SilverBoat
Posts: 257
Joined: 7/26/2006 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: defiantbadgirl The Affordable Care Act is better than nothing, but what we really need is single-payer. 1. Insurance companies are for profit. Unlike a non-profit, they deny claims in order to maximize profits. 2. If everyone's health care was covered through taxes, companies wouldn't have to buy insurance, leading to job growth. 3. Less age discrimination in the workplace: older employees = higher health insurance premiums for companies with health insurance Well, yeah, but it's more complicated than that: - Insurance companies make substantial profits, for every $1.00 in premiums, about $0.30 goes into profits, wages, bonuses, etc. - About half the profits get laundered into companies that 'finance' the insurance business; banks, mutual funds, holding companies, etc. - You and the other 99%'rs own, via your 401k, stocks, etc, about 10% or less of those companies, so you get maybe $0.02 rebated. - The 1%'rs, who own 90%, sit as insurance execs, etc, skim about $0.20 off every $1.00 you (or your employer) pays in premiums. And on top of that, without the threat of going uninsured or existing conditions, big employers would have less leverage to keep wages down and employees from moving to better paying jobs, etc. Seriously, though, going to a single-payer system, which outlawed the 'In-Group' larceny cartels and gutted the paper-profit motive for leveraged buyouts and 'mergers' between HMOs and MegaMedical shell companies ... That would cut healthcare costs by about 20%, and almost all of that would be vanished from the wealthy 1%'rs annual (tax-advantaged) income ... Does anybody really think the 1%'rs are going to just walk away from almost $1Trn in annual profits, without putting up a psychosocial-political battle that'd have Machiavelli marveling at how they'd perverted Alinski's 'rules'? And the wierdest part of that, still, is how many of the rightwing blowhards, here and elsewhere, despite their wealth and income planting them firmly in the 90% or lower, continue ranting and raving in support of the 1%'s sociopathic profiteering. People are dying for lack of or late healthcare, because of poverty, politics, and profits; that makes the situation murder, really, and those who support it accessories ... ...
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