TW3 and the Long Knives

[Political Waves]

That Was The Week That Was ... absurd in too many ways to count; and we thought the Doublespeak of the earlier 8 years abhorrent! Dubby succeeded with his Supreme Court but he also killed off respect for government, for leadership and civility, and drove a wedge the size of ... ahem ... Texas between the two parties and their way of perceiving their world.

Today the Baucus Bill shoots into the air like a bomb tossed at the moon ... and WTF does that say about 'civilized' humankind, that they treat another planet like personal property to be exploited by blowing a hole in it; there will be ripples, oh yes, I believe so! What can the Mother think of opportunistic aggression against Sister Moon? Brother Sun is withholding his flares, punishing our errant behavior with future weather issues ... and if the flooding and cold snap in the Patch is any warning, the coming months won't be fun.

So now, masks dropped and long knives waving, the Insurers are in an all-out assault on reform -- smell the desperation! They're threatening a huge bump in costs -- an 111% increase in premiums for starters. That'll teach US to try to get off the reservation!

 

Whatever gets through will do so without Republican votes, save ... probably ... one. Olympia Snowe, the single exception, was threatened with loss of leadership position if she votes with the Blue but she appears to be an actual conscientious legislator rather than an ideologue and determined to join in; they will likely make her pay. GOP elders, Dole and Frist and Tommy Thompson, are all urging civility and some kind of compromise to push reform forward; but the current Pub contingent are Beckerheads -- I don't look for any cooperation, and more likely an increase in fireworks. 

DO open the link to the Peter Dreier article to get a sense of this; the Baucus Bill is literally more a friend to business than public interest, yet THIS is the one the Industry is going after, knives drawn. MoveOn has countered its probable passage with an ad featuring Truthspeaker and former industry CEO Wendell Potter, telling the truth about B-Bill warts.

 

In any upcoming legislation, Public Option as a gentle step toward Single Payer is our only hope to hold down cost; either are a stake through the heart of corporate profits, and the end to this kind of ominous mugging and stranglehold. Strap in, kids ... this is a wild ride and Big Bid'ness is rockin' the boat as hard as it can. The real fight here is with AmeriCo ... and to remind you how that works, here's an Oldie from the archives and yet ANOTHER reason to pat Al Franken on the back: the sad tale of Supply Side Jesus.

Last, I loathe obligatory computer updates -- when Windows Explorer updated a couple of days ago, it messed me up thoroughly; I'm still finding glitches. Several weeks back I had a Windows update that evidently cancelled a number of my subscriptions. How? Who knows -- all I know is it feels like somebody picked my pocket and rifled through my undies drawer every time they do it, and the cyber-police are no damned help. Anyhow, I re-subscribed to some of my missing daily's so here's Harpers, as bonus. I dunno what to make of the sea blobs -- but ... what to make of anything much, these days? All of which earns a big fat Pffft!

Jude


Dems scramble after warning from health insurers
RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR, AP
10/13/09
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091012/ap_on_go_co/us_health_care_overhaul_insurers

WASHINGTON - Insurance companies aren't playing nice any more. Their dire message that health care legislation will drive up premiums for people who already have coverage comes as a warning shot at a crucial point in the debate, and threatens President Barack Obama's top domestic priority.

Democrats and their allies scrambled on Monday to knock down a new industry-funded study forecasting that Senate legislation, over time, will add thousands of dollars to the cost of a typical policy. "Distorted and flawed," said White House spokeswoman Linda Douglass. "Fundamentally dishonest," said AARP's senior policy strategist, John Rother. "A hatchet job," said a spokesman for Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont.

But the health insurance industry's top lobbyist in Washington stood her ground. In a call with reporters, Karen Ignagni, president of America's Health Insurance Plans, pointedly refused to rule out attack ads on TV featuring the study, though she said she believed the industry's concerns could be amicably addressed.

At the heart of the industry's complaint is a decision by lawmakers to weaken the requirement that millions more Americans get coverage. Since the legislation would ban insurance companies from denying coverage on account of poor health, many people will wait to sign up until they get sick, the industry says. And that will drive up costs for everybody else.Insurers are now raising possibilities such as higher premiums for people who postpone getting coverage, or waiting periods for those who ignore a proposed government requirement to get insurance and later have a change of heart.

The drama threatened to overshadow Tuesday's scheduled vote by the Senate Finance Committee on a 10-year, $829-billion plan that Baucus has touted as the sensible solution to America's problems of high medical costs and too many uninsured.

The Baucus bill is still expected to win Finance Committee approval. The insurance industry is trying to influence what happens beyond the vote, when legislation goes to the floor of the House and Senate, and, if passed, to a conference committee that would reconcile differences in the bills.

It's at that final stage where many expect the real deal will be cut.

