Obama's overhaul fight is being won by the industry, experts say. The end result may be a financial 'bonanza.'
Reporting from Washington - Lashed by liberals and threatened with more government regulation, the insurance industry nevertheless rallied its lobbying and grass-roots resources so successfully in the early stages of the healthcare overhaul deliberations that it is poised to reap a financial windfall.
The half-dozen leading overhaul proposals circulating in Congress would require all citizens to have health insurance, which would guarantee insurers tens of millions of new customers -- many of whom would get government subsidies to help pay the companies' premiums.
"It's a bonanza," said Robert Laszewski, a health insurance executive for 20 years who now tracks reform legislation as president of the consulting firm Health Policy and Strategy Associates Inc.
Some insurance company leaders continue to profess concern about the unpredictable course of President Obama's massive healthcare initiative, and they vigorously oppose elements of his agenda. But Laszewski said the industry's reaction to early negotiations boiled down to a single word: "Hallelujah!"
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10 comments:
Yep. All those liberals pushing for health care "reform" are just pushing to enrich the hated insurance companies. Pretty ironic, huh?
Shame on Obama for taking single-payer off the table from the start.
MD_Progressive
What is the goverment goung to pay them with, bounced checks or IOUS? The president should be more concerned with JOBS. I ncase he hasnt noticed, there isnt any.
I thought repubs said reform would drive insurance companies out of business
This is why they once again need to put regulations in place on insurance companies.
If anyone thought for one second that the insurance companies would not find a way to rip off the American public in yet another way, they must have been in a rabbit hole.
Until they put the brakes on insurance companies, there will always be millions of uninsured and millions of those now insureds will end up being on the uninsured list.
I'm sick and tired of Washington putting the damn cart before the horse! Put the BASE down before you start building!!! If your BASE is not good, your program will COLLAPSE!!!
To 10:58 -- I'd urge you to do a little research on this topic before spouting off. The health insurance industry is already heavily regulated in this country. Every state has an insurance commissioner and many, including Maryland, essentially outline exactly what policies can be sold in the state. Health insurance is one of the most heavily regulated industries around.
Many of the problems Obama rails against, such as high premium costs or insurance companies denying service, can be traced directly to this regulation.
11:35am, if what you say is true, I would love to see some concrete examples. That is something that would add true value to the debate at hand instead of the spouting of "liberal granny killer" that I hear from others on this blog.
Yep, show us some examples 11:35.
If the rates were regulated, they would not have increased in the amounts they have over the past 10 years. Oh...but that's right...I guess that's when YOUR boy was in office...W?
It's regulated when the insurance company can chose to pay when they want, what they want no matter what your policy says. They come up with lame excuses such as "that's a pre-existing condition" even though the patient never had any problems before!
Now THAT's more regulation huh?
3:06 -- you really illustrate your ignorance, since the bulk of health insurance regulation takes place at the state level, so it wouldn't matter if Bush was in office or not. And, for the record, I'm certainly no fan of Bush. I never voted for him and regard him as one of the worst presidents we've ever had.
Here's a good summation of the various mandated benefits that legislators and lobbyists have colluded on, raising the price of insurance to benefit special interest groups: http://www.cahi.org/cahi_contents/resources/pdf/HealthInsuranceMandates2009.pdf.
Here's a pretty good look at how different state laws affect personal ownership of health insurance: http://liberty.pacificresearch.org/publications/us-index-of-health-ownership-3rd-edition
Anyone who says the insurance industry isn't heavily regulated simply doesn't know much of anything about health insurance.
Marc,
Just seeing your comment now. Will check the sources later today but for now I will pre-congratulate you for adding something thoughtful to the forum
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