(10 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)
from the ConsumerWatchdog.org
What the loss of the Public Option really Means …
Good bye competitive choice …
HELLOOOO … More of the Same!
Health Care Premiums Rise 5% For Year — Increase Is 131% For Decade
By Victoria Colliver, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE — Sep 16, 2009
The average family premium for health insurance offered through an employer surpassed the $13,000 mark this year, and the cost of coverage continues to outpace increases in wages and inflation, according to a report released Tuesday.
[…]
Over the past 10 years, premiums have risen 131 percent while wages have increased just 38 percent. In that time, inflation has gone up 28 percent.
[…]
About 60 percent of employers offered health benefits this year, down from 66 percent in 1999. While 8 percent of employers said they were “somewhat” or “very likely” to drop coverage, more than 40 percent planned to increase the amount employees pay toward their premiums.
[…]
Employers generally pay 74 percent of the cost of coverage, with smaller firms contributing less than larger companies.
http://www.consumerwatchdog.or…
SO What does the Death of the Public Option really Mean …
More of Same
More outrageous increases in premiums — far outpacing the rate of Inflation.
More Collusion between Insurance Corporations — to set prices, to divvy up States without any real Competition to hold them in check.
More Monopoly-like Insurers, making a Fortune on the backs of consumers —
Hard working Americans who continue to pay and pay, for less and less benefits in return.
Used to be in this Country, such anti-competitive “pricing fixing” was illegal.
No longer, it seems.
As one Senator put it recently, in a moment of unusual bluntness —
“The Bankers own the Place”
Looks like we need to extend that to include the Insurance and Drug Companies, too.
Even though the People elect them, Senators obviously have other monied-interests, that they MUST Answer to.
Meanwhile, average folks can look forward to falling further behind, since the pace of Wage Increases, certainly HASN’T KEPT PACE, with those Increases in Premiums!
Decade of No Income Gains for Wage Earners
By: Mike_Shedlock – Sep 13, 2009
The typical American household made less money last year than the typical household made a full decade ago.
[…] the big news from the Census Bureau’s annual report on income, poverty and health insurance, which was released this morning. Median household fell to $50,303 last year, from $52,163 in 2007. In 1998, median income was $51,295. All these numbers are adjusted for inflation.
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/…
Hmmm? we appear to be moving backwards!
What the loss of the competitive choice really mean … to you and your Family.
the More things DON’T Change,
the More they Stay the Same.
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or outrage,
you choose.
revelation that during the peak of the debate, 1.25 million dollars per day was rolling into the politicians coffers from the health insurance and pharma companies. I mean come on! The game is so frigging obvious. Let’s see, the corporations are giving money to the politicians. Why on earth would they do that? It’s as old as clay.
Fuck you Democrats, don’t even come looking for us in 2010. We’ll be staying home or voting for narwhals.
And then to extend Medicare to Baby Boomers?
Jesus christ. They already broke their parent’s generation, now they are going to loot us.
Again.
public option would have done the same thing: left everything essentially in place to explode in a few years.
Mandates w/o a strong public option are the worst possible combination.
This debacle has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that D.C. has been bought and sold.
It was a litmus test for democracy in America, and we failed.
The day Obama signs this disaster, I am mailing him my voter registration card.
First there the fact that while income is stagnant or going down for the average person it rose rapidly over the past 30 years for the rich. Also note that the cost of living is way higher for those essentials we must have — the best work on this is still by Elizabeth Warren (skip the first 4:55 of the vid) (I’ve posted both the vids below before and I’m sure some of you have seen them — but the points that are made in them ought to be at the center of every political argument that involves economics):
Warren shows that our standard of living has actually dropped drastically. The figures she shows which are slightly beyond third grade level never seems to have filtered to the media.
Finally, all this came at the same time productivity gains went up. In short, productivity gains went to corporate profit not pay increases. This is very important for both the obvious economic reasons and, more importantly in my view, for political reasons. Creating a society of serfs who are forever in debt has something to do with the meekness of the body politic.
Medicare continues to rise but I’m okay with that – I can manage. But I don’t think I can keep the supplemental much longer – it goes up and up and up. Unrealistic to think a working class retired woman can afford the cost of supplemental insurance. I was hoping (dreaming really) if there were some kind of public option supplemental insurance might be addressed. Plus the drums are beating on Medicare – there will be cuts.
When my doctor and I discussed the healthcare debate, he said to me: “You know I’m a capitalist.” Good to hear. (At least he takes Medicare – many out here don’t. Of course, my copays in Medicare have risen but what is the choice I have but to pay and pray (that I stay healthy). What are the laws about my house – can I lose it to medical bills?
How about a prescription for valium, doc –
Yes I know my “sources” were all these, well, like “low grade” conspiracy tin foil hat places but still it was very clearly laid out. Global control of all things medical. Global control of all things financial too.
A high populace state, Massachusetts, aleady choosen to be the pilot program state for mandatory buying of junk insurance.
The reality? Well, fat cat rich guys fund governments all over the world to get what they want. They meet in June, the Bilderberg Group to discuss all of this and their reports were actually spot on, were they not?
It means we’re hosed?
Just guessing w/out reading at your spendid-looking documentation.
How many times over the last 9 years have we had these moments.
They’re exactly the same, every time, whether they’re about the destruction of Habeus Corpus, funding the wars, whatever.
Every time the Dems sell us out and we scream and yell and say “they lost me”.
And what do we do about it?
Anybody start any new parties yet?
No? Why not?
The two parties we have don’t represent us. They’re two reflections of the same ruling “real” party.
If we want some actual representation, we have to provide it ourselves.
New parties. New people. New everything.
About the mainstream Democratic movement that ignored everything else (like financial reform, torture, and ending the wars) so that it could concentrate on just HCR.
What does it say when you sell out all your other principles for one thing, and then you don’t even get that one thing?