"We've got ourselves a real health care shooting war now," said Robert Laszewski, a former health insurance executive turned consultant. "The industry has come to the conclusion that the way things are going in Congress, we'll have a ... formula that will be disastrous for their business, so they can't stand on the sidelines any longer."

Questions about the technical soundness of the industry analysis by the PricewaterhouseCoopers firm was a big part of the discussion Monday. The release of the study late Sunday on the eve of the federal Columbus Day holiday had Democrats crying foul.

"The misleading and harmful claims made by the profit-driven insurance companies are politicking for corporate gain at its worst," said Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va.

Democrats have reason to worry. Insurance industry opposition helped sink President Bill Clinton's health care plan in the 1990s by fanning fears that people with coverage would wind up paying more.

Ignagni was unequivocal in her support for the PricewaterhouseCoopers conclusions. The company is "a world-class firm" with "a stellar reputation," she said.

The study projects that the legislation would add $1,700 a year to the cost of family coverage in 2013, when most of the major provisions of the Baucus bill would be in effect.

Premiums for a single person would go up by $600 more than would be the case without the legislation, it estimated.

In 10 years' time, premiums would be $4,000 higher for a family plan, and $1,500 more for individual coverage.

Finance Committee aides to Baucus said it's impossible to predict premiums down to the dollar because there are too many variables involved.

The technical issues behind the study are complex, and it will take time for neutral experts to deliver a final judgment. The issue boils down to questions of coverage and cost shifting.

The industry is arguing that the consequences of the bill will be shifted onto those who are already covered. Insurers are not alone. Representatives of the hospital industry have raised similar concerns, though in less stark terms.

The study finds fault with what Baucus sees as one of the crowning achievements of his bill. Even with a tight budget, it would cover an estimated 94 percent of eligible Americans, up from about 83 percent now. The study - and the insurance industry - say that's not enough, particularly since senators have weakened the stiff fines Baucus originally proposed for ignoring a requirement to get coverage.

"You really have to have a coverage level in the high 90s to make this work," Ignagni said.

The PricewaterhouseCoopers study also assumes that proposed taxes on high-cost insurance, new levies on insurers and other health industry firms, and Medicare cuts will be directly passed on to privately insured policyholders.

Critics of the study said it tilted those assumptions too far toward a worst case, ignoring the bill's potential to curb costs.

For example, the tax on high-cost health insurance that Baucus is proposing could lead employers and individuals to switch to lower-cost plans and avoid the levy. If that happens, there would be no additional costs to pass on to consumers.

The study "assumed the tax would have no behavioral effect, contrary to every other tax in the history of civilization," said economist Len Nichols of the nonpartisan New America Foundation.

Critics also said the study doesn't take into account proposed insurance exchanges, a new marketplace that would be designed to foster competition and presumably drive premiums down.

There's equally strong debate about the effects of $400 billion in proposed cuts in Medicare payments to insurers, hospitals and other service providers. The study assumes those costs would be shifted to people with private insurance, but the bill's supporters say the reductions are aimed at reducing wasteful spending that drives up costs. ++

Associated Press Writer Erica Werner contributed to this report.


Health Insurance Industry Exposes Its Insatiable Greed
Peter Dreier
October 12, 2009
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-dreier/health-insurance-industry_b_318066.html 

 

Insurance Industry Declares Open War on Reform: They Promise to Raise Their Rates If Reform Passes
Mike Lux, Author, HuffPo
October 12, 2009
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-lux/insurance-industry-declar_b_317760.html

The insurance industry inadvertently gave health reformers the best argument we ever could have had to pass a public option and the strongest possible regulations on insurers. Declaring that rates will go up dramatically if reform passes, insurers launched a full-scale open assault on the idea of any reform at all yesterday, except I guess a reform plan especially tailored to them and their profitability. What they left out of their little study is that they are the ones who decide when rates go up because the biggest companies have very little competition in most of the markets they are in. There is no federal rate regulation, there is no anti-trust enforcement in insurance (they are specifically exempted from it in the McCarran-Ferguson Act), and unless there is a public option, there will be little competition. They will be the ones who decide if the rates go up, and they have just guaranteed they would raise those rates if we don't stop them from doing it.

It's sort of like the sheriff in Blazing Saddles holding the gun to his own head, and saying "back off or I'll shoot." The insurance industry is saying that if they don't like what's in the bill, they will just decide to arbitrarily raise the rates. But we can stop those rates from going up by checking the insurers' power. That's why a public option, real competition for an arrogant out-of-control, way-too-powerful industry, is so essential. Without it, we are left to their whims, and anytime, for my reason, they will just jack up their rates. If their stocks go down, if they just want more profits, if some regulation they don't like is passed, they will just raise their rates. With a strong, robust, nationwide public option, we can force insurers to the table, and give them real competition.

Personally, I think we ought to repeal McCarran-Ferguson and impose tough rate regulation as well. That would really open up competition and guarantee lower prices. But at the very minimum, we have to have a strong national public option. The insurance industry has just reminded us as to why that is. Thanks for the help in making our case, friends.

