Comments on: Romney To Obama: Stay Out Of Insurance Biz

[actornaught]

So stay with your current health insurance.

That was easy...

[moosbrth]

My wife who is a lowly special ed teacher with a masters degree has to pay $800 a month for my son and me. If we didn't need health care, it would be free for her. that's $9600 a year, do you think somebody is making a profit on that?

Mitt Romney is an idiot, we need what the rest of the world has, single payer health care now!

[say__what]

Good point - but remember who your wife works for - the GOVERNMENT! That is the problem here. My insurance premiums of $200 a month (Medical/Dental/Vision family coverage) would go way up if Obama's plan passes. One of the ways Obama is looking at funding this massive plan is to tax corporations benefits provided to employees. Free enterprise? Not so much. If anyone was paying attention to Romney's health care plan, they would see that it increases competion, which lowers cost.

[babooph]

Did this revelation come from the word of the prophet in Salt Lake City ? Maybe that funny underwear is too tight?

[fctex]

before you lemmings go over the cliff with BO on health care, you better read the fine print. BO only talks the high level "good stuff" that he knows won't create conflict. the issue is with the details of his plan - he doesn't say his plan will limit services, he says his plan will be cost effective. his version of cost effective is to not pay for certain procedures that his administation has deemed as unnecessary (you doctor therefor doesn't know what's best for you, you wonderful gov't does). wake up people - this is pure socialism for medicine and it is NOT working anywhere in the world.

[actornaught]

So stay with your current health insurance.

That was easy...

[Solarrays247]

Wake up? Please follow your own advice!

WE THE PEOPLE are sick and tired of paying humongous annual premiums for substandard health care! It has been two decades since our doctors have had the ability to help us decide our best health care choices without first having to run it though the channels of our health insurance companies!! Too many times we have to contest the insurance companies' rulings in order to get the best treatment to simply overcome our illnesses, and live!!

Face reality, buddy, instead of spouting of dishonest talking points!!!!

[bc-1948]

You are totally wrong - I have friends in Canada and England and they say it works great. Do you think that the doctor determines what is best for you now? Have you ever had the insurance company deny coverage? If not, feel very lucky - happens every day.

[midlclass]

I think alot of people are missing the point. Single Payer is just that a single payer. it should have nothing to do with the quality of health care. a long line or waiting for treatment has nothing to do with reducing the cost's this is nothing more than repulican'ts watching out for th rich ins. excutives. companies outside of the healthcare business should be embracing a single payer system it would cut there costs for benefits and allow them to use there moneys for there own business improvments. the people who oppose this should reconsider this.

[ubrew12]

Single payer isn't socialism: its buying in bulk. The payoff? While Americans pay one out of every three 'healthcare' dollars on administrative costs (i.e. CEO salaries and insurance agents burning the midnight oil to figure out how to deny you coverage you thought you'd been paying for), in CANADA (with Single payer) administrative costs are 1% of the total. If we went to single payer, the savings would be $400 million a year, just in lower administrative costs.

[whatdableep]

Make all the corporations pay their Taxes and universal health coverage would not be an issue - neither would the deficit.

[rednomo]

According to a recent report, the United States has $480 billion in excess spending each year in comparison to Western European nations that have universal health insurance coverage. The costs are mainly associated with excess administrative costs and poorer quality of care.

The United States spends six times more per capita on the administration of the health care system than its peer Western European nations.


Fierce Healthcare reports the following top 10 insurance company CEO salaries for 2008.

* Ron Williams - Aetna - Total Compensation: $24,300,112.
* H. Edward Hanway - CIGNA - Total Compensation: $12,236,740.
* Angela Braly - WellPoint - Total Compensation: $9,844,212.
* Dale Wolf - Coventry Health Care - Total Compensation: $9,047,469.
* Michael Neidorff - Centene - Total Compensation: $8,774,483.
* James Carlson - AMERIGROUP - Total Compensation: $5,292,546.
* Michael McCallister - Humana - Total Compensation: $4,764,309.
* Jay Gellert - Health Net - Total Compensation: $4,425,355.
* Richard Barasch - Universal American - Total Compensation: $3,503,702.
* Stephen Hemsley - UnitedHealth Group - Total Compensation: $3,241,042.

