Why give $250 million of taxpayer money to state agencies that are self-funded? In other words, insurance departments assess insurance companies operating in their states for 100% of their budgets. If additional over sight is needed than all they have to do is increase their assessment on the industry. So is this an insurance industry bailout to avoid higher assessments on the industry? Sounds crazy, but we’re never going to reduce the budget deficit if we keep throwing money away like this.
It appears that the only big business that no longer has accountability is the Obama administration. I am so sick of this out of control spending that has no consideration for how it is to be repaid.
Thank god that the insurance companies do have accountability, unlike the US goverment.
There you go – employ more people to work for the government to create more (jobs)and bureacracy. This money came (or will come) from the private sector. This is not going to work, there are more government employees overseeing the private employees. That means, we the private people have to work harder to pay for the government people. By the way, the government employees are paid way way more than us.
Unfortunately, laws are enacted today based on poll data and political spin, not on leadership or courage. The pols are telling us that “regulating big business” gets more votes than deficit spending and/or tax increases loses. This stops once the public sends the message otherwise. It’s that simple.
No one batted an eye when Bush was SPENDING BILLIONS of dollars a day on a war. Let’s get real! Did you know that government employees make more money?
They do tell you the prices of their services. Read your “Summary of Benefits” when it comes in the mail and you will know exactly what you were charged vs. what the insurance company paid. Someone is not opening their mail!!
It costs nothing if you elect not to pay. Those of us who pay get an itemized bill (an EOB – explanation of benefits). What difference does it make then? Are you going to shop before you go to a hospital? Be reasonable.
Oh, got it Joe! I believe you have to ask for it and they will give you the cost of the procedure and what they think your insurance will pay. It’s funny how insurance picks and chooses what they will pay!
doctors cannot make millions a year, THEY DO! just ask an opthamologist or dermatologist if you can get an honest answer.
Drug companies cannot charge $35. a pill. and charge a Canadian $2.50 for the same pill.
Hospitals emergency room visits cannot cost $2500 for a 3 hour wait and a shot of insulin.
Lawyers should not be able to sue a doctor and collect 40% of a patients pain and suffering. I think we all should be able to sue lawyers for our pain and suffering paying our premiums.
Why cant we take our policies with us when we leave an employer and pay the same premiums until we qualify for other insurance. They were happy taking the premium before we left our employer? Huh..
Why cant we get a standard health insurance policy with standard exclusions instead of these policies that you find out will not pay for services until you get approval, WHY DO WE NEED APPROVAL, DO WE NEED APPROVAL TO GET OUR CAR REPAIRD WHEN IN AN ACCIDENT AND WE HAVE COLLISION COVERAGE?
FIX THE ABOVE AND PREMIUMS WILL DROP SUBSTANTIALLY.
This latest useless Obama program is just for show to make it appear he cares about the people. In reality, he’s spending money we don’t have to further line the pockets of the corrupt and mostly incompetent state insurance commissioners. Policing rate hikes is already part of their job description. Of course since most of them think they have no-show jobs and they’re all in the insurers’ pockets, that’s not happening, anyway. The situation is especially bad in Delaware. You can’t get that commissioner to do a damn thing without paying up first.
This is a more cogent query. Why indeed would the fed bail out(grant) moneys to the states if for no other reason than to provide backdoor relief to the the carriers?
Why shouldn’t doctors “make millions” a year? They go to college for at least 8 years, and will be paying their student loan bills for years after.
And why can’t we take our health insurance plan after we leave our employer? Because our employer pays for half of the premium! Why would your former employer keep paying for half of your premium if you are no longer working for them?
And you can take it, its called COBRA (which costs an arm and a leg).
You failed to address tort reform. People shouldn’t be able to sue doctors just because a procedure doesn’t go the way the patient wants. They should only be able to sue if there is substantial neglect on the doctor’s part. People are so sue happy and so the price for med-mal is thru the roof, so the doctors have to pass that cost to the client.
Last time I went to a gastro. doc, while waiting in the office for my appointment the only reading material available to me were photo-copies of out-dated articles lamenting the rising cost of malpractice insurance and increased incidents frivolous lawsuits. Not a Readers Digest nor Smithsonian to be found!
Well according to Health Care Finance Reports, Med. Mal. premiums are continuing to fall.
The problem is the high cost, and over usage, of health care.
The government attempts to control the cost of Medicare by underpaying the providers and having this underpayment cost shifted to the private carriers. Why not address this issue?
This only says recently that med mal rates have lowered, not over the course of several years. And it also mentions that there recently was some changes in Texas’s med mal lawsuits which I’ll bet helped out a lot.
But it didn’t address how much is paid out in defensive medicine. (Procedures that doctors perform, even thou they know it won’t tell them anything that they didn’t know, but have to do to prevent it going to med mal in the first place.
Just when is Obama going to quit printing money! This is getting ridiculous. It is no longer the “White House” but the “fun house”.
“Alaska, Georgia, Iowa, Minnesota and Wyoming did not apply. Sebelius said she would work with those states to see why they did not seek funding.”
No need to look any further than campaign contributions to see why these States have not sought funding.
America has the best government lobbyists can buy…
more money spent for beaurocracy and “auditors” and that much less available do something productive. this certainly is the era of big gevernment
Why give $250 million of taxpayer money to state agencies that are self-funded? In other words, insurance departments assess insurance companies operating in their states for 100% of their budgets. If additional over sight is needed than all they have to do is increase their assessment on the industry. So is this an insurance industry bailout to avoid higher assessments on the industry? Sounds crazy, but we’re never going to reduce the budget deficit if we keep throwing money away like this.
