Anthem Blue Cross Rate Hike

If you were wondering what was going on with the health care policy debate then maybe you should take a look at what the health care insurance industry is doing. Maybe we should let the insurance companies dictate competition in the market place like the Republican Party is fighting for to keep health care insurance rates down? All of this bull coming from the Dem’s and left wing loonies is all probably just smoke and mirrors to scare average consumers. Anyone in America can get health care insurance at affordable rates. Even Michael Steele, the GOP Chairman, knows that health care coverage is and always will be very affordable in America.

“Trust me, after taxes, a million dollars is not a lot of money,” Steele said. - Think Progress

I’m wondering if Mr. Steele would like to get his health care insurance from Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield in California that is raising premiums for their policy holders by 39%? Just write the check out and don’t forget the stamp Michael. HHS Secretary Sebelius is pissed and she isn't signing a blank check to Anthem Blue Cross...

Sebelius Calls on Anthem Blue Cross to Publicly Justify 39 Percent Premium Increase

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today sent a letter to Anthem Blue Cross and called on the company to publicly justify its decision to raise premiums for its California customers by as much as 39 percent. In her letter, Sebelius notes that the parent company of Anthem Blue Cross, WellPoint Incorporated earned $2.7 billion in the last quarter of 2009.

“As we continue the health insurance reform debate in Washington, this announcement reminds us that too many Americans can be left with unaffordable insurance each time the rates or rules change in the private market,” Sebelius added. “It’s clear that we need health insurance reform that will give American families the secure, affordable coverage they need.” - Health & Human Services

Things that make you go Hmmmmmmm? Feel free to view and sign the petition HERE to have Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield explain how they can justify a 39% health insurance premium increase. Otherwise you can keep on driving by this horrific accident called a health care system because there is nothing to see here, keep moving, nothing to see here.

Papamoka

Are Republican’s Goose Cooked on Healthcare

Now that Democrats are willing to go it alone without the help from their respected colleagues from the Republican Party in the house and senate it is not a surprise to see the minority political party begging for a super majority on any healthcare legislation. Translation, they can’t stop the progress of the current congress no matter how many antics they pull against healthcare reform. I personally think that some of the elected officials on the right are bought and paid for by the people that donated so much to their campaigns over the years of public service. But we need to redefine public service in their cases as servants to the folks that wrote the mega checks.

For the purpose of explaining Calvin Ball in the link below, that is from the now defunct Calvin and Hobbes cartoon strip where Calvin made up all the rules and they changed every time he played the game to please himself and win the game. Something the political right is trying to do now with the current debate on health care reform. Matthew Yglesias has a great piece on this game of legislative Calvin chess over at Think Progress…

Republicans Calling for Super-Supermajority for Health Care

In order to become law, a health care bill needs to secure a majority on the House Ways & Means Committee and also the House Energy & Commerce Committee and also the House Education & Labor Committee and, of course, the full United States House of Representatives. It also needs a majority on the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate Health Education Labor & Pensions Committee. And, of course, it needs a majority in the full United States Senate. Then thanks to the calvinball rules we’ve been playing with for the past 25 years, it actually needs a sixty vote supermajority to pass then Senate. After that, it would be subjected to presidential veto.

That’s a number of legislative hurdles that goes far beyond anything else found in major democracies. Naturally, key Republican Senators have decided that what’s needed is more calvinball. - Think Progress

There is just one thing that all politics comes down to and that is money. Political donations come into political campaigns from every cause imaginable and some of those donations just might influence a candidate, a congressman, a senator, or even a president. The insurance and pharmaceutical industry has their butt cheeks puckering in fear over this health care debate and their check books are wide open to defeat any healthcare reform. Money is no object to throw up in opposition to common sense when it comes to the billions in profits they see every single year.

This debate isn’t entirely about gutting health care as much as it is about tossing the Robber Baron’s out of health care. If competition is the basis of capitalism then the health insurer providers should be able to compete with the government with a public option. Everyone on the political right side of this debate claims that the government is bloated with fat and bureaucracy, which in turn makes one think that the government couldn’t even come close to competing with a private insurer and that nullifies their argument against a public option.

Or we could just do nothing and let the CEO’s of every private health insurance company buy another yacht, another vacation home, or just jet off to some distant land where they will be out of ear shot to hear the screams of millions of Americans without any health care plan other than the emergency room. And for the record, because you didn’t check the box where your mom or dad died from some form of cancer, the procedures you need now to save your life are no longer covered by your HMO. Deal with it!

Papamoka

AIG Bonuses Returned by Employees

After the recent outrage all over the news about bonuses being dolled out like air at AIG there is finally some common sense coming into the subject at hand. Many of the folks working at AIG are returning the massive bonuses and to them I say thank you.

When it comes right down to it, there isn’t a law in the land that could tax them out of it, force them to decline the bonuses, or Constitutionally take the bonuses away from them. It took some pressure by the media and all of us little bloggers to force the issue on Washington and embarrass the President in doing so but it needed to be made right. And the ones making it right are doing it willingly and they work at AIG. Over at the New York Times they have this to say on it…

Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo of New York announced late Monday afternoon that 9 of the top 10 bonus recipients at the American International Group were giving back their bonuses.

He also said 15 of the largest 20 bonus recipients in A.I.G.’s financial products division had agreed to give back the money, for a total that he estimated at about $30 million. “Those bonuses will be returned in full,” Mr. Cuomo said during a conference call with reporters.

The attorney general noted that about 47 percent of $165 million in retention bonuses was awarded to Americans, accounting for nearly $80 million. All told, Mr. Cuomo said, A.I.G. employees have agreed to return about $50 million in bonuses. - New York Times

I have to say that the folks at AIG that gave the money back deserve a pat on the back but I’m sure they already know that. Doing what is right makes sense even if you worked your ass off to earn the bonuses. It’s fair to say that not everyone at AIG was a corrupt idiot out to make a fast buck but the public perception is what it is. All it takes is a few bad apples and the pie tastes like crap.

As far as the rest of the public showmanship in Washington goes, it needs to continue to reign in the rest of corporate America that thinks they can take part in their own little corporate crusade and think that it will not have dire circumstances down the road. Washington will never tax one business to the extent they were going to tax the AIG bonuses because the big money political machines will never buy it. Do you think for a minute that the executives at Exxon, GE, Dupont, and the like would stand still while the door was pushed wide open on taxing their future personal profits and gains? Not likely.

Thank you Memeorandum for the tip…

Papamoka

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