Hillarysworld

Good find, Alice Paul.

I've been saying for months that anyone who believed the Democrats would really take on the insurance companies and "reform" health care was naive.

United Health Group was one of the BIGGEST donors to the Democratic National Convention in Denver.  What does that tell you?

Did Americans who voted for obama really think that he would tick off the people who write the biggest checks?  The health insurance lobby in this country is so powerful, that there will never be "socialized" medicine.  Plus, the infrastructure for running a "national" plan does not exist - the best infrastructures exist in private owned for profit health insurance companies.  So, the government will have no choice but to contract with the big insurers to run the plans for them. 

What will happen is what has slowly been happening in states across the country - Medicaid HMOs run by private for profit insurance companies are taking over the Medicaid programs.  And, believe it or not, they actually make money running Medicaid HMOs.  The capitation payments are huge, and its state and federal dollars.  Yes, the private inurance companies can make money off Medicaid HMOs because they can run Medicaid plans better than the bloated state bureacracies could.  Its been nothing but a boon for them, and United Health has been more than willing to take part in it. 

Ever hear of AmeriChoice & Unison health plans?  They are Medicaid HMOs owned and operated by United Health Group, and at last count, they covered two million people in 21 state's Medicaid HMO plans and they grow daily, and UnitedHealth will continue to buy up the little plans who get Medicaid HMO contracts.  Unison was once a small local plan in Western PA called Three Rivers Health Plan that was one of the state's first Medicaid HMOs.  United bought them out.  United Health Group is for profit.

This "government plan" that the new reform is supposed to bring will be more of these type of Medicaid HMOs that are already in place.  They will just let people buy into them, instead of allowing them in for free like they do for Medicaid, and it will be based on your income.

And, if you think for a second that this is real health insurance, you would be sadly mistaken.  Most Medicaid HMOs pay the same rates as straight Medicaid, and those resimbursements are so low, that the network of doctors and facilities for these Medicaid HMOs are terrible.  The top specialists are not in the network.  Therefore, you cannot see them.  The top hospitals are not in the networks.  Therefore, you cannot go there. 

And, the Republicans don't have a leg to stand on, and continue to trumpet the "socialized" medicine argument, because they won't go up against the insurance companies, either, because that goes against standing up for the "free market" and "capitalism", which the Republicans have to defend.  Its their thing. 

So, instead of talking about what The Confluence is talking about, or talking about what I mentioned above about United Health Group, the Republicans continue on the "socialized medicine" track, and neither side is telling the truth and the health insurance companies are the real winners.

And, one more thing about Medicaid HMOs (or should I say, the new national healthcare plan that obama wants) - they don't cover everything.  There are restrictions, so its not just the poor physician networks that the national plan will have, non-covered services that exist in private insurance today will exist in the new national plan as well. 

Remember that video of that woman during the election who was saying that obama was going to pay her mortgage and put gas in her car?  The people who think this "reform" is going to give them top of the line health insurance are just as naive as that woman was.  They are going to get nothing better than Medicaid.