Why the Indifference When You PERSONALLY Can Do Something to Reduce the Rise in Health Insurance Premiums?

[longfisher]

On a forum in which so much complaining has been heard about the crushing rise of healthcare insurance premiums and when someone on the inside of the industry gives you an opportunity to curb that rise you seem completely nonplussed. But for Marinexxxx, no one has posted that they'd contact their congressman/congresswoman and demand that they don't kill funding for Federal grants to states to help review insurance rate proposals.

Since the passage of the PPACA, these Federal Funds have allowed the states to reduce the insurance industry's proposals for rate hikes on health insurance by billions of dollars and in NC almost 153 million dollars were actually returned to the policy holders. Several of you who have opposed health reform hail from that state. All these savings are a result of these Federal grants.

Make no mistake, if the GOP succeeds in cutting all funding for the PPACA these funds will be the first to go as the GOP is actually in the pocket of the insurance industry AND THEY'RE ANTI-MIDDLE CLASS. If they succeed in cutting this funding you can't blame Obama anymore. It will have been your own political party that screwed you.

I'm calling you right-wingers out on this one. Act now to influence your representative or lose all honorable rights to complain about healthcare insurance costs it in the future on this board.

It's so common for you to vote against your own interests and then blame others for your situation, principly liberals. How irresponsible you seem. How hypocritical you appear.

I'm holding out hope that at least some of you will adopt the Tea Party attitude and change your own party. But I don't hold out much hope you will. As a group, the right wingers are often more partisan followers than independent thinking leaders.

LF

[longfisher]

Not a single response.

So, why not? Here's some possibilities:

1) You're not real people but martians

2) You're so deeply partisan that you'd cut off your own children's hands if the GOP told you to.

3) You've never been convinced it makes any difference if you contact your Repbublican representatives as they're going to do what the party tells them to do anyway.

4) You hope against hope that if you don't complain about the rich soaking the middle class and the poor all the time via the GOP you can become rich and do the soaking.

5) You're simply hypocrits and responding honestly to the poll, As Capt. Tennet did with No & No would make it too obvious on this board for you to bear.

6) You simply cannot find it in yourselves to face the truth that the GOP is using you if you're middle class and that they have historically induced you by propoganda to vote for policies that in direct opposition to your personal interests.

7) All of the above.

Disturbing behavior to say the least.

LF

[30' PURSUIT]

IF ITS SO FRICKEN GREAT, WHY ARE SO MANY COMPANIES ASKING FOR A WAIVER? FOR EXAMPLE, MCDONALDS AND THE UNIONS! AND IF THESE WAVIERS ARE GRANTED, WHAT DOES THAT SAY FOR THE NEW LAW? I THOUGHT EVERYONE WAS SUPPOSED TO PARTICIPATE!

[marine4003]

same reason the quality of people representing the US population has declined to a new all time low...folks don't think its there problem,let someone else worry about it..complacency..
Same reason this idiot's gonna get away for something that would land any of us here in jail for 10-20
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101116/...gress_rangel_8

[longfisher]

IF ITS SO FRICKEN GREAT, WHY ARE SO MANY COMPANIES ASKING FOR A WAIVER? FOR EXAMPLE, MCDONALDS AND THE UNIONS! AND IF THESE WAVIERS ARE GRANTED, WHAT DOES THAT SAY FOR THE NEW LAW? I THOUGHT EVERYONE WAS SUPPOSED TO PARTICIPATE!

Before I answer you questions I want to emphasize that this is completely off-topic for this thread. This thread is about why you right-wingers when provided with inside information on how to personally influence the cost of healthcare insurance premiums aren't willing to lift a finger on a keyboard to do so.

Just so you recall, the Feds are giving away free money to the states to allow most states for the very first time to rigorously review insurance industry requests for price increases. And, the GOP wants to kill those funds. Without meaningful review, the insurance companies will continue to rape you and reap great profits while you pay through the nose.

It's one of the most significant problems in healthcare and you guys aren't willing to life a single finger to stop it when all it would take, maybe, is for you in mass to contact your Republican representatives and tell them to leave those funds alone, just those funds if they must defund all of PPACA. But leave those alone.

My hunch is that you're so blinded by partisanship that you prefer inertia to money in your wallet. Pity that.

Now, to answer your question on McDonalds.

The insurance industry, like many, has its bottom-feeders. In this industry they're the providers of "limited benefit health insurance". These plans are absolutely pure crap as they, essentially, pay well only when someone goes to their primary care physician (they pay a reasonable amount of the office visit fee).

