What is the best way to fight the for profit insurance companies

[slipslidingaway]

Poll question: What is the best way to fight the for profit insurance companies

and make them believe their customer base is in trouble?

[Cleita]

1. Neither.

My employer, a doctor, said that the medical professions needs to refuse their product. He already does and only takes cash. If all doctors refuse to take insurance, the insurance companies will be squeezed out of business because no one will buy insurance anymore. Maybe then it will be possible to get Medicare for everyone.

[Juche]

4. That is my view

If at all possible, pay with cash. And travel overseas for major surgery.

[glinda]

5. I agree except the majority of people would have to drop their health insurance all at once for

it to be effective. I have NO doubt that this is the only answer.
Am wondering if a new non-profit could be founded that collects minimum fees from everyone on a sliding fee scale and if they could find doctors and hospitals or such that would participate in taking clients who held membership in the non-profit. This possibility might work if say some are afraid to drop the crappy coverage that they have but yet the money and arrangement with doctors would be a secure enough back up.It would also need a few large donors donating millions to help set it up.
I see this as the only thing to do. I would be willing to do it as long as I would have some medical access nearby.

[slipslidingaway]

8. Dropping one's health insurance is too risky IMO. n/t

[glinda]

24. True unless, as I say, there is something set up to go to ahead of time. As long as we

are tied to the H (for Hell) Insurance Industry, I cannot see any alternative because IMHO the rules are not strong enough that are proposed.HI Industry is a business, not a part of our Government legally nor part of any structure that can be reigned in. It is a business. Period!
It is a joke and a sad joke killing hundreds of people and bankrupting many along with their accomplices.
If there was another thing set up that people could sign onto that is formed by the people, what would the Government do then? The HI Companies would fold. Are they going to scream to the Government???? Ask for a bail out?????? No. They would get what they deserve.

[Cleita]

36. This is actually what's going to have to happen, but again it's going to

take the medical community to do it. If enough doctors perhaps banded together to form something like this it could work. In the meantime maybe we need community organizations to study how it can be done.

[slipslidingaway]

38. That might work, for now I will only support politicians who work

for the people and have the strength to stand up to the companies who deny care.

[slipslidingaway]

6. That might be true, but I continue to hear that the administration

is fighting these nasty corporations while they continuously get invitations to join the discussions at the WH and Congressional hearings.

Last week they moved a scheduled meeting from HHS to the WH (Wednesday to Thursday) Obama then popped into the meeting and read the CEOs a letter from a person who was having problems with her HC. The press then states that the President is reading the riot act to the CEOs.

But they received the invitations while their most vocal opponents have been locked out of the discussions.

:shrug:

[Cleita]

37. I hear ya and I'm totally disgusted with the way this has been handled. n/t

[slipslidingaway]

39. Just trying to point out the obvious, too often it gets overlooked

and we blame others instead of those within our own party.

[Double T]

2. Hardcore controls and regulations is the best way to fight these arrogant wall street backed.....

corporate criminals. health care reform will be as effective as credit card reform; another BIG FAT nothing. Jettison all incumbents in November and let's start over.

[slipslidingaway]

7. Votes are important and we need to use them wisely ...

provided that they are counted accurately.

:)

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[QC]

9. Read them sad letters from their victims.

That will have them sobbing in their Learjets.

[slipslidingaway]

10. Yes, that was done this week :) wonder if they came on private jets? n/t

[daleanime]

11. No one noticed....

they don't run auto companies:evilgrin:

[slipslidingaway]

13. Ain't that the truth!!! Everyone noticed the auto companies :) n/t

[LoZoccolo]

12. I voted for #1 (red). n/t

[slipslidingaway]

14. I appreciate the honesty and would be curious to read your explanation...

if I were a CEO and knew that my adversaries were being blocked at the gate by the administration, then I would believe that I had won.

:shrug:

Here I am outside the gate, putting my career on hold, as the CEOs enjoy a seat at the table.

Why do you think the CEOs lost?

[ChicagoSuz219]

15. Question...

I haven't had private insurance in about 7 years (pre-existing condition), so I don't know the answer to this...

When you buy private insurance, is there a contract for a specified amount of time that you have to keep it, like with a cell phone, or whatever -- or can you cancel it at any time?

If you can, people should wait & see if there will be a Public Exchange (or, maybe even a Public Option) to find the deal that makes the best sense to them.

I also think rates need to be regulated 'cause they are waaaaaaaay out of line... by anyone's standards, at this point.

There's a difference between High Profits and Record High Profits... maybe the difference is being able to give multi-million dollar 'bonuses' to executives. Nothing that would actually improve the healthcare of anyone...

