Update: Sunday Chatter: Kent Conrad (D-ND) and Sebelius both back off public option: the Federally funded co-op is now the term of choice…(and with Federal Funds it will still kill private insurance)

Update: Monday 8/17: Just like the Clash, Team TOTUS is unsure if they should stay or go on public option lol, they are releasing spin via Ambinder (who failed to get their ‘townhalls folks are hurting the GOP side’ meme to take effect, but not for lack of trying on his part, lol), that Sebelius ‘misspoke’, then another WH aide, off record OF COURSE! said no she didn’t misspeak, the MEDIA misrepresented what she said..uhm yeah okay go with that…YOU CANNOT TRUST ANYTHING THESE GUYS SAY PEEPS…GET IT IN WRITING BIG PHARMA, Dumb bunnies…..

An administration official told Marc Ambinder that HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius “misspoke” when she told CNN that a government run health insurance option “is not an essential part” of reform.

“This official asked not to be identified in exchange for providing clarity about the intentions of the President. The official said that the White House did not intend to change its messaging and that Sebelius simply meant to echo the president, who has acknowledged that the public option is a tough sell in the Senate and is, at the same time, a must-pass for House Democrats, and is not, in the president’s view, the most important element of the reform package.

See you at the RECESS RALLY!!!!

And it means nothing because we can trust them about 1/4 as far as we can throw them, although I think I could throw them pretty far….especially if we started with Jaeger shots…(just sayin’)….but it is a sign of cracks in the facade of happy changey hopey dopey land….

Conrad has been pushing co-op but FEDERALLY FUNDED so it is in effect a frakkin PUBLIC OPTION…maroons…

If they want small groups to be able to pool risk and premiums go with Multiple Employer Trusts which I used to process claims for in TX, this way small business gets group rates, NO PUBLIC MONEY REQUIRED….

Free interstate insurance commerce from Federal red tape! ….geez it would be simple were they not trying to Trojan Horse a single payer plan through wouldn’t it? Wyden-Bennett would work….but NO CO-OP GOVT PLAN BY ANOTHER NAME…frakkers…

TheHill:

A public health insurance option took more hits Sunday as Sen. Kent Conrad described its pursuit as a “wasted effort” and an administration official said it is not an “essential” part of reform.

Conrad (D-N.D.), who supports setting up health insurance co-operatives with government seed money to compete with private insurers, described the public option as all but a lost cause.

“Look, the fact of the matter is there are not the votes in the U.S. Senate for the public option, there never have been,” Conrad said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace.”  “So to continue to chase that rabbit is, I think, a wasted effort,” Conrad said.

His comments followed Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’s remark that a public option is “not the essential element” to ensure competition in the health insurance market. Sebelius made the remark on CNN’s “State of the Union,” according to a report in the Associated Press….

Gee, TOTUS has been saying ad nauseum that the public option IS necessary to do just that, ensure competition. On which I call BS…

Question, if there is no yearly or lifetime claims max on people and you cannot pre-ex them or drop their coverage, how can you possibly have enough cash reserves from premiums and ROI (return on investments) to cover pending and potential future claims?

You can’t. There will be no cash reserves and no cap to allocate money and provide results to the SEC if you are publically traded and to cover loss reserves even if you aren’t…to limit their exposure to catastrophic losses they do what for example property carriers in NOLA did, they don’t cover over 2 million say to avoid those losses, like Allstate doesn’t insure in FLA anymore IIRC…they are avoiding a risk that costs them too much. So Charlie Crist exposed all of FLA taxpayers to the loss now if/when it comes. It will be a nightmare from what I hear. But the govt IS the payor of last resort..

So if they wanted something like the National Flood Insurance program to provide coverage where private carriers will not, for those with preex or catastrophic illness who are dropped and so it was not in direct competition with all private carriers then that would work. But they are trying to intervene in the part of the market that is flourishing and working quite well instead….

This will kill private insurance, period. I have a 2 million individual max on my current health coverage, People can go out and buy individual catastrophic plans to cover them if they get a terminal illness.

