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Did you know the insurance companies released another biased "report" yesterday showing how much they’d increase premiums on us if they didn’t get their way in Congress? No? I didn’t either. But it’s true!
Like the last report from the insurance industry, Blue Cross Blue Shield paid a corporate consultant – Oliver Wyman this time, instead of PricewaterhouseCoopers, which the insurance companies used last time – to come up with the data they wanted to say what they wanted. Namely, that health reform will cause them to raise rates and thus cost you and me more money.
The problems with this report are similar to the problems with the insurance companies’ last report. If I may be so bold as to paraphrase the White House, who got their hands on an early copy of the report before it was released yesterday, it’s a pack of lies.
But that’s not the interesting part. The real interesting part is how little of a splash this report made. When the insurance companies released their first report of this kind in October, they got front page coverage in papers like the Washington Post. The Post even gave Karen Ignagni, AHIP’s top lobbyist, op-ed space to defend her lies.
By contrast, the report released yesterday barely made a sound. In fact, I didn’t even realize it had been released, and it’s my job to stay on top of stuff like this.
The report resulted in a few small writeups in outlets like Forbes and Modern Healthcare. But overall, nobody was paying attention. This shouldn’t be a surprise – the insurance companies are actively working to kill any bill in Congress, telling their employees to send messages to Congress supporting a filibuster.
However, this report and its impact should serve as a lesson to the insurance companies: Nobody believes what you say anymore, not even the media. You released a report and nobody cared. Your credibility is shot.
The report – paid for by Blue Cross and put slapped together to match a pre-ordained conclusion by a corporate "research" firm – is full of simple charts trying to explain clearly how much more money the insurance industry will extort from you and me if reform passes. Well, I’ve got my own simple chart for the insurance companies:
| Money spent on lobbyists: | Over $1 million per day |
| Money spent on fake reports: | Hundreds of thousands of dollars |
| Money spent on faux grassroots campaigns: | Millions of dollars |
| __________________________________________________________________ | |
| Credibility: | None |
Meanwhile, Aetna is dropping the coverage of 600,000 people to raise their profits. Despicable.
(also posted at the NOW! blog)
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32 Comments
That’s a new oxymoron, seems like;
‘insurance industry credibility’?
Especially watching the ‘debate’ on the Senate floor – in which the right comes on and tells lies, then the progressives and moderates come on and contradict the lies the right just told.
Favorite; ‘Senator McCain, Republican of Arizona, is assailing the Democrats for proposing some of the very same reductions in Medicare that he endorsed during his presidential campaign.’
http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/02/mccain-vs-mccain-on-medicare/
actually DROPPING (or what the LYING Huff Post says “FORCING”) is not the right word but if it doesn’t push your agenda then why would you speak the truth. They’re raising prices along in line with the escalating COSTS of healthcare. They said that they then expect these small employers and national accounts to opt for other insurers who may be less expensive. Its not as if they are telling them they don’t want them back.
Personally I prefer studies like this one that shows WHY costs are increasing instead of shifting blame to those who just pay the claims.
Do we blame the government when Medicare costs increase???
How about blaming the persons responsible for it.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/11/30/health/webmd/main5829670.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody
I especially LOVE the part that says if we had no smoking, no obesity we’d live 4 years longer which would put our life expectancy #1 in the world. Now I don’t believe any country could ever get to 100% of that but IF we covered everyone as we should and if we were as healthy relating to smoking and obesity as the rest of the world we would absolutely be #1 in the world.
Its a shame that many on here distort the true facts to push their agendas.
Health care inflation is indeed caused by underlying issue, but it’s also a fact that private health insurance costs are increasing much faster than Medicare. So going after the insurance industry for their obscene profits and practices is indeed legitimate, especially because the industry colludes with providers to keep prices high.
Jason,
I assume you have PROOF that the insurance industry colludes with providers? Otherwise you’ve lost a lot of “journalistic integrity” there. Any time I hear about a hospital leaving my insurance company’s network its because of an argument over pricing. Is that how you think collusion works?
