Widdershins ~ PSA

THIS FREAKED ME OUT!

PS Remember to get your bets in for when Sanford will resign! Gary doesn’t think he will! What say ye!?

OPEN THREAD ~ What’s on your mind??

Subprime Health Insurance Policies

Health Insurance companies are just as bad as the banksters and those damn Credit Default Swaps. Take your money and sell you a piece of garbage all wrapped up in a pretty bow! According to the NYT:

Health insurance is supposed to offer protection — both medically and financially. But as it turns out, an estimated three-quarters of people who are pushed into personal bankruptcy by medical problems actually had insurance when they got sick or were injured.

The reason for this travesty lies in the details of the policy health insurance companies will happily sell you and poor Mr. Yurdin and others like him bought policies like this:

One of them is Lawrence Yurdin, a 64-year-old computer security specialist. Although the brochure on his Aetna policy seemed to indicate it covered up to $150,000 a year in hospital care, the fine print excluded nearly all of the treatment he received at an Austin, Tex., hospital.

He and his wife, Claire, filed for bankruptcy last December, as his unpaid medical bills approached $200,000.

So what’s the solution, now that the Democrats have a filibuster proof Senate?:

In the House and Senate, lawmakers are grappling with the details of legislation that would set minimum standards for insurance coverage and place caps on out-of-pocket expenses. And fear of the high price tag could prompt lawmakers to settle for less than comprehensive coverage for some Americans.

Yep, kick the can down the road because it will cost the insurance companies too much, even though they have enjoyed a 427% increase in profits. Here is one of the lovely Senators who doesn’t want his constituents to have the access to a public plan because it will cut into the Health Insurance Industry’s profits. This video is made by a principled man who has had enough of the corrupt politicians lining their pockets at the expense of our life or death and our pursuit of happiness:

Do these politicians realize how stupid they look. They are letting their corruption hang out there for all of us to see. I guess they don’t care how stupid they look because they think the masses are more stupid than they are.

All of this wrangling and bipartisan bullshit is cover for the one fact that all of these Senators happily admit too when opposing Single Payer Healthcare:

Ben Nelson (D-NE)

Nelson’s problem, he told CQ, is that the public plan would be too attractive and would hurt the private insurance plans. “At the end of the day, the public plan wins the game,” Nelson said. Including a public option in a health plan, he said, was a “deal breaker.”

Campaign Contributions by Industry info for Ben Nelson 2003-2008:

Industry Total Indivs PACs
Insurance $803,209 $219,145 $584,064
Lawyers/Law Firms $519,785 $367,018 $152,767
Pharmaceuticals/Health Products $296,098 $31,350 $264,748
Lobbyists $286,895 $280,510 $6,385
Securities & Investment $280,799 $187,199 $93,600

Olympia Snowe (R-ME)

“If you establish a public option at the forefront that goes head-to-head and competes with the private health insurance market … the public option will have significant price advantages,” she said.

Campaign Contributions by Industry for Olympia Snowe 2003-2008:

Industry Total Indivs PACs
Insurance $203,245 $55,950 $147,295
Retired $197,458 $197,458 $0
Health Professionals $175,074 $30,574 $144,500 Lawyers/Law Firms $143,785 $86,496 $57,289
Securities & Investment $136,586 $102,586 $34,000

Chuck Grassley (R-IA)

“As many as 119 million Americans would shift from private coverage to the government plan,” Grassley wrote in a column for Politico.com. That migration, Grassley said, would “put America on the path toward a completely government-run health care system. … Eventually, the government plan would overtake the entire market.”

Campaign Contributions by Industry for Chuck Grassley 2003-2008:

Industry Total Indivs PACs
Health Professionals $543,027 $145,276 $397,751
Insurance $376,893 $120,061 $256,832 Lawyers/Law Firms $281,318 $159,065 $122,253
Lobbyists $278,097 $265,597 $12,500
Pharmaceuticals/Health Products $244,722 $69,300 $175,422

Joe Lieberman (D-I-CT):

“I mean, obviously, that was the president’s statement, so I don’t know which countries he had in mind,” Lieberman told CNSNews.com. “But I’m not in favor of a public plan option in the health care plan this year for a couple of reasons. We’ve got two great public programs, government health care insurance programs: Medicare and Medicaid.”

“We are at a time when the federal deficit is going out of sight. I don’t think we want to start another government program that is going to end up costing the taxpayers a lot of money,” Lieberman added. “Besides, there’s a lot of competition in insurance now and people therefore can benefit from it without us getting into another government-run health program.”

Campaign Contributions by Industry for Joe Lieberman 2003-2008 (he’s a little piggy pig):

Industry Total Indivs PACs
Securities & Investment $3,069,125 $2,945,625 $123,500
Lawyers/Law Firms $3,006,871 $2,857,029 $149,842
Real Estate $2,628,977 $2,536,270 $92,707
Retired $1,813,262 $1,813,262 $0
Pro-Israel $1,438,440 $1,264,097 $174,343
Misc Finance $1,021,928 $1,013,428 $8,500
Health Professionals $820,500 $766,000 $54,500
Business Services $711,209 $676,209 $35,000
Insurance $687,994 $416,175 $271,819 Misc Business $590,571 $583,071 $7,500
Misc Manufacturing & Distributing $521,376 $432,376 $89,000
Education $432,522 $432,522 $0
Pharmaceuticals/Health Products $402,790 $278,790 $124,000
Computers/Internet $332,653 $271,945 $60,708
Lobbyists $320,670 $309,670 $11,000
TV/Movies/Music $318,250 $272,250 $46,000
Retail Sales $316,400 $316,400 $0
Electric Utilities $307,619 $175,600 $132,019
Commercial Banks $306,782 $249,282 $57,500
General Contractors $297,648 $259,148 $38,500

So, I hope Mr. Obama, doesn’t trick himself into believing we would only blame these corrupt Senators. It is Obama who will be the one to take the fall for this fiasco when a majority of Americans (76% to be exact) want a public health insurance option. And Obama holds a filibuster proof senate and overwhelming majorities in the House. There is no excuse for inaction on this life or death problem for Americans. We expect action in our interest not the Health Insurance companies.

Obama’s claim of bipartisanship is nothing but a ploy to maintain the status quo. As a matter of fact, Obama is the status quo and anyone who voted for him should have realized all this bipartisan bullshite was just an act. If Hillary Clinton were president and she was looking at 76% public support for a public health insurance option, you can be damn sure it wouldn’t be wasted on trying to get some DINO’s and moderate republicans to agree with her. It would have been a sealed deal by now.