By the way, it's not just me who thinks this. Voters do not support being forced to buy health insurance unless there is a public option -- at that point, as the polling clearly documents, voters are fine with an insurance mandate. As long as there is real competition with a public option, voters are fine with being asked to buy insurance. Sometimes I think regular voters are smarter than the politicians they elect to govern them. ++



bonus



HARPER'S WEEKLY REVIEW
October 13, 2009

As the United States marked the eighth anniversary of its
war in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal asked
President Barack Obama to send 40,000 more troops
there. Senator John McCain was in favor of the surge,
while Vice President Joe Biden argued for unmanned
drones. Within days of Pakistan's announcing a new
anti-Taliban offensive in Waziristan, the tribal area that
borders Afghanistan, a suicide bomber dressed as a
paramilitary officer blew himself up inside a U.N. aid
agency in Islamabad, two car bombs killed dozens in
markets in Peshawar, and ten gunmen disguised in army
fatigues attacked the country's military headquarters,
holding 45 hostages until a commando raid freed 42 of
them; the remaining hostages and nine of the militants
were killed. It was revealed that a young Afghan girl was
killed last summer when a box designed to break open in
mid-air and scatter public information leaflets fell
intact from a British plane and landed on her. A British
study found that children who are given too many sweets
risk becoming violent adults, possibly because they never
learn patience, and President Obama won the Nobel Peace
Prize for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen
international diplomacy," even though the deadline for
nominations was February 1st, ten days after he took
office. Searching for water, the United States bombed the
moon.

Government ministers in the Maldives, which rising sea
levels will make uninhabitable by 2100, were taking scuba
lessons and practicing hand signals so that they can hold
cabinet meetings underwater. The government of Ecuador was
expelling migrants in the Galapagos because
environmentalists fear that the human population, which
doubled to 30,000 in the past decade, and which has
introduced rats, cattle, and fire ants to the island,
threatens native species, among them giant tortoises and
brightly colored boobies. A Saudi man was sentenced to
five years in prison and 1,000 lashes for bragging about
his sex life in an interview on Lebanese
television. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi vowed
not to step down after the country's highest court
overturned a law granting him immunity from
prosecution. "I am the best prime minister ever," said
Berlusconi, who is embroiled in corruption and bribery
scandals. "I am absolutely the politician most persecuted
by prosecutors in the entire history of the world
throughout the ages." He added that he had spent "200
million euros on judges... excuse me, on lawyers." The
Supreme Court convened its new term, and Justice Sonia
Sotomayor asked 36 questions in her first hour; Justice
Clarence Thomas had not asked a question for more than
three years. British entrepreneurs launched Internet Eyes,
a program that allows registered users to monitor live
feeds from some of the United Kingdom's 4.2 million
surveillance cameras in order to search for a crime in
progress, with cash prizes for viewers who spot the most
criminals. Insurgents in Somalia forced thousands of
people to watch as they amputated a foot and a hand from
each of two men accused of robbery. House Democrats
pledged to write into health-care-reform legislation a ban
on the practice whereby some insurers deny coverage to
battered women because domestic violence is designated a
"pre-existing condition." A Sioux City, Iowa, family found
a dead deer dressed in a clown suit and wig on their front
porch. British scientists reported that learning to juggle
can permanently increase brain function, and Cirque du
Soleil founder Guy Laliberte returned to Earth, after a
visit to the international space station, wearing a foam
clown nose.

Astronomers discovered the largest ring in the solar
system, a colossal circle of debris around Saturn caused
by the planet's moon Phoebe having been hit by wayward
space rocks. Archaeologists announced a new stone circle a
mile from Stonehenge that suggests the prehistoric
monument was part of a larger burial
complex. U.S. coroners were reporting a sharp increase in
the number of unclaimed bodies due to the
recession. Florida hospital officials advised more than
1,800 people to get screened for HIV and hepatitis after a
nurse was found to have re-used IV bags on multiple
patients. Scientists announced that they had developed a
vaccine that prevents cocaine users from getting
high. France's new culture minister, Frederic Mitterand,
was called on to resign after acknowledging that he "got
into the habit" of paying young boys for sex in Southeast
Asia. Egyptian lawmakers called for a ban on the
Artificial Virginity Hymen kit, which leaks fake blood,
and on National Coming Out Day, thousands of gay-rights
activists marched on the U.S. Capitol. Mary Cheney was
pregnant again. A teddy bear made of placenta was touring
England as part of an exhibit of sustainable toys. The
Mediterranean Sea was plagued by an outbreak of giant,
mucuslike sea blobs.

-- Margaret Cordi ++


"I'm asking you to believe. Not just in my ability to bring about real change in Washington ... I'm asking you to believe in yours."
~ Barack Obama

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