And how is 3% obscene? Sure force them ALL to be non-profits and not just the 40-50% or whatever the current number is. But as you say health care inflation is caused by the actual COST of healthcare of which 75% of it is related to 3 diseases, obesity, heart disease and cancer.
After we syphon off every penny of insurer profit and we’re still escalating costs at 10-15% per year what would we do then? Where to then? Jon Walker on here had some great cost control points a couple weeks back. I agreed with every single one of those.
Aetna actually made a profit in 2009 but not at levels that it anticipated.
As Williams told investors on the call: “The pricing that we put in place for 2009 turned out to not really be what we needed to achieve the results and margins that we had historically been delivering.”
So, people are stuck with dropping incomes and lower purchasing power when times get hard, or they find themselves less marketable, but corporations must always make the same, or more profit, as before. Never mind changing conditions, never mind their product might be less attractive, gotta keep that profit margin up, even if means destroying your product.
Yup, basic business principles the last 20 yrs. or so.
If nothing else, loss of credibility by these bozos will be one good thing to emerge from all this struggle.
here’s further proof of Jason’s collusion:
http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2009/05/horizon_blue_cross_blue_shield.html
Maybe you could do a write-up of who OWNS Bayonne Medical Center in NJ. They’re known far and wide as a GOD AWFUL hospital with some very good ones nearby (Hackesack Univ, Englewood) but they’re making a nice tidy little profit in NJ. Do me a favor too check into who IJKG OPKO LLC is. I’ll save you the trouble. THey’re a private equity firm that has no stake other than to rake in money for their two 30 something owners. 20% minimum. Bayonne Medical Center was going bankrupt and now they’re doing just fine. Want to know HOW?
They’re circumventing the laws in NJ. They’re forgiving patients deductibles and in turn charging the insurance company. Do you know who pays that? ME! I had Horizon BCBS before I had to give them up because of a 35% increase.
Last year Horizon spent 88.2 cents of every dollar on medical care. Probably one of the best in the country. For them, its not inefficeny, its pure greed on the part of providers like Bayonne Medical Center.
And the wool continues to be pulled over your eyes. Who would blame the doctor that helps people, right?
Quick question:
Ever seen a doctor that drives a Toyota? A ford? A Chevy?
Nope. All the ones by me drive Lexuses, Cadillacs and other luxury cars.
tejanarusa,
I agree. That’s why I’m an advocate of going back to what worked to keep costs down in the 90′s, CAPITATION. Doctors need to be paid a set amount for their patients and not for each procedure. Once that happens you’ll see costs down. Unfortunately its not happening enough. BCBS of Massachussetts is doing it for the last year although the hospitals in MA are fighting them on it. I’d love to see/hear more about how that’s working and if that’s keeping costs down. I fear that sometimes they are giving in and giving back more to hospitals. They ALL need to be more efficent.
I might consider believing some of what you say if you could tell me what portion of the money they take in they spend on winning over the hearts and minds of our legislators (yes, bribing them to vote for their interests and against ours) and is that considered part of their “business expenses” or their profits. Also, maybe you could explain how it is not unconscionable for an insurer to take a patient’s money for years but to call them a liar and rescind their insurance because they failed to tell the insurance company about acne when they were teens.
Ann,
I’m 100% against ALL LOBBYING. That’s 100% wrong whether its an insurance company, Pharma, doctors, hospitals, sugary soda makers, WHOEVER. I have no idea what its considered and I’d hope its considered business expenses and I believe that insurers should be required to have it come out of any profits.
Oh and I agree 100% that recision has to stop as well as pre-exisiting conditions but again as some people have said on here if they don’t get THEIR VERSION of a public option the bill should be killed. Exactly how do you explain that to the 45,000 that die without healthcare every year? They’re being sacrificed for the greater progressive good?
Proof:
http://hcfan.3cdn.net/d489f04dd6172aae34_4sm6iijoh.pdf
There’s a ton in these bills that force providers to rein in spending and conform to medical best practices. The insurance industry needs to be brought to heel, too.
Jason,
so you use ONE example out of (how many insurers are there out there, about 1500 of which there are how many hospitals out there? Oh I don’t know I’ll guess and say 600 in the US and if each contract say lasts 5 years ( i have no idea BTW) then that would be 4,500,000 hospital contracts over the last 25 years have been negotiatied with insurers (give or take a large number i’m sure). But you’re pointing to ONE that happens that way and then assume ALL work that way? Really???
