The health insurance industry end game

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

The health insurance industry has made enormous profits in the past. The business model is to collect premiums and then pay out as little as possible though whatever means necessary (prior condition exclusions, rescission, lifetime caps, denial of treatment, non-renewal, etc.) resulting in deaths and bankruptcies to their subscribers, but great payouts to shareholders and CEOs.

Now, 2 things may be about to happen simultaneously: mandates for universal coverage and the legislation making illegal the practices noted above.

Mandating millions of new consumers into the private industry will cause an enormous initial bloat of capital. Stocks will rise, shareholders will dance in the streets. But, simultaneously, their outflows will increase dramatically as they will have to ACTUALLY COVER services and treatments with no lifetime caps.

So, long story short, the entire industry will be essentially bankrupt in the next decade or so. I foresee them going out one by one, kind of like the banks. There will be another "crisis". The debate will be yet again whether the industry is "too big to fail" and will American taxpayers bail it out with MORE money or whether we can finally, once and for all pull the plug on a system that is vastly inferior and less efficient than single payer.

BUT, at that point, we will have in place, hopefully, not just Medicare, but another public option as well where all the subscribers of the bankrupt privates can be placed immediately which Americans will be used to and comfortable with.

That is how I see this all possibly playing out.

[TransitJohn]

1. You're more optimistic than I

I see it as a play to weaken Medicare and Medicaid, and forcing more of those folks into the "exchanges" that are supposed to operate on the state level, and of which the "public option" (that no one will be able to buy into) is supposed to be a part, but probably won't be. In other words, a windfall for the already oligarchic health insurance system. Plus, it will have the added advantage of souring the public on singple-payer health care in the future, because this bullshit is being branded "universal" in Joe Bumblefuck's brain; and it'll also sour the public on Democrats, so the next 25-30 years will be another Reagan-Gingrich era of American Congressional Brilliance.

[Oregone]

2. Maybe. Try Again Later

:)

[izquierdista]

3. You are very prescient

However you may be overly optimistic on having any options in place other than a hideous bailout. Remember, disaster capitalism requires these "crises" to lurch from one dysfunctional state to the next.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

4. Perhaps when we inevitably bail them out, we convert them to public non-profits

They will still have the identity of their private name and the same morans who don't know Medicare is "government-run healthcare" will never know the difference.

[Ruby the Liberal]

5. While on paper, I agree that this looks good

It doesn't take into account who would be elected into power in 2020 (much less 2016) and what their motivations may be. People vs Profits.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

6. True. Much also depends on whether the American public becomes

smarter or dumber still. We seem to be trending downward at the moment.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

7. evening kick.