Obama says insurance companies holding US hostage

[bemildred]

Source: Reuters

BELGRADE, Mont., Aug 14 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama, pushing for healthcare reform during a trip to conservative Montana, said on Friday the country was "held hostage" by insurance companies that deny coverage to sick people.

Obama, on a multi-state swing to tamp down vociferous opposition to his top domestic priority, targeted insurance companies for dropping customers who become sick or forcing patients to cover huge costs.

"We are held hostage at any given moment by health insurance companies that deny coverage or drop coverage or charge fees that people can't afford," Obama told a crowd of some 1,000 people in Montana.

"It's wrong. It's bankrupting families. It's bankrupting businesses. And we are going to fix it when we pass health insurance reform this year," he said.



Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN14312188

[bemildred]

1. Obama says he's not trying to vilify insurers

BELGRADE, Mont. — President Barack Obama says he isn't trying to vilify the insurance companies. He says he's just trying to stop their practices that hurt people.

Obama was responding to an insurance salesman who asked about the president's change in terminology. Obama has switched from calling for "health reform" to "health insurance reform." He's also complained about insurance companies' profits.

The president says his intent was not to vilify the big companies. He said some, like Aetna, are working with the administration on overhaul. But he said others are spending money to oppose his efforts to remake the system.

Obama kicked off a four-state swing in Montana to push for his top domestic priority and regain the initiative in the bitter debate.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ieXqktgyQ9EBK9L6KlvZJ7eTic-gD9A2SC880

[Deja Q]

3. And he's right. Insurance companies are one part of a very complex situation.

Which includes hospitals and all of us too.

I've lost 4 pounds so far, via exercise, and I'm going to lose more.

I WILL do my part. For I am, as best as I can. That's all any of us CAN do.

[bemildred]

4. The President doesn't want a war, he just wants them to stop being pig-headed.

Good for you by the way.

[silverweb]

12. I'm with you there.

I've optimized my blood pressure and diet, and have already lost a good bit of weight. The next phase is exercise, and I'm working on that currently.

Like you, I WILL do my part. :thumbsup:

[PA Democrat]

7. The insurance companies have vilified themselves with their bad behavior.

[Qutzupalotl]

15. This is a deft political strategy.

Come off nice (not trying to vilify), but stick in the shiv (they're holding us hostage). He's using the language of crime, making *them* out to be kidnappers -- and this after his opponents call him a thug or worse.

Taking the fight to them is to our advantage. Obama should keep showing his passion, because that's contagious. People respect a guy who fights back. Reid could stand a shot of that. Where's that boxer?

[Deja Q]

2. YES!! YIPPIE!!!

+1
K&R

And he's right. Just having asthma can be a disqualifier and that's bloody ridiculous. Not all asthmatics need constant care either...

Never mind the costs of some hospitals' accessories have no excuses (my favorite $20 aspirin and $10 kleenex tissue once again spring to mind, never mind replacement nose guards for a CPAP machine and they send you the whole headgear to go along with it - grossly wasteful.)

[mbperrin]

5. What do we do with hostage takers? Right. We kill them.

Single payer universal, please.

[hay rick]

13. But we need the insurance companies

to take 30% off the top of our premiums for administrative expenses and profits.

[mbperrin]

22. D'oh! How could I have forgotten that???

And yet, when my neighbor asks me what we would do without insurance, and I ask him, what insurance employee ever gave a physical, gave a shot, prescribed a medication, or counseled for mental illness, I just get a vacant look.

Not one ounce of health care comes out of the tall temples that insurance companies are headquartered in, and why it's not obvious that insurance salaries could be paying medical salaries to increase care, I can't guess.

[Wizard777]

6. Quit calling them Insurance Companies and call them what they really are. Ponzi Schemes!

If only Madoff would have sold "policies" instead of "shares." He would still be very free and very wealthy.

[bemildred]

8. Good point.

Insurance has always been prone to racketeering, big pots of money, nobody supervising what happens to it.

[Wizard777]

10. Just like a Ponzie Scheme the only thing being insured is the guy at the tops wealth,

Given a choice between paying 5 million in claims or paying the CEO bonus. Guess who won't be told. Your claim has been approved I'm trying real hard to get you a place on the payment schedule. Guess who also won't be told. The company lost money this year. Your bonus claim is denied and your employment contract is rescinded.

[Psephos]

16. Unlike, say, TARP

or Pentagon black budgets or Social Security "Trust" funds. ;)

The problem isn't private vs. public; it's whether there is concentration of (power, money, bottleneck resources, secret information, fill in the blank).

Decentralization and check/balance structures are the only answer, and between advancing corporatization and burgeoning government I don't see much smooth road ahead.

[bemildred]

21. Yah, I'm with you. nt

[grahamhgreen]

9. +1

[Edweird]

11. OK, then why are insurance co's involved and single payer out of the question?

It doesn't make sense.

[CreekDog]

14. If nutjobs try to make Obama the enemy he can make the insurance company the enemy very easily

given a choice between Obama and Health Insurance companies, just how hard a choice will that be for most Americans?

[Vidar]

17. He's right, but he continues to support them.

[laughingliberal]

18. Correct

Wendall Potter said in an interview recently that if reform goes through as it stands now (no choice of a public option, mandate for everyone to buy insurance) it will be the Health Insurance Industry Protection and Profitability Act of 2009. Again, today, President Obama sounded like he's on track to back the Senate Finance committee's bill.

[aquart]

19. Should Americans die to protect CEO bonuses.

Someone needs to run an ad publishing the compensation of these bastards. Just list the money they make and then ask:

Why is healthcare so expensive?

Every time your claim is denied, he gets to buy his wife a really nice present.

That's worth dying for, isn't it?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

20. Actually, it's a handful of Dem Senators doing the hostage-taking.

[kath]

23. Hey - you, Mr. Prez. Cut the bullshit "health insurance reform" phraseology, and get to work

reforming health CARE. We need REAL fuckin' reform - and we certainly don't need mandatory payments to the bloodsucking insurance companies.

[Odin2005]

24. Thank you Mr. President!