O'S RX: BREAK IT. DEADLY INSURANCE 'FIX'

NY Post ^ | August 25, 2009 | SALLY PIPES

[Scanian]

PRESIDENT Obama and his allies in Congress seem to have decided that the best way to fix the private health-insurance market is to break it completely.

Polls have prompted them to shift from health-care reform to "health-insurance reform." Combine this with a government-funded, -regulated and an ultimately -controlled "co-op" system, and the nation will arrive by local roads at the same destination that the public rejected via the expressway: an out-of-control health-care system dominated by federal bureaucrats and funded by increasingly high taxes.

The irony is that private insurance works well where it's least regulated. To find the unaffordable disasters, you must head to states such as New York or New Jersey that have pioneered the reforms Obama is peddling for the entire country.

The health-care sector is complex and interwoven. What appears to be government might in fact be run by private insurance companies. Medicare, for example, has long contracted out its day-to-day operations to insurance companies, mostly Blue Cross and Blue Shield.

Most Americans receive the health coverage they cherish through their employer. Chances are, if it's a large employer, it's a self-funded plan, and (as with Medicare) the insurance company is merely administering the program.

It's only smaller employers and people seeking policies in the individual market who actually buy insurance from carriers.

The individual market is where people face the most choices and have the most choice -- except in those states with Obama-style regulations. People are spending their own money and so must confront directly the value of more insurance protection versus other uses of their cash. Not surprisingly, they often opt for less generous coverage with less onerous premiums.

To discover this world of choice, just go to ehealthinsurance.org.

[Wiseghy]

I like Sally, but many of these libertarian types fail to grasp that individual insurance in most states will reject about 80%,or more, of adults, based on medical history.

Insurance for individuals can be fixed, and the industry is leading the charge to do so.

But O wants to use insurers as a whipping boy.

Big pharma got off, via their $150 Million.

[q_an_a]

The battle cry should include, “You worked extra hard to STOP the fix of Social Security under president Bush. You have had cost over runs on Medicare and Medicaid from the 1st year they started. You missed deficit numbers by 500 billion dollars this year...why should you be allowed to change healthcare? Why not fix what you control first then show us what you can do. If you can fix one thing then we will give you a chance to make changes - but not before you fix WHAT YOU HAVE BROKEN!!