Obama wants "straight answer" from health insurers
1 of 2. President Barack Obama speaks about healthcare reform from the East Room of the White House in Washington March 3, 2010. - President Obama on Wednesday said it is time to pass his healthcare overhaul using only a slim Democratic majority in Congress if necessary.
Credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque
WASHINGTON |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama attacked the country's biggest health insurers on Saturday for failing to give him a "straight answer" on why they were "arbitrarily and massively" hiking their premiums.
Obama's renewed criticism of insurers comes as he tries to rally support among Americans and lawmakers within his own Democratic Party for a final push to pass a bill reforming the troubled $2.5 trillion healthcare industry.
The president and his health secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, met the chief executives of four of the largest U.S. health insurance companies -- Aetna Inc, Cigna Corp, UnitedHealth Group Inc and WellPoint Inc -- at the White House this week.
"They couldn't give me a straight answer as to why they keep arbitrarily and massively raising premiums -- by as much as 60 percent in states like Illinois," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address.
"If we do not act, they will continue to do this."
Insurers say they must raise rates to cover skyrocketing healthcare costs at a time when more people are dropping coverage because of financial hardship. Higher costs are then spread among a smaller pool of paying customers, they say.
Insurance companies have been a favorite target as Obama tries to convince Americans, who have mixed feelings about his planned healthcare overhaul, they will be better off if Congress passes his ambitious plan.
"The proposal we've put forward would end the worst practices of the insurance industry, lower costs for millions of Americans and give uninsured individuals and small business the same kind of choice of private health insurance that members of Congress get for themselves," Obama said.
The overhaul, designed to cut costs, regulate insurers and expand coverage to tens of millions of Americans, is Obama's signature domestic policy.
"VERY CLOSE"
After Obama spent months campaigning for the overhaul, holding a series of town-hall meetings across the country, stiff Republican opposition and the loss of a crucial 60th Democratic vote in the Senate had stalled the effort.
But Obama has not given up and this week he urged Congress to vote on the plan in the next few weeks, even if it meant passing the measure with a narrow Democratic majority and no Republican support.
"I know it has been a long and hard road to this point. And we are not finished with our journey just yet. But we are close. We are very close. And so I ask Congress to finish its work," Obama said in his weekly address.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said this week the House of Representatives could vote on a Senate-passed version of healthcare reform by March 18, when Obama is due to leave for a weeklong trip to Indonesia and Australia.
Analysts say the Democrats can ill-afford to give up on the healthcare overhaul now after devoting more than a year to the effort. Failure to pass it could hurt them in congressional elections in November.
Republicans have called on Obama to ditch the plan and start again, saying it is too expensive for a government running huge budget deficits and vastly expands the role of government in healthcare.
"Americans want reform. But they don't want this," said Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate. "And they're fed up because the longer Democrats cling to their flawed vision of reform, the longer Americans have to wait for the reforms they really want."
(Editing by John O'Callaghan)
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One thing this article doesn’t tell you, the insurance execs also told him that premiums go up in some states because the state government MANDATES certain coverage, they must provide it whether people want it or not. In other words, people are paying more because they are getting more!
He is so stupid when it comes to economics. He hasn’t run anything but this country into the ground.
However, with healthcare, people are already receiving it as a “right”. If you are gravely ill, a hospital is REQUIRED to do what they can for you and if you cannot afford it, they will raise costs on the insured to cover it. Also, those people do not seek that care until an “emergency situation” and therefore it is:
a) MUCH more expensive.
b) Less likely to succeed.
This ends up being bad in BOTH cases. Now even if you do have health insurance, you can max out your health insurance limit. At this point, you won’t receive the more successful(and expensive) care any longer. Here you will die of chronic illness or end up losing everything you own in bankruptcy when you cannot afford to pay for various surgeries and months in the hospital.
THAT is the healthcare system we currently have and THAT is why something must be done. President Obama knows there are many problems with the current system and no perfect fix. His proposed bill will do a great deal to repair it. Yes we could prune it to be less wasteful or have fewer “kickbacks” to certain people/groups. These things can be done at a later date after the bill is passed.
While it upsets people who want limited government power, the only institution that has any power to fix this issue is the government. Here is a quick explanation of how the bill can help:
1) People pay into insurance companies for years but are dropped or have their premiums raised when they actually need the care. This practice is an abuse of the insurance design and must be stopped. Companies also cannot be allowed to deny people who need coverage.
2) Insurance companies will go bankrupt under those circumstances unless EVERYONE is required to pay in at ALL times. Otherwise people will just wait until they are sick and then purchase health insurance. This is why there is a mandate to buy insurance.
3) The fact of the matter is some people will simply be unable to afford to buy insurance. But again, they are REQUIRED because of the mandate. So as a bridge between private insurance companies(who still need to profit) and a single-payer government system, the government will provide subsidies to those who cannot afford insurance. Basically, the taxpayers will pay for some/all of the poorer population’s insurance. This is a polarizing issue, but in many cases the government is already using taxpayer money to pay for this, but at the inflated costs we currently have. In the end though, everyone should save on health insurance because costs will come down.
4) Now that everyone is paying in, and everyone is being cared for, prices will drop because:
a) Hospitals won’t just raise costs on the insured to cover the uninsured.
b) Those with no or poor-quality insurance will now be able to see a physician easier. They will have more regular checkups and will be less likely to procrastinate on seeing a doctor when they become ill. Preventative care is much cheaper than surgeries/long term medicines.
c) Insurance fraud crackdown and hopefully some sort of tort reform should also lower costs.
d) The cost of drugs will lower. As more people are able to receive them, companies will be able to recover the millions they invested in research and turn a profit sooner.
e) Regulation of insurance companies will lower costs as well. Tort reform, for example, won’t necessarily lower what insurance companies charge. Just because doctors have to spend less on insurance, and can therefore charge less, insurance companies may just keep those savings as profit. This can actually be the case with anything that lowers the cost on the front end.
Now you can argue that the government shouldn’t be so involved in healthcare. There actually are some valid concerns about the future of a “government-run healthcare system”. It is important to note that the current bill is in NO WAY a government-run healthcare system. It is a system that has more regulation(to prevent abuses/fraud), helps PRIVATE insurance companies to insure more people, and brings down costs for everyone in the end.
Sorry for the long post and I am sure most people won’t read it. I just felt that we don’t always get the FACTS about the current healthcare issue and what is actually in the bill. Basically though, you can be against government handouts and fear this bill is too expensive. But truthfully, taxpayers are already paying for the uninsured but at a far higher cost than is needed. This bill will help fix that.
“Americans want reform. But they don’t want this,” said Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate. “And they’re fed up because the longer Democrats cling to their flawed vision of reform, the longer Americans have to wait for the reforms they really want.”
Then expand and explain; I still don’t know what the republicans think the heathcare bill should look like, try reporting that.
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