Ohhh one last time
m0002a wrote:The shareholders agreed (through their representatives on the board of directors)
If only it worked that way. The directors are selected by management. Every attempt to reform the system has been successfully fought off by the Repubs. The current philosophy is... you don't like the company, you don't like our directors... sell the stock.
Stocks go up and down. We all get to share the going down. But when a company is undervalued by the market... only hedge funds have the option of coming in, buying off the gatekeeper CEO with a comp plan, and taking it private. The hedge funds get the house odds in this casino. When you see a hedge fund manager making a few billion a year... it is in effect being funded from your 401K fund. He is skimming your money. All he has to do is spend a few million per year 1/3 to the Democrats and 2/3 to the Repubs to keep the merry go round going round.
m0002a wrote:There may be nothing wrong with such entitlements, but it is not really insurance in the traditional sense, which is why more and more health care insurance companies are moving toward just providing an administrative role, and the employers (or governments) are assuming the risks.
That may seem like reasonable logic. That isn't how it actually is. The insurance companies were over charging employers for pretending to bear risk. The employers kicked them out. Most employers with at least 200 to 300 employees save money by "self administering" through a TPA. As an employee it is hard to tell if your employer is self administered. That is because even when they "self administer", they aren't doing it themselves... and they are still using someone else's provider network. This is why watching this discussion is so frustrating to me.
Bottom line, in most insurance the risk is shared by the same cohort of insureds with the Insurance company bearing the ultimate risk, moderated by careful underwriting.... and most importantly a high rate of return from the investment of premiums.
Bottom line for health insurance, the risk must be shared across different age groups. The young and healthy are easily identified. You don't need much underwriting to do that. They have to pay more... as they age they get subsidized by their children. If insurance companies are permitted to cherry pick, they have to in order to retain competitiveness. If cherry picking is permitted, the old and infirm are in effect denied access to health insurance.
Repubs Stand up for their Real Consituents
Single payor is only one of many solutions.
But any workable solution requires the dismantling of the free market insurance industry as it currently stands. Our decision makers must decide what is more important, the welfare of American citizens or the welfare of CEOs who have commandeered insurance companies that were built by someone else and that are owned by someone else. That is the rub for the Repubs.
The Repubs have made their position quite clear.
Snookered Again - Modern Day Johny Rebs
And that is where I see the analogy of
(a) the Johny Rebs dieing to protect a slaveholder system that was inimical to their welfare and that of their loved ones, and
(b) modern day Johny Rebs literally dieing to protect a healthcare system also inimical to their welfare and that of their loved ones.
The only difference is that the Civil War Johny Rebs at least understood they were risking their lives. Modern day Johny Rebs won't figure it out until they get a bit older and get sucker punched by a claims adjuster (this violence is done person to person... though you will never be permitted to speak to the person who is screwing you). Some portion of the modern day Johny Rebs figure it out... but only after it is too late and they have cast too many self destructive votes. And some never make the connection between their past voting habits and what befalls them.
What Goes Around Comes Around
Though even if they didn't get it, if they would have only followed the Golden Rule, they would not have done so much harm to themselves.
One day you will get it. I sort of hope that when you do you will have a dim memory of having heard it here first.
'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.'