That’s like me saying every person that has ever played golf cheats on his wife because Tiger Woods did.
Now I’m not saying they were right for what they did and I’m honestly not quite sure WHY they did it but please don’t lead people on to think this happens all the time or that it has ever happened any other time. I’m sure with crack journalists we’d be hearing this all the time as opposed to this one incident in 2000.
listen I’m not saying that there aren’t God awful insurers out there just like there are God awful people in EVERY profession. The point is that you don’t see us getting rid of all the lawyers do you?
Ever had a horrible accountant? I sure have. That doesn’t mean we get rid of all of the accoutants. Ever had a bad experience at Walmart? I sure have but that doesn’t mean we close all the Walmart’s. You do realize that about 50% of insurers are non-profits right? Are they LESS evil than the for profit ones? As I’ve said before I’d be all for making them all non-profits.
My perfect insurance would have every insurer 100x more regulated than they are now even though they’re one of the most highly regulated industries and would set prices like Canada for every procedure. That’s what would save us all in costs. Insurers would also easily get fined large sums of money (that’s all they seem to listen to) if they do ANYTHING they’re not supposed to. But this idea that the government can do it better is just mind boggling to me. Do you see the waste fraud and abuse in Medicare?
I love one of those points in the HCAN thing you linked to. It stated that insurers delayed payemnt. YOu know the major problem in Medicare? That they DON”T delay payment. THey pay any Tom, Dick or Harry that SAYS he’s a medical service provider, hence Medicare fraud. Did you see the 60 Minutes piece on medicare fraud of 60-90 billion a year? Crack dealers in Miami aren’t selling drugs anymore because there’s much more to be made in Medicare fraud. The reason? A medicare provider is required to be paid in 15 days which means the claims Can’t be audited. The fraudulent providers know this and laugh all the way to their millions and billions but yet we should hand the whole system to that?
Sorry, I’d rather have the Swiss system than the Canadian or English.
One example? Did you even read? The report documents numerous, systematic abuses by the industry.
Boy, you’ve got yourself a bit mixed up…
In Canada, they have a single payer system. There is no insurance industry to speak of. The government has the only one that matters, so it sets the prices. The Swiss system is indeed based on regulations, but not Canada.
And in England, the government owns the hospitals and pays the doctors as employees.
Boy, you’ve got yourself a bit mixed up…
In Canada, they have a single payer system. There is no insurance industry to speak of. The government has the only one that matters, so it sets the prices. The Swiss system is indeed based on regulations, but not Canada.
Jason,
I was actually referring to your one single point about doctors and insurance companies in coersion to increase cost not to the rest. I know that I get letters (that i actually read) from my insurance companies that explain about hospitals leaving the networks due to large requests for increases in costs. Some end up staying in the network which means that the struck a deal. Is that your idea of collusion? What you call collusion I call negotiating over price.
I don’t deny that many insurance companies have abuses but I don’t think all do otherwise 80 some percent of people wouldn’t be happy with their coverage (as studies have shown).
Again to your point of collusion when one case out of 4.5 million (give or take a couple hundred thousand) happens is that really industry wide collusion??
Jason,
actually i believe I’m right but i have no qualms in admitting if I’m wrong. Would you say the same???
There IS insurance in Canada. From my understanding Canadian coverage gives basic coverage so there are insurance companies up there that cover over the basic coverage. For example companies cover a semi-private room as compared to the single payer system that covers hospital wards.
Also in the past prescriptions weren’t covered for those 18-65 and even now I believe the coverage is very limited. There are insurers for that.
There is also no oral or dental care in Canada. Insurers cover that.
ALso they have doctor’s strikes in single payer systems and “clinics” are popping up in Canada from what i hear fairly frequently that allow people to get care how they want it and when they want it if they pay out of pocket.
Now again if I’m wrong in this I’ll gladly admit it.
Will you??
Right, that’s why I said insurers to speak of. Canada’s national health insurance program covers the bulk of the care, and therefore, they set the rules.