[Alias Dictus Tyrant]

16. Start treating them like insurance companies. Seriously.

Americans are pig ignorant about "insurance". All the other problems and abuses follow from there.

[Ozymanithrax]

17. Regulate them.

[glinda]

25. Hahahahahahaha! Like the Banks???? Like Wall Street? Pleeease!

[Ozymanithrax]

31. The question was "What is the best way to fight the for profit insurance companies"

The answer remains Regulate them. Bank Regulation was vary successful until the Conservatvie mania for derregulation ended that. We are not regulating them now.

It is a fact that they will not likely be regulated. That doesn't mean that it isn't the right answer, only that it will not be used.

[glinda]

35. I gave up hope recently that our Government can regulate anything. Look at the charge card companies

still do not have to lower rates after jacking them up high and have found loopholes already.
No. The answer is to have an alternative to all the Insurance Industries that is totally non-profit. Totally. Not fake non-profit like Blue Cross Blue Shield is.

[Ozymanithrax]

44. And you need the government to set up such a system...

As long as you are working with non-government systems, the for profit industries will move to overwhelm any competition.

[napi21]

18. I think wi an LTE to your local newspaper describing the horrible

treatment you received from your ins co. If everyone who has been badly treated exposed their experiences to the media, many more people would realize just how rampant mistreatment is. I said your local paper, but USA Today, and many other nationally read papers, and all the cabel news channels too would help.

I think lots of people really don't believe much of this mistreatment goes on. They think there are only a few and those things happened because of some rare mistake or something the insured did wrong.

Take the time NOW to save a link to all of those sources to a favorites folder so it will be an easy task when you need to do it.

[yurbud]

19. indict their CEO's for murder for withholding reasonable treatment from their customers

[glinda]

27. Would be "just" but they are a business and solely a business. This is the problem.

[yurbud]

34. a hit man is just doing it as a business--at a minimum, it's callous disregard for life that results

in death, so at least manslaughter.

[ThomWV]

20. Don't pay them.

Starve the beast.

[Fumesucker]

21. Other: Force everyone under penalty of law to buy their overpriced product

And make sure that the public does not have any alternative whatsoever outside of the for profit insurance industry to which they can turn.

That will have the insurance executives quaking in their Ferragamos.

[slipslidingaway]

42. Ouch n/t

[mmonk]

22. Moot point.

The people don't have any political power currently. The corporations will continue to help write policy while the door is shut on us.

[ipaint]

23. Allowing advocates of the only system that works

into the white house, even next to the industry would put a halt to the ruse immediately. That's why it didn't happen. A televised meeting between industry reps and medicare for all or single payer advocates would clearly expose the truth about our corrupt health care system to americans. Most of whom already understand that insurance companies murder people for profit by denying care. Most americans know someone or are getting screwed be a health ins, someone who has died as a result of denial or rescission or someone who has no access to health care.

It was imperative to keep the advocates for single payer out of the discussion permanently. Had there been an open debate between for profit insurance and a public program there would have been a mass movement, the like of which we have never seen, to change the system to a government controlled/heavily regulated one which would cover everyone.

Instead we were fucked once again with a bunch of baby step bullshit and future magical incremental changes which supposedly will be brought to us by for profit ins. Ha!
I don't know which is bigger, the audacity of the current scam or the stupidity and selfishness of the educated class that is pushing it and supporting it.

[inna]

28. Very well said.

BTW, I read a couple of your posts yesterday that were outstanding and eye-opening. Thank you for this.

(Posts like these are one of the main reasons I continue to read DU.)

:hi:

[slipslidingaway]

41. So very true and that is why they needed to be silenced at all costs

but people keep telling me that this administration is fighting these companies.


"I don't know which is bigger, the audacity of the current scam or the stupidity and selfishness of the educated class that is pushing it and supporting it."

Me neither!

[Overseas]

26. Other. Open up Medicare through reconciliation. //nt

[laughingliberal]

29. Start a push for single payer

If they had been faced with a credible threat of that from the get go we would have gotten a LOT of cooperation from them. Sadly, there's not much in our arsenal without that or a credible threat of a really strong PO.

[kiranon]

43. Agree. n/t

[Vinnie From Indy]

30. single payer

It is the only way

[Morning Dew]

32. Torches and pitchforks

[L0oniX]

33. +1

[aaronbav]

40. +1

[Odin2005]

45. Send all the insurance CEOs to the guillotine.

Abolish the insurance companies and replace them with Single Payer.

[Taitertots]

46. A burning tire on their heads? n/t

[slipslidingaway]

47. Thanks for the votes, for the past year I've heard various politicians

speak of the "evil" insurance companies.

But when I look past the words to see who is included and who is excluded from discussions, the message to me is pretty clear about who is being fought, and it is not the people sitting at the table.