Come one, come all, to continued Gov’t hand-outs. BHO wants us all employed by Gov’t.
It appears that the only big business that no longer has accountability is the Obama administration. I am so sick of this out of control spending that has no consideration for how it is to be repaid.
Thank god that the insurance companies do have accountability, unlike the US goverment.
There you go – employ more people to work for the government to create more (jobs)and bureacracy. This money came (or will come) from the private sector. This is not going to work, there are more government employees overseeing the private employees. That means, we the private people have to work harder to pay for the government people. By the way, the government employees are paid way way more than us.
Unfortunately, laws are enacted today based on poll data and political spin, not on leadership or courage. The pols are telling us that “regulating big business” gets more votes than deficit spending and/or tax increases loses. This stops once the public sends the message otherwise. It’s that simple.
Why is it most of the time I don’t even know what doctors are charging & what insurance companies are paying for services?
Let’s make it real simple. Force the providers to post prices for services.
Once people know the price of an MRI or emergency room trip, the insurance companies won’t be the only ones to blame for the high cost.
No one batted an eye when Bush was SPENDING BILLIONS of dollars a day on a war. Let’s get real! Did you know that government employees make more money?
They do tell you the prices of their services. Read your “Summary of Benefits” when it comes in the mail and you will know exactly what you were charged vs. what the insurance company paid. Someone is not opening their mail!!
No, I don’t mean like that. By the time you get those it’s too late.
Make them post the prices on a menu board.
If McDonalds has to post calories on there menus, then the hospitals should post what a Tylenol costs.
It costs nothing if you elect not to pay. Those of us who pay get an itemized bill (an EOB – explanation of benefits). What difference does it make then? Are you going to shop before you go to a hospital? Be reasonable.
Why not make it easier and simpler for more companies to compete and control rates through competition in the marketplace. Government cannot set rates
Oh, got it Joe! I believe you have to ask for it and they will give you the cost of the procedure and what they think your insurance will pay. It’s funny how insurance picks and chooses what they will pay!
doctors cannot make millions a year, THEY DO! just ask an opthamologist or dermatologist if you can get an honest answer.
Drug companies cannot charge $35. a pill. and charge a Canadian $2.50 for the same pill.
Hospitals emergency room visits cannot cost $2500 for a 3 hour wait and a shot of insulin.
Lawyers should not be able to sue a doctor and collect 40% of a patients pain and suffering. I think we all should be able to sue lawyers for our pain and suffering paying our premiums.
Why cant we take our policies with us when we leave an employer and pay the same premiums until we qualify for other insurance. They were happy taking the premium before we left our employer? Huh..
Why cant we get a standard health insurance policy with standard exclusions instead of these policies that you find out will not pay for services until you get approval, WHY DO WE NEED APPROVAL, DO WE NEED APPROVAL TO GET OUR CAR REPAIRD WHEN IN AN ACCIDENT AND WE HAVE COLLISION COVERAGE?
FIX THE ABOVE AND PREMIUMS WILL DROP SUBSTANTIALLY.
This latest useless Obama program is just for show to make it appear he cares about the people. In reality, he’s spending money we don’t have to further line the pockets of the corrupt and mostly incompetent state insurance commissioners. Policing rate hikes is already part of their job description. Of course since most of them think they have no-show jobs and they’re all in the insurers’ pockets, that’s not happening, anyway. The situation is especially bad in Delaware. You can’t get that commissioner to do a damn thing without paying up first.
Jane, Where are you going with this partial thought?
This is a more cogent query. Why indeed would the fed bail out(grant) moneys to the states if for no other reason than to provide backdoor relief to the the carriers?
Pat, could I introduce you to Jane, and Jane, this is Pat.
Why shouldn’t doctors “make millions” a year? They go to college for at least 8 years, and will be paying their student loan bills for years after.
And why can’t we take our health insurance plan after we leave our employer? Because our employer pays for half of the premium! Why would your former employer keep paying for half of your premium if you are no longer working for them?
And you can take it, its called COBRA (which costs an arm and a leg).
You failed to address tort reform. People shouldn’t be able to sue doctors just because a procedure doesn’t go the way the patient wants. They should only be able to sue if there is substantial neglect on the doctor’s part. People are so sue happy and so the price for med-mal is thru the roof, so the doctors have to pass that cost to the client.
Last time I went to a gastro. doc, while waiting in the office for my appointment the only reading material available to me were photo-copies of out-dated articles lamenting the rising cost of malpractice insurance and increased incidents frivolous lawsuits. Not a Readers Digest nor Smithsonian to be found!
Well according to Health Care Finance Reports, Med. Mal. premiums are continuing to fall.
http://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/analysis-medical-malpractice-payments-continue-fall
The problem is the high cost, and over usage, of health care.
The government attempts to control the cost of Medicare by underpaying the providers and having this underpayment cost shifted to the private carriers. Why not address this issue?
Politicians are a bunch of scum bags!
This only says recently that med mal rates have lowered, not over the course of several years. And it also mentions that there recently was some changes in Texas’s med mal lawsuits which I’ll bet helped out a lot.
But it didn’t address how much is paid out in defensive medicine. (Procedures that doctors perform, even thou they know it won’t tell them anything that they didn’t know, but have to do to prevent it going to med mal in the first place.