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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/...9233.story
Since January, the nation's five largest insurers and the industry's Washington-based lobbying arm have given three times more money to Republican lawmakers and political action committees than to Democratic politicians and organizations.
That is a marked change from 2009, when the industry largely split its political donations between the parties, according to federal election filings.
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The largest insurers are also paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to lobbyists with close ties to Republican lawmakers who could shape health policy in January, records show.
"The industry would love to have a Republican Congress," said Wendell Potter, a former executive at Cigna Corp., one of the country's biggest insurers. "They were very, very successful during the years of Republican domination in Washington."
Many Republican leaders have enthusiastically embraced the call to revise the healthcare legislation, vowing to "repeal and replace" the law in the next congressional session. But that call to repeal poses a delicate issue for the budding GOP/insurance industry partnership. The Republican Party thinks it has a winning position in denouncing the unpopular mandate that will require Americans to get health insurance starting in 2014, while insurers and independent healthcare experts see the requirement as crucial to controlling costs for everyone by spreading the risk.
The healthcare law will penalize Americans $95 in 2014 if they fail to get insurance. The penalty rises to $695 in 2016.
"The one thing that insurance companies would love to see are penalties that are actually stronger," said Jeff Fusile, a partner at consulting giant PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The insurance industry, attracted by the prospect of millions of new customers as a result of the coverage mandate, initially backed President Obama's campaign to overhaul the healthcare system. And insurers scored a key victory when Democrats abandoned plans to create a government insurance plan, or "public option."
But insurers are increasingly balking at the myriad new directives in the healthcare law.
Among other things, the law prohibits insurance companies from denying coverage to sick children and canceling policies when customers become ill. The law bars insurers from placing lifetime caps on how much they will pay when their customers get sick.
Many consumers will also get new rights to appeal denied claims and win access to preventive care without being asked for co-pays.
"The health reform law did not deliver the uninsured in the way that insurers wanted," said veteran healthcare analyst Sheryl Skolnick, senior vice president at CRT Capital Group.
Some insurers have said recently they will stop selling some policies rather than comply with the mandate to insure sick children.
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"You can keep your insurance plan. You can keep your doctor."
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swampy wrote:
"You can keep your insurance plan. You can keep your doctor."
Sorry, I must be dense this morning - where is that quote from and what does it have to do with the article?
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Kind of amusing, considering that the industry WROTE the damn law in the first place. But not surprising. Thanks, SCOTUS.
Let's be honest about this. The 'healthcare law' is disliked by pretty much everyone. For wildly different reasons, ranging from "It doesn't do enough" to "It does too much".
Most of the atra-winged feel it does too much. Force me to buy insurance ? Fie !
And the sinister-winged feel it does too little. No government-run single provider ? Piffle !
(Note: Sorry. 4 years of Latin in Catholic school means Sinister= Left, Atra= Right)
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The only difference most people see in their health insurance this year is a 15% rise in premiums. Last year 0Bama said if we don't do anything they will rise by 20%. Thank you Mr. President for saving me 5%. Another campaign promised delivered. The only question now is how to spend that "extra" 5% I have in my pocket.
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Just as much was apparently OK.
Where were all the complainers when it was just as much instead of 1/3 as much ?
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Dakota wrote:
The only difference most people see in their health insurance this year is a 15% rise in premiums. Last year 0Bama said if we don't do anything they will rise by 20%. Thank you Mr. President for saving me 5%. Another campaign promised delivered. The only question now is how to spend that "extra" 5% I have in my pocket.
Name one health insurance company that has been approved by a state for 15% premium increase.
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I know we, including me, like to jump on our favorite hobby horses and ride them into every thread we possibly can, but maybe we can hop off for awhile here and look at what could be an interesting nuance to what is going on in this situation.
Facts:
- Health insurance companies are "buying" heavily into getting Republicans as much power in Washington as possible. [Okay, the term buying is not an unbiased term, but I don't think it is wrong.]
- Health insurance companies like mandatory coverage. They would like to have it strengthened.
- Republicans (in general) are campaigning to eliminate many (if not all) of the provisions of the new health care law, with mandatory coverage being pointed out as being particularly onerous.
So how do the Republicans in congress deal with this? Do they do the bidding of the health insurance companies that have given them so much financial support by keeping (and perhaps strengthening) mandatory coverage? Wouldn't that piss off their base? Or do they try to get mandatory coverage eliminated, which would piss off the insurance companies? I don't see how Republicans are going to thread this needle. What do you think?
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Ted-
Like all political conundrums, the issue is probably moot. I for one do not believe that the Republicans will have the political strength to touch the healthcare bill for at least two more years, perhaps more.
And if there is a revision to the bill, I think it will be just as poorly integrated as it's predecessor.
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Grace62 wrote:
[quote=Dakota]
The only difference most people see in their health insurance this year is a 15% rise in premiums. Last year 0Bama said if we don't do anything they will rise by 20%. Thank you Mr. President for saving me 5%. Another campaign promised delivered. The only question now is how to spend that "extra" 5% I have in my pocket.
Name one health insurance company that has been approved by a state for 15% premium increase.
You always reach for these bureaucratic replies. I know what *I* am not getting on my bottom line. You wanna see my pay stub? 15.6% to be exact. And that is just my share. Who knows what my employer share is? 30 million non paying people, 26 year old "kids", insure whoever walks in. What do you expect?
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