Posted on 08/27/2009 8:41:46 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Max Shireman says that when he looks in the mirror he does not see the monster the politicians have made him out to be.
Sure, he could stand to lose a few pounds. And there was that speeding ticket last year for going 40 in a 30-mile-an-hour zone. But in his mind, he is just “a hard-working guy,” the son of an autoworker, who put himself through college, bought a house in the suburbs and occasionally volunteers at a local hospice. His indulgences, he said, are limited to sampling local microbrews and watching “Top Chef” with his wife.
“I’m certainly not villainous or immoral in any way, shape or form,” said Mr. Shireman, 40, a project manager for Humana, the country’s fourth-largest health insurer.
So Mr. Shireman does not like it one bit when he hears President Obama declare that Americans “are being held hostage by health insurance companies.” Or when the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi of California, characterizes insurers as “villains” who have “been immoral all along.”
In interviews this week at Humana’s headquarters in downtown Louisville, where the company was founded in 1961, employees offered suggestions about why their industry has come in for such heavy treatment.
Some said they were paying a price for what Ms. Pelosi has called a “shock and awe” campaign by the industry against Democratic proposals to create a new government insurance plan, which would compete with commercial insurers.
“I believe we’re getting the pushback because we are standing up for what we believe in,” said Cheryl Tidwell, 45, Humana’s director of commercial sales training. “We believe there’s a better way to control costs by controlling utilization and getting people involved in their health care.”(continued)
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Health insurance agent here.
I wish the insurance industry would run some advertising on all the mistakes that government makes, and on all the denied claims that government plans experience, every day!
I wish conservatives would run some ads exposing “Medicaid Estate Recovery” and how these collection agents, working for the States, under Federal mandate, go after your money even after you are dead, to pay health care bills!
I suspect a lot of insurance company employees will be able to find work as prison guards, in slaughter houses, and in local animal shelters as the ones who gas the puppies and kittens.
parsy, who says mean people always seem to find work
they are ‘villains’ simply because they stand in the way of obama’s path to complete control over the country
you are an ass sometimes, pal.
Without the insurance industry, the malpractice business, off of which you earn YOUR living, would not exist.
Without the health insurance industry, we would not have the finest health care system in the world.
By the way, EVERY country with socialized medicine has HUGE caps on medical liability lawsuits, and also, pretty much, outlaws class action lawsuits against drug companies and medical equipment manufacturers.
You are cutting your own throat, to attack the insurance industry like you do.
Thank you! Most people say I am an *ss ALL the time. I must be mellowing with age.
Insurance companies are great. I just hate it when they think the money belongs to them. And have you ever tried to convince any of them there is such a thing as pain and suffering? OMG! They like come out with stuff like, “What does not kill your client, makes him stronger.”
parsy, who gets scared sometimes
They are getting a taste of the same treatment the oil industry traditionally gets.
AND of course, the thing is, the oil industry is the basis and foundation for the entire national and world economy - every single bit of it.
WITHOUT “energy” - everyone, you are back to camping out everyday all year long, and eating what you can grow or kill. Your world is now limited to how far you can walk, or maybe ride a horse.
Now medical insurance is being targeted as evil.
Welcome to the crosshairs of the liberal juggernaut...
I’ve worked in health insurance here too, and have a degree in Health Information Technology.
Question: Is it possible for a person who is under his company’s medical insurance to get a policy that would kick in if he lost his job and was left without medical insurance? Sort of insure for loss of insurance?
“Insurance companies are great. I just hate it when they think the money belongs to them. “
it doesn’t but the problem is that employers are making insurance decisions for their employees. If individuals chose their own insurance, the insurance companies would be much more responsive to their needs.
Y'all are beginning to sound a lot like the oil patch in the insurance buisness...
Anyone see a pattern yet?
Would be a great idea, but NO, nothing like that exists, right now.
COBRA helps, but that is a complicated law that requires the group plan to make continued coverage available for some time after you leave employment.
Bump this thread because it’s late and DO NOT GET ME STARTED on the racket that is medical collections.
Sort of like Reinsurance, like where an insurance company takes out insurance in case it is deluged by claims, say in case of a Hurricane.
Never had this problem, but why is it it that COBRA cannot allow the continuation of coverage if the employee agrees to pay in advance a premium for the same or less coverage, say an ammount equal to the employer’s share ?
I thought you were guaranteed the right to stay on for 18 months after you lose your job.
That is what the law does, right now.
Sometimes for 18 months.
Sometimes for 36 months, depending on the circumstances.
The primary problem, from in insurance standpoint, is that the employer should still be free to switch to another health insurance plan, and the individual on COBRA complicates matters, when that happens.
Could not the former employee commit to accept whatever insurance the former employer...No I can see what you mean. Kind of like having a former wife on your insurance and you want to insure the new wife. Entangling alliances.
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