But when something expensive happens like and E.R. visit that ends you up in the hospital they're absolutely the worst insurance you can have because they dont' pay for much of anything. They're perfect bankruptcy machines and, regrettably, lots of people buy them, both individuals, families and unscrupulous businesses.

I spend at least 1/3rd of my time trying to help hapless customers who've mistakenly purchased one of those crappie policies and who got royally screwed when little Johnny or Sally had to be hospitalized for just about anything. It's an incredible mess, to be sure.

Also, there's some complexities to a Federal Law (HIPAA, if you're interested) that are too complex to go into here that make owning one of those plans almost suicide if you then discover as most will that they're crap. You have a very hard time getting new, decent insurance.

Sellers of these "limited-benefit plans" are regularly sued by the Attorney Generals of various states and run out of the state for the crap they sell. Do a Google on Megalife and you'll quickly see what I mean. Do a google on the parent company (Healthcare Marketing or something like that) and you'll see how many lawsuits are pending against them by the states AGs. That's how bad they are.

OK, so why do companies like McDonalds buy them. Well, because McDonalds wants to be able to SAY to their employees that they provide group health insurance. But they do so only in the most far-fetched, fantasy way.

I'm not sure McDonalds pays anything towards the employee's insurance like most employers do when they buy decent health insurance. And, they're not releasing their plan to the public for scrutiny nor even dislcosing the name of the insurer.

But investigative reporters have done their job and at least gotten the soda jerks to divulge how much they pay each month for the pleasure of owning that crap. It's absolutely ridiculous how much they pay because they're ignorant of the fact that all that shines is not gold. Those employees if they were in Texas and if they contacted me would be pulled off those crappie bankruptcy machines and put on decent insurance with a major carrier for equal to or even less than what they're paying McDonald's bottom-feeders.

Essentially, McDonalds wants to say they offer their employees health insurance so they can recruit easily enough. But the truth is probably that they don't contribute a single dime to the insurance and the employees pay a boatload of money for the insurance.

PPACA is intended to be the dagger to the heart of those sorts of plans as they've left hundreds of thousands of people in bankruptcy. PPACA sets minimum standards for the coverage of plans and it also, as of September 23, 2010 eliminated annual and lifetime benefit maximums. This dealt a very hard blow to limited-benefit plans as they were full of internal and lifetime caps.

Here's an example. Let's say you owned one of these crappie plans and went into the hospital for 5 days for a car accident where you're severly injured. The crappie limited-benefit plan might pay $1,000 a day for hospitalization. But each day of hospitalization costs you $5,500 on average even in a semi-private room. You're in the hole by for $22,500, period.

But then you find that the limited benefit plan has an annual benefit maximum of only $3,000. Now you're in the hole for about $24,500 and thanking your lucky stars that you didn't have a really serious accident that might keep you in the hospital for a month (not uncommon at all).

But you had "insurance" you thought. Nope, you got screwed.

For almost the same or just a little more money you could have gotten a plan that had a $5,000 deductible and a coinsurance clause that would pay 80% after the deducible was met and didn't have any annual or lifetime benefit caps. So, you'd be out only $9,500. And, without a maximum benefit amount due to PPACA if you needed follow on care (pretty standard to have physical therapy for months to years after a serious accident) you'd enjoy the same sorts of savings in a real plan vs. a limited benefit plan.

Now, about the waivers. One of the goals of PPACA was to avoid perturbing the health insurance marketplace to the point that 1) the insurers closed up shop and left the business in that state and 2) in the case of group health insurance not to cause large unnecessary increases in the number of people uninsurered. . So, in cases where the new regulations would have caused problems for either of these goals a waiver program was set up. Waivers are good for one year and allow employers time to plan to replace deficient plans with good ones.

Again, PPACA hits the limited benefit crappie plans hard. And, McDonalds, Starbucks, etc all had those plans so they could essentially mislead their employees into thinking they had insurance and thereby recruit more easily. So, these scoundrel employers are scurrying like cockroaches when a kitchen light is turned on and begging for waivers.

They're getting them too, even before the mid-term. They're getting them because the law was written to allow them.

Now, just a final note about this subject. It would greatly help if some of you would read a little more in the lay press about these things. Sir, it's incredibly obvious that you didn't because the McDonald waivers were discussed at great length and nothing I've said above wasn't told in those stories.

