Single Payer

Just a reminder that no matter what the "health care reform bill" that eventually gets signed by the President contains, it will ensure absurd profits for private health care insurance companies.

Remove their ability to disqualify you for pre-existing conditions, they will raise average premium rates. Remove their ability to drop your coverage because you are a "high risk", they'll raise average premium rates. Force more people to buy insurance, their profits will increase.

It's rather similar to other industry pseudo-monopolies, such as the oil industry. They will collude as they always have to maximize profits.

The only way to actually change the paradigm is to remove the profit motive from the equation. Profits are diametrically opposed to your health care.

Of course, the insurance companies will get what they want.. a bad bill, and no chance to actually do something positive for decades to come.

....

/hint insurance companies are publicly traded..

Which reminds me.. a while back, John bought a bunch of Fannie Mae stock.. at something like 1.10. It's now at 1.63 and will likely continue to climb. He didn't mention that to me until last weekend.. :/

Speaking of stocks.. my mutuals, which were down about 25% this point last year, are down only 10% now.

/update

By the way.. health insurance companies can deny women benefits if they are the victim of domestic violence in 9 states. In 2006, the Democrats in Congress tried to change that, but the bill was voted down in committee by the Republicans.

This is because the Republican party cares more about the profits of the insurance industry than they do the health of American citizens. That is not going to change..