health insurance industry. “Insurance companies are the absolute worst people to handle this kind of business,” he declared. “I trust the government more than insurance companies.” Caldwell went on to endorse the idea of a single-payer health care system, saying it’d “be a whole lot better” than Obamacare:

KEYES: You don’t think the subsidies for low-income people are going to be helpful?

CALDWELL: No, no. The worst thing you can do is give it to an insurance company. I want to make my point. All insurance companies are controlled in their particular state. If you have a hurricane come up the east coast, the first one that’s going to leave you when they gotta pay too many claims is an insurance company. Insurance companies are the absolute worst people to handle this kind of business. I trust the government more than insurance companies. If the government wants to put forth a policy where they will pay for everything and you won’t have to go through an insurance policy, that’d be a whole lot better.

[knuckleboner]

The more I read about this act the madder it makes me. As much as it pains me to say it I did find some info that lends credibility to kickme's lobbyist crap. I'm not posting it though out of spite.

what, specifically do you hate?

the fact that insurance companies can no longer deny coverage to someone who had cancer, arthritis, asthma, or any other pre-existing condition?
the fact that individuals should be able to join in a large pool (exchange) so that they have a chance of getting decent coverage from an insurance company as an individual?
the fact that it incentivizes preventative care in order to encourage people to be healthier earlier, and bring down long-term costs?
the fact that parents have the option, if they choose, to pay to keep their kids on their insurance plans until the kids turn 26?

i don't mind if, on balance, somebody says they generally don't approve of the law as a whole. but if they say that the more then hear about it, the less they like it, then i think they're listening to the wrong people...

[sadaist]

what, specifically do you hate?

the fact that insurance companies can no longer deny coverage to someone who had cancer, arthritis, asthma, or any other pre-existing condition?

Here is the problem with that...


I have cancer & it costs $100,000 per year to treat me. I can't afford that. I should be able to buy insurance for $100 per month and the insurance company can pay the other $98,800 per year.

That's great for the cancer patient. Really, really bad for everyone else who has to make up for that loss. So what does the insurance company do so they can stay in business to be able to even provide the insurance? They need to insure a helluva lot of healthy people to even break even for that 1.

So what is the solution? I sure as hell don't know. I had cancer/chemo back in 2000/2001. After I lost my job in 2002 I started trying to find insurance on my own. I bet you can guess how that went. I have paid out of pocket for anything medical I have needed since (cut top of my thumb off, broken ribs). And I have skipped some stuff I should have had done due to costs. And I don't like this part, but I do have a couple outstanding bill collectors that I don't think I will ever pay. Got insured last year when I was hired by a large company where you just go into the group plan.

I also work in insurance so I know how risk works for them.

So I see both sides & still don't know what the solution is. But I don't think it's 500 & some people telling the other 300 million of us what to do.

[knuckleboner]

Here is the problem with that...


I have cancer & it costs $100,000 per year to treat me. I can't afford that. I should be able to buy insurance for $100 per month and the insurance company can pay the other $98,800 per year.

That's great for the cancer patient. Really, really bad for everyone else who has to make up for that loss. So what does the insurance company do so they can stay in business to be able to even provide the insurance? They need to insure a helluva lot of healthy people to even break even for that 1.

So what is the solution? I sure as hell don't know. I had cancer/chemo back in 2000/2001. After I lost my job in 2002 I started trying to find insurance on my own. I bet you can guess how that went. I have paid out of pocket for anything medical I have needed since (cut top of my thumb off, broken ribs). And I have skipped some stuff I should have had done due to costs. And I don't like this part, but I do have a couple outstanding bill collectors that I don't think I will ever pay. Got insured last year when I was hired by a large company where you just go into the group plan.

I also work in insurance so I know how risk works for them.

So I see both sides & still don't know what the solution is. But I don't think it's 500 & some people telling the other 300 million of us what to do.

dude, that sucks. and i respect your vantage point (that most of us, including me, don't fully have.)

that said, that's the hope of the mandate. if you bring more healthy people into the system, ideally, the insurance companies don't have to have additional rate rates in order to cover those they previously weren't covering. the mandate was, in fact, originally a conservative idea. it's a way to have insurance reform that protects the private sector. without the mandate, a single payer is far more likely. unless we scrap all reform.

now, i'm also open to other suggestions. but absent single payer, i really don't see another option. tort reform and across state lines will help a bit on the margins. but it's not going to cover pre-existing conditions.

[FORD]

Here is the problem with that...


I have cancer & it costs $100,000 per year to treat me. I can't afford that. I should be able to buy insurance for $100 per month and the insurance company can pay the other $98,800 per year.

That's great for the cancer patient. Really, really bad for everyone else who has to make up for that loss. So what does the insurance company do so they can stay in business to be able to even provide the insurance? They need to insure a helluva lot of healthy people to even break even for that 1.