If you news source didn't provide enough information or if perhaps it provided disinformation so that you didn't know what I've told you above FOR HEAVENS SAKE FIND ANOTHER NEWS SOURCE AS YOUR PRESENT ONE IS KEEPING YOU SO IN THE DARK YOU COULD HAVE BEEN SIDE BY SIDE IN TOTAL DARKNESS WITH THE CHILEAN MINERS FOR MONTHS. That's how uninformed you are.

PPACA is intent on keeping people out of the bankruptcy court and killing those damned bankruptcy machines called limited benefit plans is high on the its target list.

Now, don't you feel foolish, Pursuit?

LF

[longfisher]

...if there were a death penalty for official corruption I'd be willing to insert the needle in Rangle.

After all, phlebotomy was part of my training. I could insert it painlessly...not that I'd want to.

I hate corrupt politicians.

I hear from the committee's releases that there are "no material fact in dispute". That's good news if you feel like I do about lying politicians. That means he'll get the maximum, no matter what sort of additonal theatrics he pulls (like firing his lawyers).

But let's stay on topic...whay aren't you guys willing to help yourselves save money on health insurance rates?
LF

[hubris 1]

Deepy called you that. Anyway, I think you somewhat suffer from NPR radio personality. I dont read your long diatribes, they bore me.......get to the point.
But, I have to say this........just like NPR radio, you make a statement and then answer it with your version of the truth. I have 2 problems with this way of thinking. First of all, its tribal.....chant, recall....african jungle mentality. Second, you state "Your" truth, and then respond to that........If "your" truth is incorrect, your conclusion can never be correct. Its one of the entertaining facts of liberal B u l l s h i t that I dont even listen to. Please, shorten your answer.....I aint reading no document to realize your an idiot. Shorten it up!



If you space the word, it prints.

[longfisher]

Deepy called you that. Anyway, I think you somewhat suffer from NPR radio personality. I dont read your long diatribes, they bore me.......get to the point.
But, I have to say this........just like NPR radio, you make a statement and then answer it with your version of the truth. I have 2 problems with this way of thinking. First of all, its tribal.....chant, recall....african jungle mentality. Second, you state "Your" truth, and then respond to that........If "your" truth is incorrect, your conclusion can never be correct. Its one of the entertaining facts of liberal B u l l s h i t that I dont even listen to. Please, shorten your answer.....I aint reading no document to realize your an idiot. Shorten it up!



If you space the word, it prints.

Complex issues expertly explained against a backdrop of constant disinformation from the right-wing press requires substantial elaboration. It's a pity. But it's necessary.

H, consider this. You right-wingers' penchant for one liners and bumper sticker explanations of complex issues may be the single group characteristic which allows you to be taken so advantage of by the GOP and the elites. And, that makes you a country rube.

There's not a single article I read each day that's not at least twice that long. I read scores of articles each day on health care alone.

And, I've actually read the PPACA in it's entirety, an admittedly collosal undertaking. But I wanted to know the truth and avoid all the left and right propoganda.

By reading it I learned that the "death panel" crap was just that, crap. A complete distortion of what the law said. I also learned that Obama was indeed "lying" as Representative Wilson shouted on the issue of no care being given to illegal aliens. He distorted the truth to the point that I had no problem with Wilson's outburst.

H, you need to read even when it hurts to do so. Ignorance paints a target on your back.

LF

[hubris 1]

Ever took advantage of me. That was over 20 years ago. I got even.........and then some. Ask her how it worked out for her. So, I dont really worry about it. I also dont worry about health care......I know Im going to die, just like everyone. So What. The best doctor in the world aint gonna save you when its your time. Instead of acting like I care about health care, I care about how I live. One of the main reasons I wont drink a drink without clear ice. Life is just to short. If its not in a waterford glass, with clear ice.....I feel sick.

[longfisher]

Ever took advantage of me. That was over 20 years ago. I got even.........and then some. Ask her how it worked out for her. So, I dont really worry about it. I also dont worry about health care......I know Im going to die, just like everyone. So What. The best doctor in the world aint gonna save you when its your time. Instead of acting like I care about health care, I care about how I live. One of the main reasons I wont drink a drink without clear ice. Life is just to short. If its not in a waterford glass, with clear ice.....I feel sick.

...to include a childrens' summary which, hopefully, you should have no problem getting through. Let me know if that is still too difficult for you and I'll come up with an idiots' summary, instead.

I guess Marine4003 had it right when he said that those on this board who complain about healthcare costs but don't sieze the opportunity to personally contain them are complacent, irresponsibly so. Your post above may be the most genuine reflection of a right-winger on the topic ever on this board.
LF