When American patients trust their health to a for-profit insurance company, they?re doing nothing less than gambling with their lives in a game where the odds are stacked in favor of the insurance company.

These are salaries reminiscent of the AIGs, the Goldman Sachs, the Merrill Lynch?s, and other Wall Street CEOs who also pillaged from the American taxpayer and turned around and gave themselves and their executives multi-million dollars bonuses.

The Single payer, health care option initially proposed by President Obama on his campaign trail is merely health coverage, like Medicare, but it is for anyone who wants it. Single payer eliminates insurance companies as pricey middlemen. The government pays care providers directly. It?s a system that polls consistently have shown the American people favoring by as much as two-to-one. Of course, it is this option that these CEOs and Congress are fighting against because it means less profit for health care companies who favor their bottom line over quality, more affordable health care coverage.

The existing health care option proposed by Congress, the GOP and Sen. John McCain falls short, (and they know it) because:

* Many Americans, especially American families, cannot afford the insurance premiums offered by employers. As cost of housing, fuel, education, food, insurance continues to rise; salaries across the board have been stagnant or declined.

* Health insurance continues to increase, and rise without question and Americans who lose a job, or self-employed, work part-time, retire or divorce are cut off by employer health care coverage, if they even had it.

* No American can actually afford COBRA insurance, the premiums are cost prohibitive and employers know it.

* The Republican, GOP plan to force Americans to buy health coverage and giving them a small tax break means these same families who cannot afford to buy health insurance now, certainly cannot afford to buy the more expensive insurance under their plan.

[cribadeneira]

Romney, no wonder you're just a loser. You are way behind the times.
Go back home and tend the garden, and make sure to keep your mouth shut

[vrick_silvah]

Like the rest of the GOP candidates Mitt Romney only thinks from a rich, stubborn,arrogant political point of view instead of the view of the people of america. He only made and will make future comments and anything and everything because he wants to run for president in 2012. He could care less about health care or any other topic. As long as he has money going into his pocket and have plenty of it, he and the rest of the GOP will never know what normal middle class in america go through every day with healthcare and other problems. This is because Mitt has millions of dollars and health care cost doesn't affect him in anyway as much as it does normal people who consider paying 3500+ for health insurance too much. Mitt has alot of money and doesn't understand and only thinks from his point of view and noone elses. He needs to understand that health insurance companies in america don't really care about the health of americans. They only want to make money and health of the american people is not there number 1 priority. Barack Obama is trying to change this by giving people cheaper health insurance that doesn't have crazy, absurd rules like preexisting conditions. I do, however, feel doctors also are a problem in our country. They overcharge for every service they provide. This country will be alot better country once we change health insurance in america and finnally we have a sane person in the white house who can accomplish this.

[cs4466]

Romney? Rich Evangelist Mormon Romney who didn't even win the primary? LOL

He is relevant because...?

[mattcat25]

75% (and growing) of Americans support some new HealthCare Legislation Reform.

Why are the Republicans against America?

[qyeteye]

Mr. Romney - I appreciate your interest to warn Obama against government involvement in the insurance business and how that would be a mistake. It reveals a position to question and need for you to explain why? How is it that conditions making this a prevailing issue is to be solved by free market insurance proven to: Cherry pick, Prevent or limit coverage, Over-rides doctor decisions, Offers deceptive and misleading coverage descriptions, Offers low-ball advertisements of "affordable" insurance "coverage" that is unrealistic, etc. I like the kind of coverage taxpayers provide for government workers. What is wrong with a Public Option as so harmful that you prefer to maintin the status quo?