So what is the solution? I sure as hell don't know. I had cancer/chemo back in 2000/2001. After I lost my job in 2002 I started trying to find insurance on my own. I bet you can guess how that went.

I don't have to guess. It's pretty much what happened to my friend Billy. He ended up going on Social Security and Medicaid, since it was the only way he could get his medical bills paid at all. As crazy as this is going to sound, being diagnosed as terminal actually worked in his favor, in that case.

Thing is, he would have been capable of working a desk job up until the last 5 months of his life or so, but with one Hell of a "pre-existing condition", there's no insurance company that would have touched him, and the government couldn't have picked up the tab if he were working.

Nobody should have to go on the dole just to get healthcare.

[sadaist]

dude, that sucks.

Yeah. But I made it through to the other side to see Van Halen with Dave in 2007 and a new album.

Also saw The Police reunion in 2007.

I had said I needed to see 3 bands before I died, and by the end of 2007 I was getting kinda worried & nervous. if Steve Perry rejoined Journey I was ready to start planning my funeral.

[sadaist]

I don't have to guess. It's pretty much what happened to my friend Billy......up until the last 5 months of his life.

I'm sorry about your friend Ford.

I hope he is in a better place free of his illness & free of all the bullshit this Earthly world holds.

[ELVIS]

Nobody should have to go on the dole just to get healthcare.

I agree with that...

[FORD]

I agree with that...

Then call your attorney general and support his efforts to get single payer!

[FORD]

I'm sorry about your friend Ford.

I hope he is in a better place free of his illness & free of all the bullshit this Earthly world holds.

I think he made it to Heaven. There was a time I would have been sure he went the other direction, but he grew out of that whole "satanic" thing.

[ELVIS]

Then call your attorney general and support his efforts to get single payer!

It's not that simple...

Dude, I think about this all the time...

Reform is needed, but the current political crowd are not smart enough to work it out and the federal government is full of bullshit artists and crooks...

I don't fucking trust a thing they do or say...

[FORD]

It's not that simple...

Dude, I think about this all the time...

Reform is needed, but the current political crowd are not smart enough to work it out and the federal government is full of bullshit artists and crooks...

I don't fucking trust a thing they do or say...

But you trust the insurance companies?

Like your AG says, they're the first ones to bail out of paying a claim when a disaster happens. I'm sure you have to know people that got fucked by the insurance industry after Katrina. But you can always live somewhere else if you can't rebuild your house. It may suck and it may be an expensive pain in the ass, but at least it's possible. But you can't get a new body when the insurance corporations won't let you fix what's wrong with yours.

[ELVIS]

No, I don't trust insurance companies, but in an environment of healthy competition some may be better than others...

I don't have an answer, but I don't like the idea of some government bureaucrat deciding what treatment I get...

[sadaist]

But you trust the insurance companies?

.

The insurance field I work in is auto/home. And I trust them. After seeing the ins & outs I know they are not cheating anyone or doing anything they should not be. I know how & why they rate policies the way they do & why they won't insure certain risks.

I only assume health insurance companies are similar. It's just a lot more emotional when you're comparing getting your car replaced or dying. So I can see why so much more hatred.

[Nitro Express]

The insurance field I work in is auto/home. And I trust them. After seeing the ins & outs I know they are not cheating anyone or doing anything they should not be. I know how & why they rate policies the way they do & why they won't insure certain risks.

I only assume health insurance companies are similar. It's just a lot more emotional when you're comparing getting your car replaced or dying. So I can see why so much more hatred.

I was in the financial services industry and of course life insurance was part of that. It's a highly regulated business and very profitable since most people buy a policy and then drop it. That means all the money they paid into it is income and the company never had to make good on the policy. Financial companies were highly regulated but no longer are. They can steal money right out of your account and nothing happens to them. Look up MF Global for proof.

A contract is only as good as the parties involved. Insurance is nothing more than a contract. Since the current trend is to have the government turn a blind eye to corporate abuses or even use it's regulatory powers to run competition out of business, I really don't want the government forcing me to buy anyone's policy.

If the government wants to provide a basic insurance plan people can choose to join than that's different. For what we have wasted on bank bailouts and wars this would be chicken feed to provide in comparison. Then if you don't want to be on the government plan you can pick and choose you own private plan. Or we can treat health care as a utility and regulate the pricing of it like we do electricity and gas. Or maybe let people buy insurance from across state lines and bring more competition in to it.

I really think the government should focus on keeping the price of health care down by running a cheaper system itself. Regulating the prices like a public utility or increasing competition in the insurance industry by allowing people to buy insurance over state lines.

I hate this business of being forced to buy insurance from only a few insurers and then having the government involved in the whole health providing process. I want them out of it.