Representative Alan Mollohan: Keep standing up for us, not the insurance companies

really (0.00 / 0)

is funny how you all try to make the insurance company the villian...so weak

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by: stevewvu @ Wed Mar 17, 2010 at 19:42:41 PM UTC

really? (4.00 / 1)

It's hard for me to believe that you are a small business owner providing insurance for your family and your employees families... and you still take the side of the health insurance companies.

That's a funny one.

The small business owners I've talked to have nothing but bad things to say about how the premiums keep going up for worse and worse coverage. And, heaven forbid if someone on the plan has an expensive diagnosis--that can shoot the 'community rating' through the roof forever.

But, great for you if your health care and health care insurance needs are being met. Unfortunately, there lots of health care horror stories happening each and every day.

Read a few and you might just start to think... "there but for the grace of God goes I."

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by: Clem Guttata @ Wed Mar 17, 2010 at 20:28:13 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

That must be his small business! Independent broker. (4.00 / 1)

NFTT: Support My Team or I Will Dance

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by: CA Berkeley WV @ Wed Mar 17, 2010 at 22:42:19 PM UTC

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some people (4.00 / 1)

I guess some people just believe in personal responsibility for health care.

Me, I think we're all better off when our neighbors are, too.

And, it's pretty simple to show that we're all better off when more people around us have good health care coverage. Public health works.

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by: Clem Guttata @ Thu Mar 18, 2010 at 11:03:17 AM UTC

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Economically, too (0.00 / 0)

see Ezra and CEBP chart.

That's why I like to say that after we pass health-care reform, we're going to need to pass health-care reform. Unless you can bring the sector's growth under control, there's no way to get the deficit under control.

But if you can bring our costs more in line with international norms, the deficit problem disappears entirely.

Duty bound Veterans care. State share of Medicaid.

Federal Medicare promise to elders, even if they don't understand what Medicare is while they are yelling at their Representative. You name it.

NFTT: Support My Team or I Will Dance

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by: CA Berkeley WV @ Thu Mar 18, 2010 at 23:21:39 PM UTC

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i take (0.00 / 0)

the side of the health insurance companies because for 20 plus years the company that i am with has provided excellant service, coverage etc...weve never had a claim turned down....for the record, i am not in any way associated with the insurance companies...i dont want the government screwing with my relationship with the insurance comany i chose, which is what will happen...just like you all would pay a bit more to patronize a mom and pop store over walmart, i am comfortable with the product i get for me and my employees and the price i pay for it...couple that with my believe that health insurance in not a right bestowed by the constitiution and there you have it...

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by: stevewvu @ Thu Mar 18, 2010 at 13:39:03 PM UTC

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not clear what side that puts you on (4.00 / 1)

There's nothing in this bill that will "screw with your relationship with the insurance company you chose."

Also, it just so happens the bill will reduce the federal deficit in both the next 10 and the next 20 years.

So, can I put you down for supporting it? Or, are you pro-deficit?

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by: Clem Guttata @ Thu Mar 18, 2010 at 22:06:59 PM UTC

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stevewvu, if you can read this (4.00 / 2)

and still say that you are a blackheart. Read the entire thing.

Reuters

Good student. Hard worker. Planning head. But hey, insurance is just a business. Free market and capitalism. One should not expect a policy to cover catastrophic illness because there is all that personal responsibility in rugged individualism that made this country great.

In May, 2002, Jerome Mitchell, a 17-year old college freshman from rural South Carolina, learned he had contracted HIV. The news, of course, was devastating, but Mitchell believed that he had one thing going for him: On his own initiative, in anticipation of his first year in college, he had purchased his own health insurance.

And besides this is the time frame when insurance companies were losing their shirts and making no profits and cutting executive salaries down to what President Bush made, right? All so they could fulfill their end of the contract bargain. Legal contract that both sides should respect.

In September 2009, the South Carolina Supreme Court upheld the lower court's verdict, although the court reduced the amount to be paid him to $10 million.

By winning the verdict against Fortis, Mitchell not only obtained a measure of justice for himself; he also helped expose wrongdoing on the part of Fortis that could have repercussions for the entire health insurance industry.

Little guys don't need access to the courts. They just gum up the works with phony stuff. Companies are honest and should be trusted do always do the right thing, because they don't want to lose customers. That is how it is supposed to work. Or is it?

A computer program and algorithm targeted every policyholder recently diagnosed with HIV for an automatic fraud investigation, as the company searched for any pretext to revoke their policy. As was the case with Mitchell, their insurance policies often were canceled on erroneous information, the flimsiest of evidence, or for no good reason at all, according to the court documents and interviews with state and federal investigators.

Honest mistake right? The kid did try to bring this to their attention before seeking legal counsel. I wonder why they were ignoring him.

In his previously undisclosed court ruling, the judge in the Mitchell case also criticized what he said were the company's efforts to cover its tracks.

Oh, and that South Caroline State Supreme Court decision upholding the ruling? It was 5 - 0.

Fortis canceled Mitchell's health insurance based on a single erroneous note from a nurse in his medical records that indicated that he might have been diagnosed prior to his obtaining his insurance policy. When the company's investigators discovered the note, they ceased further review of Mitchell's records for evidence to the contrary, including the records containing the doctor's diagnosis.

I am sure that this court is just packed with bleeding heart liberals in the mold of Sen. Jim DeMint.

NFTT: Support My Team or I Will Dance

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by: CA Berkeley WV @ Wed Mar 17, 2010 at 23:52:23 PM UTC

a beauty (0.00 / 0)

http://www.youtube.com/watch_p...

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by: stevewvu @ Thu Mar 18, 2010 at 18:05:41 PM UTC

The House will vote on the Senate bill and amendments (0.00 / 0)

The bill to which Mr. Rogers addresses his GOP talking points is not going to be law. That markup was nine months ago, July, before their committee bill was merged with the other committees of jurisdiction in the House, before the Senate committees had finished.

NIH research. NASA research. CDC work. FDA work. All financed out of his pocket? I am sure that is where all his health care industry donations went, right? Amazing, the health industry has been his biggest contributor cycle after cycle.

So Rogers' explanation of the section is technically right, but it comes with a caveat. Rather than the government being able to indiscriminately disenroll individuals and businesses from plans, people would only be removed from substandard plans after repeated warnings and attempts to correct those plans.

That Mr. and Mrs. Rogers? They had government run health care when he work at the FBI, stevewvu. They have government run health care now, stevewvu. The FEBP has a minimum policy to qualify for inclusion, like the exchange for the currently uninsured. I hate hypocrites. And liars.

Canada's survival rates are much closer to those in the United States. Canada actually leads the United States on cervical and pancreatic cancers. Additionally, that same Lancet study noted that other countries with single-payer systems have comparable rates to the United States, including Finland, Sweden and Iceland.

As far as I know, only Sen. Sherrod Brown D-OH has refused the health care benefits, both now and when he was elected to the House in 1993. Every GOP who rails against this is taking advantage of the rate pooling offered. Jerks.

NFTT: Support My Team or I Will Dance

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by: CA Berkeley WV @ Thu Mar 18, 2010 at 23:55:34 PM UTC

[ Parent ]