I don’t deny that hospitals and doctors play a role, never have, but the simple fact is in this country, insurers have no reason to fight back against providers. They’ve learned that they can instead just raise prices, keep or increase their margins, and customers will soak up the difference because they have no choice.
The public option changes that dynamic.
Jason,
As you probably know, from the middle of last month to the end of this month is the open enrollment period for Medicare recipients who have Medicare Advantage Plans. Recipients at this time can choose to switch their insurance to any one of the insurers that is allowed to operate in their area, and there are more than a dozen in my area. For this reason, my current insurer has already provided me with the Annual Notice of Changes for 2010. Just as an example of some of the changes that are already scheduled to occur in my HealthNet Plan, I originally chose a plan with a zero (0) monthly premium (I assume that Medicare pays whatever monthly premium HealthNet may be charging for this plan. I’m really not sure how this works.) I have had this plan since May, 2006, and HealthNet has never raised this premium…until next year. Starting Jan. 1, the premium will be $36/mo. The next biggest change is in the hospital copay, which was $175/day for the first 5 days last year, but will be $200/day for the first 10 days next year. During the last year, I had one hospital stay of 8 days and received a bill of $875 ($175/day * 5 days) as my copay when I got home. This change means that if I spent the same 8 days in the hospital next year, my copay would be $1,600. If I spent 10 days in the hospital, it would cost me $2,000 before the insurance would pick up the tab for the remainder of the bill. That amount exceeds my total monthly income.
My point here is, the punitive rate changes for even letting Congress consider a health care reform bill is already in progress. Furthermore, I consider that the rates will increase every year from now until a) the health care reform bill finally goes into effect in 2014 or whenever they finally make it effective or b)the insurance companies and the rest of the health care industry finally manage to defeat any provisions of the bill that do not somehow convert into additional profits for their executives (I don’t think they care any more about their stockholders than they do about their customers.) And, of course, our legislators have given them a whole lot of time to defeat legislation that has not yet gone into effect. They will continue to try to defeat this legislation and will not consider it set in stone until it is already activated. And btw, they will need these raises in rates to pay the additional lobbyists (and pay the bribes) they will need to defeat the bill, so they will be using our own money against our better interests. Many in these businesses are no better than swine at the trough.
As for me, I’m changing my choice of insurance, but my choices are not good. I am going to have to decide which company will abuse me the least. I’ve gotten more advertising announcing seminars and soliciting my business this year than I have at any time since I’ve been on Medicare. I even got one from Aetna, but of course, I’ve eliminated them due to the fact that we have a Senator called the Senator from Aetna, and then again, there is the fact that you cited that “Aetna is dropping the coverage of 600,000 people to raise their profits.”
This change means that if I spent the same 8 days in the hospital next year, my copay would be $1,600. If I spent 10 days in the hospital, it would cost me $2,000 before the insurance would pick up the tab for the remainder of the bill.
Ann,
what you’re not understanding is that if its Medicare (run by the govt) or any medicare advantage plan they’re paying MUCH MORE than after that $2000. The $2000 is a small fraction of the cost. Think of the doctors that saw you, think of whatever the hospital billed. have you read your Medicare explanation of payment? Seen what they pay?
Also as I expect you know this reform doesn’t help you at all. Medicare beneficiaries are not eligible for the exchange or anything else.
If you’d rather, you can go on regular Medicare. Then you’d be liable for the first $1068 of hospital charges and then you’re on the hook for the first $135 of doctors charges and then 20% of an infinite number. oh and with those doctor charges, you’re paying for part B premium too. Up to $300+ per person based upon their income per month.
Oh and I hope you don’t need blood while in the hospital because that’s on you with standard Medicare and then you’re on the hook for 20% of any durable medical equipment.
Well you get the idea.
Jason,
that’s absolutely ludicrous. People have a choice. A choice we all talk about on here ALL THE TIME. 45 million and more MAKE THAT CHOICE (or have it made for them) A choice that ensures that insurance companies don’t make money. Its call the ever growing uninsured population. LIsten insurers can either raise the price without ever an issue OR they can deny everything. They can’t do BOTH. You can’t have both sides of the argument like you seem to want to have.
so Jason you say there are NO insurers to speak of in Canada?