[rednomo]

Q: Won't that drive private insurers out of business?

THE PRESIDENT: Why would it drive private insurers out of business? If private insurers say that the marketplace provides the best quality healthcare, if they tell us that they're offering a good deal, then why is it that the government -- which they say can't run anything -- suddenly is going to drive them out of business? That's not logical.

[rednomo]

Monopoly Money

by digby

Our good friend Senator Blanche Lincoln thinks it's very dangerous for the insurance companies to have to compete with a public plan option:


?One of our biggest concerns is that it doesn?t need to be a government plan that usurps that ability to compete in the marketplace, which I?m concerned that a totally government-run option would do,? she said.


Right. It's competition in the marketplace that makes this country great. Like the competition they have in Lincoln's state of Arkansas, for instance:

The Justice Department considers an industry to be ?highly concentrated? if one company has 42 percent of the market. In Arkansas ? Senator Lincoln should take note ? Blue Cross Blue Shield has 75 percent of the market. If you take government self-insurance plans out of the equation, it's higher. The state ranks as the ninth most concentrated in the country. Is it any wonder that insurance premiums have risen five times as fast as wages?


Introducing a public plan option that individuals and businesses could choose instead of Blue Cross would be very detrimental to Blue Cross, that's true. They would lose their monopoly for sure and very likely lose a lot of customers if they kept raising rates at the clip they've been raising them:

Here is a clue to the Arkansas problem ? and the national one, too. From 2000 to 2007, the median earnings of Arkansas workers rose only 12 percent, from $20,328 to $22,692. Health insurance premiums for the average working Arkansas family rose over the same period by 66 percent.


It's quite a racket. You can see why they don't want to change anything except to have the government force the few stragglers they don't already have in their clutches to buy their expensive product. Competition is the last thing they want.

Lincoln is all for the co-op concept now, which all the insurance company spokesenators are very happy about. They know that these co-ops won't be able to do anything about costs, so they will fail as often as they succeed and in the end all but the really ill will be driven into their expensive private plans, thus turning the remaining co-ops into welfare programs. Huzzah, more money for greedy CEOs and corrupt politicians. What's not to like?

[gravyboat3000]

Insurance companies to Mitt,"Atta boy!".

Hey Romney, what's Medicare? Medicaid?

Republicans continue to open mouth, and insert foot.

[rwassel]

Real Americans to Unpatriotic Neo-Cons: We would rather spend the hundreds of billions of dollars we flushed down the toilet in Iraq on providing OUR citizens with healthcare.

[rwassel]

Obama to Romney: You lost, I have a 65% approval rating, and nearly 2/3 of Americans want some form of public health care. Go back to flip-flopping on abortion, and spending your inheritance money on a doomed campaign.

[hungry1968-15]

by r9119111 June 24, 2009 5:58 AM PDT
by charlie286 June 24, 2009 4:55 AM PDT
Romney/Palin 2012.

I hope they do run together, they'll get smashed. Neither one is mature enough to be our president.







It's going to be Palin / Prejean for the GOP in 2012. They have nice legs, nice boobs, are pretty, and know nothing about government or politics.

That's good enough for the over 60, white male crowd.

[hungry1968-15]

by BarrySoetoro June 24, 2009 5:55 AM PDT

by the way, can you tell me the last time the Government ran something successfully?....







Other than the military, (and before Bush gutted their budgets), the FDA, USDA, CPSC, CDC, FBI, FAA, NTSB, FTC, FCC, SCC........

[hungry1968-15]

by BarrySoetoro June 24, 2009 5:55 AM PDT
I laugh at you lost liberals, pathetic as you sound. Pay nearly all your paycheck (if you work, in which I doubt)in taxes for substandard healthcare...Brilliant idea!....by the way, can you tell me the last time the Government ran something successfully?....






Actually my employer and myself paid WELL OVER $15,000 for health insurance last year, which is MORE than I paid in taxes.