Health care reform and the 'profit over people' lie

October 30, 8:27 PMHartford Conservative ExaminerJohn Talleos

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  As congress tries to push forward health care reform we are being fed three major premises that are the reasons for the take over in the first place.

1 The system of health care insurance is dysfunctional because it is provided within the realm of free-market enterprise.

2. The problem with the free-market system is that sometimes companies get greedy and will choose profits over people.

3. The simple solution is to provide a government health insurance company that will force companies to compete and this will bring cost down.

  There are people that believe the three premises and are others that do not. Those that believe it are comfortable in their ideology,naive and generally feel good that social justice is being done.

  The people that know they are not true are those that either know better or they are the source of the premises in the first place.

  Before we get to the source of the three premises let's go on to debunk them.

  In the first instance health insurance is not sold in a free-market. It is sold in state-by-state markets where individuals and companies have a short list of providers to choose from. When liberal Democrats say premiums are high because of lack of competition, they have a point.

  The next premise in that insurance companies are "greedy" doesn't make sense. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, majority leader Harry Reid and president Obama are leaders in villifying the health care industry. We are apt to hear "profits over people" or how companies "drive up cost while people are dying" and on and on. Here are some facts about health insurance from an Associated press article:

1. Profits for the industry barely exceeded 2% of revenue in the latest annual measure placing the industry 35th on the Fortune 500 list of top industries.

2 .This makes railroads, Tupperware and farms more profitable than the health insurance industry (railroads with a 12.6% profit margin).

   One would think that the health insurance industry being the greedy barons would be top producers, even blue chip companies. They actually under perform all other insurance sectors this includes auto insurance which is experiencing a healthy price war.

  This is the question: Is the performance of the health insurance industry lost on Obama, Pelosi and Reid? Had they not done their homework or are they counting on us to not do ours?

Recently speaker Pelosi said this:

  "I'm very pleased that (Democratic leaders) will be talking, too, about the immoral profits being made by the insurance industry and how those profits have increased in the Bush years"

Or this from Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen:

  "Keeping the status quo may be what the insurance industry wants their premiums have more than doubled in the last decade and their profits have skyrocketed."

Then this ad in Moveon.org

  "Health insurance companies are willing to let the bodies pile up as long as their profits are safe."

  The facts are that profits have never exceeded 8% of revenue and typically run 6%. Certainly anyone who is someone looking to reform the system would know this. Is it a stretch to assume that Pelosi et al know all this and that what they are saying is nothing short of bald face lies?

  Which brings us to the question of why? The likely answer is this: If the federal government takes over the insurance industry it will then have the power to dictate the price of premiums and then go on to control what the medical industry charges for services. This is important because when government becomes the provider of medical services to which party are we apt to elect to make sure it runs its social program in order? Certainly not a party that believes in free-markets and government cut-backs.