Well then who are all of these people!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Canadian_insurance_companies
Some are life insurance, some property insurance but some absolutely ARE health insurance.
They don’t control the market or the prices. I never disputed that they existed. Man, you really can’t read.
When you’re talking about health care, choosing to be uninsured or being bankrupt isn’t much of a choice. But whatever you say…
When you say that insurers can either raise prices or deny care, that’s wrong. They can trim profits. Not pay CEOs as much. Actually drive hard bargains with hospitals and doctors. But they don’t. They spend significantly less of their premiums on health care than Medicare does. As such, they are the problem.
Mostly, though I have no idea what you’re trying to argue or what point you’re trying to make. Insurance companies are bad, evil even. So are doctors and hospitals a lot of the time. They all make too much money and deny our care. And they all should, and can get squeezed a bit by reform. This is as it should be.
Great points all around. The swine at the trough line is particularly apt.
my point was that uninsured (from an insurer’s perspective) isn’t a good thing. They’ve got to be salivating over the subsidies BTW.
I’m all in favor of not trimming but SLASHING CEO pay.
But bargain better with hospitals? They’re not the captive market that Medicare is. If they get too harsh with a hospital then they leave and the insurance company will lose my business as a small employer if their premium is comparable. That they definitely understand. If only the gov’t set the rates then we’d be in better shape although i’d worry how many hospitals and docs would/could stay in business with their other expenses what they are and their salaries slashed. Then we have an access problem.
I have no problem with squeezing them all. I just want you to be ACCURATE.
Thanks Jason.
I didn’t realize that this site was so propagated by right-wing insurance company trolls as it apparently seems to be. As such, I will have to ignore it. If you cannot do better in monitoring the propagandists, there is no need to waste my time reading this garbage. We all know the insurance companies are a pack of vultures, and I will help anyone who attempts to reign them in. I would much rather eliminate them altogether, but we have a bunch of wimps and thieves in government. When enough people die from this outrage, maybe then we can finally be rid of them for good!
Don’t do that. Stay around and take your turn at refuting the insurance companies nonsense. We have to engage them at all levels so if some insurance company folks (or those you perceive to be insurance company folks) are making erroneous claims and lying, call them on it.
Just do it with facts (and their well known liberal bias).
Did it ever have any credibility?
When I was younger I had a friend who got married. All State dropped His car insurance because his wife had an accident five years before she married Him.
I lived in a town almost wiped out by an F-5 tornado, many of the insurance co. never did pay.
We saw what they did in Florida and the Gulf Coast after the Hurricanes.
Yes we see what they are doing with health insurance.
Yes we saw what AIG did and was to big to fail.
The insurance industry in this country has bought our Government just like the banks. Their lobbing has taken away the basic business model of insurance. They gamble they won’t have to pay.
In the worry that they might fail like banks could the Government allowed them to go outside the bonds of normal business, and charge to insure they never fail.
Like the Banks they can take what ever risk they want, but also limit their liablity. That means you pay for their mistakes, and you pay so they make money even with poor judgement.
They can’t have a bad year like us or most business’s, because they just charge their insured to insure their profit margins.
This is no longer the free market system the the Republicans brag on so, much because it is a fixed system, that insures they can’t lose. They can’t lose at our expense, just like the Banks.
Free market means you run your business, provide a product or service, and make an honest buck by doing that for the people who are your customers.
Making a buck at the expense of your customers, and by not giving them what they thought they were paying for, is criminal enterprize not free market business.
Tough to do that now.
A bit too much capital has been spent focusing on the human cost, which apparently was the only possibly trump over the right to transfer wealth upward and pretend you have a chance in hell of joining them. Justice, in a non-punitive sense, doesn’t make the top five here, and Americans seem particularly hostile to the notion of economic justice.
Looks like the administration’s short term goal is to continue to concentrate as much wealth as possible while managing leftist motivation short of the point where the left becomes effective.
Shoulda never laid down with the public option; the fleas have heard the call to charge, and charge us they will.