Obama Press Conference: Health Care

[Paradigm]

The health insurance exchange idea, where individuals can go online and buy the cheapest plan will never work.

Montana has some of the lowest health insurance premiums in the nation. (Although Ed would argue that title belongs to Ohio, so let's placate him.). Miami among the highest.

What happens when everyone in Miami decides to buy insurance from Ed in Ohio because he has low rates?

Ed would make so much money (even at his low rates) he could devote full time to his association and this forum.

But it wouldn't take long for the OH carriers who were writing their low premium policies in Miami to figure out this is a money losing proposition. When that happens, the rates in OH rise to cover the claims and folks in Miami start looking for cheaper rates.

Like Thailand . . .

Yes there is a reason the rates are lower in Montana than NY. the reason is less state mandates and lower cost of care.

Obama's pollyanna view of things is that care should be the same in all areas ie: community rating. This is misguided as there are always regional differences in housing, wages etc. It is not likely to be any different without a single payer system.

Their intent is to weaken the insurance companies to the point where they can force a single payer system in place once the insurance companies are too powerless to defenf their turf, he said as much last night when he mentioned the entrenched employer based plan.

All he needs to do is destroy that and replace it with a tax payer funded single payer system which is the only way a mandate ever would work. That is the plan and by the look on Ron Williams face he knows it.

He neglects to mention of course the reason why Europe has single payer national healthcare. The reason is World War II; after the decimation of the war there was very little health infrastructure left.

In 1948, Great Britain passed the National Health Service Act that provided free physician and hospital services for all citizens. The system was later amended, now charging a small fee for the filling of prescriptions and the purchasing of eyeglasses and dentures; it is funded jointly by a health-insurance tax and by the national treasury. Doctors are salaried by the government and receive an additional allotment per patient and for the performance of special services.

 

[Guest]

So you can fathom a trillion dollars, quite disturbing:

What does one TRILLION dollars look like?

 

[Paradigm]

Also with that perfect government program he never mentioned the reason they are collapsing and the reason is simply demographics.

The population is aging and as a result needs for more expensive life sustaining and extending care is expanding at an exponential rate.

At the same time the amount of younger tax payer citizens is declining eventually to the rate of 1 working taxpayer for every beneficiary. That is unstainable at current system with current benefits.

These two factors combined with corruption in the system are the simple reason medicare is collapsing.

Obama's end game is this to stealth spread the cost of Medicare and Medicaid across the entire system in a form of single payer tax payer funded system. He constantly mentions that medicare is related to national healthcare and hes right but the public wont stand that comparison yet so he brings out this hybrid stuff.

Medicare and Medicaid are the elephants in the room and the govt is trying to avoid the truth and the truth is this; Care must be denied to some and paid for by others to maintain the system otherwise the system will collapse. Either eugenical life limitations and triage or confiscatory taxation would be needed to do that; Top tax bracket of 70%. His healthcare reform is just the expansion of the socialist agenda begun by FDR.

 

[moonlightandmargaritas]

All he needs to do is destroy that and replace it with a tax payer funded single payer system which is the only way a mandate ever would work. That is the plan and by the look on Ron Williams face he knows it.

Look, there's plenty of blame to go around, but the carriers have for so long resisted change that has been needed, now they're getting legislated upon.

It's their own fault. They've had plenty of opportunities, but they've been nothing but greedy.

Mr. Williams compensation for 2007 was $23,045,834, and for 2008, it was $24,300,112.

Not only does this kind of thing rape the shareholders (where's the Board of Directors?), it ripens the environment for the government to cut their water.

Not saying it's right, wrong or indifferent - it just is.

 

[Paradigm]

Look, there's plenty of blame to go around, but the carriers have for so long resisted change that has been needed, now they're getting legislated upon.

It's their own fault. They've had plenty of opportunities, but they've been nothing but greedy.

Mr. Williams compensation for 2007 was $23,045,834, and for 2008, it was $24,300,112.

Not only does this kind of thing rape the shareholders (where's the Board of Directors?), it ripens the environment for the government to cut their water.

Not saying it's right, wrong or indifferent - it just is.

While executive compensation makes for a great sound bite it has a negligible effect on the bottom line of a company or on shareholder value.

One might as well talk about the 177,000 paid for an avg. congressman. But wait the true cost is 1.7 million because they get money to maintain staff and offices as well.

 

[moonlightandmargaritas]

While executive compensation makes for a great sound bite it has a negligible effect on the bottom line of a company or on shareholder value.

That line is so ridiculously stupid I almost spit out my coffee!

The notion that compensation of twenty-four million dollars for an individual has only a "negligible effect" is just flat out laughable.

 

[Paradigm]

That line is so ridiculously stupid I almost spit out my coffee!

The notion that compensation of twenty-four million dollars for an individual has only a "negligible effect" is just flat out laughable.

I understand your humor, however in a society that pays an actor 20 million to make an ass of himself or an athlete 20 million to play with balls how uncommon is it really.

The Top compensation in 2007 and 2008 was over 3B dollars earned by John Paulson of Paulson and Co. who is a trader in derivatives and CDO, and CDS; is that laughable also? This man bet against the success of the United States economy and profited massively.

Drink beer instead of coffee and perhaps u'd be more interesting in your comebacks.

 

[moonlightandmargaritas]

I understand your humor, however in a society that pays an actor 20 million to make an ass of himself or an athlete 20 million to play with balls how uncommon is it really.

You're totally missing the point...

If you read the original post, I said I had no opinion as to whether it was "right, wrong or indifferent".

The point I was making is that it looks bad, and these guys were too dumb to do something about it - before they get legislated upon.

Perception is reality man.

 

[Paradigm]

You're totally missing the point...

If you read the original post, I said I had no opinion as to whether it was "right, wrong or indifferent".

The point I was making is that it looks bad, and these guys were too dumb to do something about it - before they get legislated upon.

Perception is reality man.

Yes the perception is there you are right and the news media loves to turn the lens to it. My point is that 24m is a low % of the total revenue of a company like Aetna and really has no effect on stock price or ultimately shareholder value.

 

[Winter_123]

Well said.. So Winter, what does "positioning yourself" mean to you? I fully agree though.

I think that for starters it means that if one wants to be in the individual health business for the long haul that they will need to be willing to take on more of a "med-supp mode" of selling and business model and apply that to the under 65 market and plans. By that I mean that the plans will be more standardized, marginal undewiting if any, and the agent will need to stack up a lot of little sales to build a book. However, if you can get to there from here it could be a very profitable venture.

Methinks anyway.