Raising premiums, cutting benefits, and exiting unprofitable counties...

[BanzaiBonnie]

Yeah, that’s right, I’m talking about health care.

I want to know why the largest managed health care group in the country is advising our legislators on health care policy. Sounds like lobbying to me.

My day started when I made a phone call to my Congressman in support of keeping single payer health care on the table. I explained to senior aide Jessica, in charge of health care issues for Congressman Brian Baird, that in order to bring costs under control we need to cut the profit making insurance companies out of the picture.

She parried that we were not going to get single payer insurance because it’s politically not possible. It’s a dead issue.

I told her I was going to work on getting more citizen support. She said that the Congressman was elected to make the decisions on what is best for us. We elected him to represent us, not to do what we ask him to do. She just kept telling me it won’t work.

So I went to Brian Baird’s website and looked at what he’s proposing. He’s supporting Ron Wyden’s Healthy American’s Act. This proposal is heavily supported by information provided by the nonpartisan Lewin Group.

However, just because they’re nonpartisan does not mean they are unbiased. Through a bit of digging, I found that Lewin Group is owned by UnitedHealth.

Who is UnitedHealth? They are the largest managed health care group in the country.

I am thoroughly pissed at what I’ve learned. I’m so angry I’ve dropped the F*bomb three times this evening, once in front of my grandson. Please talk me down. This can’t be as bad as it looks. Can it? How is this different than Cheney going into a room with the oil executives and hammering out energy policy?

UnitedHealth Profit Rises on Government Medical Plans

In March, UnitedHealth agreed to aquire Sierra Health Services Inc., a Las Vegas-based health plan with 860,000 customers, for $2.6 billion. In May, UnitedHealth bought the Lewin Group, a Washington-based health-policy consulting firm, for an undisclosed sum, adding to its expanding capabilities in analyzing and mining health data.

<snip>
Of more than 150 companies that sell Medicare Advantage plans, which provide extra benefits such as lower out-of-pocket expenses and health-club memberships, UnitedHealth is the leader, with about 1.3 million members. Medicare will spend $76.3 billion this fiscal year to provide Advantage benefits to 8.6 million senior citizens.
Medicare Advantage was a ``bright spot'' for UnitedHealth in the quarter, said Carl McDonald, an analyst with CIBC World Markets in New York, in a note to clients today.

``This is likely a function of the benefit changes UnitedHealth made to its Medicare Advantage product this year, as it raised premiums, cut benefits and exited unprofitable counties,'' McDonald said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=avOG0v4eR7p8&refer=home#

[depakid]

1. Wyden happens to be a whore and a charlatan on this issue

Note that he also voted for the Medicare part D scam.

[jwirr]

2. They are going to pass this shit and then when it costs way more

than single payer care they will tell us we cannot afford universal health care. By the time they are done they will have destroyed the original safety net of Medicaid and Medicare and we will have nothing.

[AwakeAtLast]

3. Where does this leave our doctors?

I know we as a people need to thought of, but I also think doctors will sink along with us. More and more qualified professionals will just leave the profession or those thinking about becoming a doctor will choose differently. How can we get the best doctors when they are being forced out? :shrug:

[eridani]

4. The Lewin Group evaluated single payer in CA several years ago

--and found that it was the cheapest.

Get more people harassing Baird, and maybe he'll get a clue.