Mitch MCConnel..."The private insurance companies can't compete with a government plan"

[Boxerfan]

He said this emphatically-twice-on Fixed noise Sundaze.

So let me get this straight Mitch. Your saying the GOVERNMENT does a better job managing money than a PRIVATE company?

Really?:wtf:

no...

REALLY?

OMG-we gotta use this!
Carl.

[kentuck]

1. I thought the same thing.

Why can't they compete?? But no one asked him.

[Mike 03]

2. This is beautiful. Incredible that he spouted this. K and R. NT

[The Traveler]

3. Thank you for ceding our point, Mitch

Yes. You are quite right. Now, serve the public interest, you miserable cretin!

[NC_Nurse]

4. Tough shit. If they can't we'll have single payer - fine with me.

[Cirque du So-What]

5. Perhaps he's insinuating

that a government-run plan would be heavily subsidized with federal dollars, giving it an 'unfair' advantage over private insurance companies.

Sorry, Mitch, but my loyalties are arranged in the following order:

1) the American people

2) the US government

3) big insurance companies and their various & sundry lobbyists

Guess that order becomes reversed with your head is firmly planted in your ass.

[Fla_Democrat]

13. We have a winner

no private company could compete against a government company providing the 'same' commodity. Since they can undercut the competition to a point where the private company has to go out of business.

[nichomachus]

20. Yeah exactly like

The US Postal service has put Fedex and UPS out of business. So sad to see them go down.

[Shandris]

23. Wait just a minute

no private company could compete against a government company providing the 'same' commodity. Since they can undercut the competition to a point where the private company has to go out of business.

If I'm not mistaken, any big company can do that to a little company and they call it the free market at work. Take the DSL industry, for example. So now thats suddenly oh-so-unfair, Mr. McConnell?

I really really just wish conservatives would apply just a bit of logic to their thought chains, we would be so much better off.

[Winterblues]

31. You are suggesting that Insurance Companies are not subsidized at all?

AIG just received almost a half trillion dollars. A dollar to a doughnut they are not the only Insurance to get Government bucks.

[loyalkydem]

6. I'm so embarrased

to be living in Kentucky

[Dark]

7. What I don't get is why y'all keep electing Bunning. You could have had George Clooney's father.

WTF?

Tho, I live in SW Ohio, so we just recently kicked our crazies to the curb too.

[loyalkydem]

37. I wish I could

I don't live in his district. Bitch Mitch is my Senator (sighs)

[DinahMoeHum]

8. Dear Mitch: Boo Fucking Hoo. You pig.

:nopity:

[Chulanowa]

9. And private roadmakers can't compte with the Department of Transportation

Is he trying to make a point here? Fact is we don't need privatization in everything. A uniform standard available to all Americans is needed for policework, roads, and HEALTHCARE

[pacalo]

10. Well, duh. It's the profits made by these ins. co.'s that help drive up the costs.

[eleny]

11. Maybe we shouldn't complain that they get so much air time

Seems like that gasbag gave us a lot of help today.

[Joe the Liberal]

12. Well no shit....

that's the whole point, government would be better at running health care than some private insurance company ever would.

[Blue Meany]

14. Back in the Cold War, conservatives said communists couldn't

couldn't make anything: couldn't make cars, couldn't make refigerators, and certainly couldn;t run a country. BUT, somehow, they were able to make and assemble arsenals of weapons--and make them much cheaper than us--so that we had to be constantly in fear of them and spend 10 times there military budget just to keep ourselves safe.

It's the same rhetoric they use about government: it can't do anything as good or as cheap as the private sector--unless, of course, it is actually given an opportunity to compete. Sounds like McConnel had an accidenal brush with reality.

[truedelphi]

32. And Obama alluded to all the many fine doctors that were educated in Cuba

And have been sent throughout Central America to help the less fortunate there.

While meanwhile our society could care less about so many of us who need medical services.

[Boxerfan]

15. I was flabbergasted when he said that...a true WTF moment

Give this a kick please...I think its a heck of a talking point!
Carl.

[RandomThoughts]

16. Its based on a mind set.

By 'compete' they are talking only about money, because that's what they think about.

The real competition is not the money, its weather the population would rather have a system there to give them care, or weather they would rather have a private system. knowing that taxes pay one, and deductibles and wages pay the other. And knowing that 25%-33% of current spending is marketing and advertisement. An amount that would hurt the media, another reason they are all tied in together, but could be used to pay for health care.

They know they pay for both, its not money competition its service competition.

[surrealAmerican]

17. I hope he keeps saying that...

... because the thought WILL occur to people: "Do we want to protect insurance companies, or our health?"

[cascadiance]

18. The important question to ask is WHAT VALUE do the insurance companies provide?....

... that justifies them *LEECHING* all of the money they do as middlemen. If there were some sort of intrinsic value they provided, then there might be some reasons to be concerned.

The original notion I remember them using to start the HMO's and other elaborate insurance plans was for "cost containment". However, the expense we pay for them to grab all of that money that only serves themselves, and now we have proven models of other government run plans overseas being run a lot more efficiently, it seems to me that there is absolutely NO added value they provide to us. Therefore, whether they can "compete" or not makes no difference. They serve NO useful purpose in the industry of health care other than stealing money for their investors, and providing jobs that DO NOTHING to help the end product to those receiving health care.

The only way they could justify their existence is to show that they provide BETTER health care at LOWER costs than a government run program for EVERYONE. I see NO evidence that they can provide any such value. When looking at other systems in the civilized world, I only see evidence to the contrary.

[Adelante]

19. Ben Nelson (D-NE) said the same stupid thing

A couple of weeks ago

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/president-nelson-makes-call-by-dday-so.html

[spanone]

21. why, because gouging is their game.

[City Lights]

22. Thanks for stating that clearly and succinctly, Mitch.

And please continue to say it again, and again. :evilgrin:

[Psychic Consortium]

24. They can no longer become billionaires by refusing care to sick people. nt

[tsuki]

25. But, but, but, private enterprise can do EVERYTHING better than the govment. nt

[old mark]

34. just ask Newt Gingrich, who has worked for the Government for most

of his life....

hmmm....


mark

[The2ndWheel]

26. That's because the government is a monopoly

It has all the people. The only thing that can compete with a monopoly is another monopoly. So if every private insurance company merged into a single private insurance company, it still probably couldn't compete with a government plan, since the government has everyone under its umbrella by default.

[4_TN_TITANS]

27. Amazing.... isn't that our whole point?

Foot, meet mouth.

[jtrockville]

28. So, now citizens exist to provide guaranteed survivability

for an industry? At the cost of our health? Silly me, I thought industry existed to serve us, not the other way around.

Maybe I can start an industry where the government mandates people use my service, so I can be guaranteed to profit handsomely.

[mzmolly]

29. Doesn't that go against their whole "Government is inefficient"

argument?

[Vinca]

30. Sure they can compete . . . just not with billionaire CEOs.

[Greyhound]

33. They really can't. Government, while far from perfect, is far more efficient

and is not burdened with shareholder profits and the obscene salaries you mention.

[Vinca]

35. I need to remember the sarcasm smilie is my friend.

[ColbertWatcher]

36. If that's true, then ...

... why have private insurance companies at all?

If private corporations cannot compete they should get out of that industry.

The market will have spoken, no?