CIGNA Whistleblower on GOP's Repeal Smokescreen & How It Is Providing Cover for Insurance Companies

[Joanne98]

"The insurance industry got quite a bit out of the legislation that was passed. There were two major objectives that the insurance industry had," explains Potter. "One was to have the individual mandate included in the bill, the requirement that we all get coverage of them. And the other was to strip out the public option. They wanted to have a requirement that we all by their products unless we're eligible for public assistance or public program and they wanted to make sure that there was no government competitor they would have to deal with."

"They succeeded," states Potter.


While surprising to progressives who were hoping for a public option or a reform process that would push for single payer health care, Potter contends, " There are elements of the legislation that they had to live with that they don't like at all and that is what we need to be watching over the coming weeks and months." Contextualizing what will be unfolding, Potter adds:

...The notion that this legislation will be repealed is just rhetoric. It's political rhetoric. It's a smokescreen to get our attention off what the real objectives are. By now the insurance industry lobbyists have met with every new member of Congress, certainly those they helped put into Congress, and have said, "Look you may actually believe this was a government takeover of the health care system but we needed to have this legislation. And if you care anything about having a private insurance market, you won't repeal this bill. We understand how you campaigned. We understand that you probably need to go through the motions of having a vote on repeal. And there will be. There will be a vote in the House to repeal the legislation. And we've already seen the procedural vote they took the other day indicates that they certainly and we all knew they would have the votes to get it done. So, that's just a formality. It will not pass in the Senate. And, even if it did, the President would veto it. So what we are going to be seeing is a lot of political theater...


"The leadership of the House understands this. They have consulted their PR people to write the repeal legislation. If you've seen it, it's just two pages. And the title of it is 'A Bill to Repeal the Job-Killing Healthcare Reform Bill,'" says Potter. "Can you imagine a bill in the House of Representatives called 'A Bill to Repeal the Job-Killing Healthcare Reform Bill?' It's just absurd. It is a PR stunt, pure and simple. That's all it ever will be."

http://www.opednews.com/articles/CIGNA-Whistleblower-on-GOP-by-Kevin-Gosztola-110115-389.html

[Demeter]

1. We are freaking doomed

[srf Rantz]

2. smoke and mirrors

they'll never ever repeal the individual mandate. the insurance companies LOVE that. they made sure it got in there.

my guess is they will (or try to) repeal the part that taxes the rich to pay for subsidizing insurance for the poor who can't afford to buy it themselves. this is the part they really hate, and the part that's really behind the Tea Party goon squad's rage. which is of course bought and paid for by the ins. corps.

of course without that subsidy, the insurance cos. can't scoop up that free 'government-provided' money from that group of consumers. it's really rich guy against rich guy on that one. but they'll play the old conservative pseudo-morals card of its not fair to "punish" the "successful" to "give" money to the "poor" (blacks/hispanics/white trash) who haven't earned it, the lazy bums!

[midnight]

3. If capitalism is all about competition why are we coddling these

private insurance co. Why can't they compete on their own merit? Let them compete agains govt. provided insurance....

[txlibdem]

4. The truth: Capitalism cannot compete on its own merits, boom+bust=bailouts cycle repeats endlessly

I used to believe the lie about how great Capitalism is so don't feel like I'm criticizing you. Every time there is a new boom cycle all you hear in the news is how great Capitalism is and how it's the best system in the world: see how much prosperity? Then when the inevitable bust comes the only thing the media can do is find some person, or few individuals, to point the finger at: they caused this surprising and totally unexpected disaster. Then the wailing and doom and gloom predictions by the media that the government has to do something or we'll really be in trouble. Meanwhile the behind closed doors meetings begin (remember Dick Cheney's secret meetings with the oil companies), the lobbyists descend on Washington DC like a plague of locusts. And, as if you don't know what comes next, the bailouts begin.

That wouldn't be so bad if it had only occurred once or twice, even three times, in the past. That would be a fluke, mere hiccups in an otherwise stable system. But that is just not so. The boom and bust followed by bailouts has happened over a dozen times in the past century alone. That's no fluke, that's a feature of the system.


* Reference material:
http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/papantonio-thank-dick-cheney-and-his-meeti
http://stopthecap.com/2010/06/23/shades-of-cheney-secret-fcc-meetings-with-att-verizon-google-and-skype-ignore-consumers/

[JohnWxy]

5. RECOMMENDED.

Let them repeal it. Then in a few years we'll have single payer as we are forced to open Medicare to everybody (hospital emergency rooms won't be able to handle the work-load and since the Government pays for the uninsured to get medical care - we will just move to a more efficient way of doing it - go to the doctor for timely and preventative medical care rather than waiting till you're in desperate trouble. Much cheaper that way).

This will leave for profit insurance only for the dwindling number who can afford it. Eventually for profit insurance will become too costly for anybody and die a necessary death.