R i g h t a r d i a: co-ops

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Sickforprofit expose': WellPoint, the nation's largest insurance company.

Mon Oct 05, 2009 at 13:34:48 PM EDT

Netting $2.5 billion in profits last year wasn't enough for WellPoint, the nation's largest insurance company.

One of WellPoint's affiliates, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, is suing the state of Maine for refusing to guarantee it a profit margin in the midst of a painful recession.

At one time Blue Crosses were not for profit co-ops until corporations like WellPoint bought out the Blue Cross co-ops in different states. This is why the Max Baucus co-op proposal won't work.

Under the Baucus proposal co-ops won't be able to operate across state lines. Most co-ops make between $5-10 million per year and are too small to compete with the health care corporations.

source: http://www.hillbillyreport.org/diary/700/wellpoints-affiliate-anthem-blue-cross-and-blue-shield-is-suing-the-state-of-maine

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Wednesday, September 9, 2009

The public option or single payer? Either is better than co-ops

Rightardia has looked closely at the the co-op option Max Baucus in the Senate is advocating. Baucus is not advocating a super-co-op that could operate regionally across state lines. He is advocating a health care model that has not successfully competed with the large health care corporations in the past.

Co-ops in the US are small businesses that offer limited services. The ones that were successful like Blue Cross were bought out by the health care corporations.This option is a wash with the failed Hillarycare that would have tuned the US health care system into privately operated HMOS. The Democrats should stop trying to reinvent the wheel and do a 'slam dunk' on obstructionist Republicans.

Rightardia believes that co-ops are a waste of time. Obama and Speaker Nancy Pelosi should keep it simple and use the nuclear option: Medicare. Medicare is a single payer system that Americans understand. It would be simple to extend it to all Americans. This could be done all at once or phased in or a 10 year period. It would be very difficult for the GOP to attack Medicare without alienating seniors.

Tonight, President Barack Obama will address a joint session of Congress and urge lawmakers to pass health care reform. Naturally, it will also be an occasion to address the American people and once again explain the core ingredients of the plan. All eyes will be focused on the extent to which Obama makes or does not make the case for the public option, a matter about which the White House has continually sent mixed signals.

By contrast, former Labor Secretary and Huffington Post contributor Robert Reich has been a clear and outspoken supporter of the public option and, in a video that's been bouncing around the Internet this week, Reich states the case for the public option in a very clear in succinct fashion. As many have pointed out, it takes Reich only 70 seconds to fully explain what the public option is and does.