IF they bought them AHEAD OF TIME. Otherwise it would be a GUARANTEED LOSS for the insurance company. If you wait until you are ill, why would someone take you then? COBRA insured people CAN CARRY their old employer plan to the new employer plan if they pay the COBRA premiums, they have 12 months to get new coverage (18 months for the disabled).

As long as there is no GAP in coverage they will not be preexed in their new group policy. Under stimulus employers are paying 70% of COBRA premiums for employees now for the first year IIRC…..

So what if you couldn’t afford COBRA even with the 70% subsidy? Then you should have gone on Medicaid right away. If you have a chronic condition, or expect you might, ie family history. If you didn’t YOU ARE GAMBLING YOU WILL NOT GET DIAGNOSED WITH SOMETHING AND BE PRE-EXED LATER. And if you did, again you have NO LAPSE IN COVERAGE and will not be denied for preex when you get a new job and new group plan..

You are only denied if you were diagnosed with and treated for a condition while NOT COVERED, And then you are only preexed for a MAX of 18 months, in many states less. And it is only that condition for which you are not covered during that period. Once that waiting period passes you ARE covered for your preex condition. TOTUS is misleading people all over on this issue.

But Private Insurance has in fact already agreed to WAIVE most PREEX limits as they saw the writing on the wall. So they are willing to eat that risk. But preventing them from putting a yearly or lifetime cap will put them out of business. If they cannot forecast the maximum they would have to payout on each insured how can they have cash reserves to cover the potential losses as required by the SEC???

That is what insurance is, betting money you may have a loss. It is gambling. Or better said, it is taking the risk out of the gamble that is life by setting up a plan to cover you if the worst happens…but like The Ant and The Grasshopper fable the people who didn’t save for winter want US to now feed them ..again….Medicaid is there for that very purpose…don’t drag us all down to your level of care….(and as a partying grasshopper I had plenty of years of living with my dopey decisions and thus LEARNED from them and now take considerably less risk in my middle age)…

I have a friend who had purchased an individual terminal illness catastrophic plan, and sadly needed it. They were able to travel their last few years. The free market provides.

Now Medicaid is a frakkin nightmare from hell. Ask anyone who has ever had it and had private insurance before. People who like it must have never had private insurance to compare it to.

They wont see you and when they do they wont order tests or give you an rx. The whole idea is to keep costs low. They dont get paid to treat you, they have XX number of people they see regardless of what service they provide. That is not a model I wish to extend to the rest of us.

Have said it before will say it again, Team TOTUS has NO PLAN FOR GROWTH. This is not Big Dawg growing the pie for everyone and a rising tide lifting all our boats. This is TOTUS pulling the plug and letting all of us fall to the lowest level of care….

FREE THE MARKETS! NO FEDERALLY FUNDED CO-OP! SUPPORT WYDEN-BENNETT BILL!

Since June, MiM has said big pharma and AARP have tossed Seniors and Americans and DOCTORS unda da bus. Cancel your memberships if you have ’em and let your pharms company know you donlt support the backroom deal they cut…

On that backroom pharma deal: 150mill for proObamacare ads from the group that brought us Harry and Louise in 1993, and the maroons are using Harry and Louise again! really turns my stomach…Billy Tauzin former Critter once a Dem once a GOP now a tool for TOTUS. How he thinks the House will agree to the deal he cut with Sen Finance CMTE I have no idea. Were I a Senior living in Grassley’s state I would call and say hey, I hear the Senate Finance CMTE cut a deal with the WH and pharma and agreed NOT TO NEGOTIATE PART D MEDICARE RX COSTS AND NOT TO IMPORT RXS FROM CANADA (which they keep saying has the answer to all healthcare). How does that help me with my RX bills Mr Senator? Yeah it doesnt. They sold out the Seniors….

The Clash courtesy of fifs2813

Update: John H Cochrane has a piece up in WSJ on a free market fix for the pre-ex issue….

and here is something to consider, the Gates Foundation dumped almost ALL its health care holdings including big pharma…