If Bush were still president I would hope that things were headed in the right direction....for the well being of all of us. You don't have to be a fan of Obama to hope for that. So....with that said......we have evidence today with the jobs report that perhaps they are not.......but my hope remains that he gets this thing turned around. I do feel 100% that the same ol.....same ol.......from the Bush-Cheney years is not what I would want to see from a GOP candidate. Those philosophies are outdated today and they didn't work long-term then. My 23 year son.....a full time college student......is on my wife's healthcare policy where she works because of new ideas. My credit debt is manageable......even though the payments are a pain.....but still manageable because of new ideas that keep the credit issuers for running amok and ripping me off with capricious increases of interest rates. I do not want any sort of return to those days and another example......healthcare expense for a family..... is already through the roof and if a return of the GOP to the whitehouse means healthcare companies can step up their exorbitant increases then how can I be for that either?
Confused...he would have been eligible for coverage under the "old" ideas...as long as he was a full time student. The "new" law lets your kids stay on your family coverage until age 26 whether they don't live with you, aren't students, or aren't listed as dependents on your tax return. I am not necessarily opposed to this...I do not like having people unable to get insurance. However many of those covered are fully capable of getting their own insurance but were just not interested under the "old" system. Also, you are blasting health care companies for their exorbitant increases while at the same time adding 600,000 adults to pre-existing policies...adults who for the most part could and should be getting their own policy. New ideas have to be something other than "let somebody else pay for it." That only goes so far.
Let's set the record straight about these greedy, exorbitant profit-mongers.....effective solutions can't be found without examining the problem on a factual basis...... http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2009/08/health-insurance-industry-ranks-86-by.html
BT, We HATE it when the facts get in the way of a good spin. :twisted: A quick analysis of the list offers a correlation: Beer, wine, booze, cigarettes and Pharmaceuticals are all well ahead of Health insurance on the list. Maybe the margins of the the HI industry would be higher ( and therefore the costs lower ) if the others were lower. Nah, that makes too much sense. It would be easier just to blame George Bush.
Things can't get any better for them can they? This administration has just forced them by law to incur vastly more risk whist using the bully pulpit and the bony finger of indignation against the need to raise premiums to account for the risk.....lousy profit margins taking on greater risk whilst holding premiums constant is the recipe for many rational businessman to head for the exits.....
Rick Scott. BAD for Florida business! <r>Well, he's bad for this Florida industry....<br/> <br/> <B><s></s>Gov. Scott signs pill mill bill into law<e></e></B><br/> <br/> Gov. Rick Scott signed a new law Friday aimed at controlling the state's "pill mills" and "shed Florida's reputation as the oxy express" by penalizing doctors who overprescribe painkillers, tightening rules for operating pharmacies and authorizing a prescription-drug monitoring database. Florida is considered the epicenter of prescription drug abuse, with pain-management clinics supplying drug dealers and addicts with illicit prescription painkillers.</r>
re: Florida pill mills They sound like the "medical marijuana" facilities here in California. Even Los Angeles started cracking down on them when they began to outnumber liquor stores...
"New ideas have to be something other than "let somebody else pay for it." " Under my family insurance plans that "someone else" was none other than me if I wanted to have my 20 something year old sons insured......until this new law kicked in. That is....if I could have afforded it with the already exorbitant premiums I was paying. #79 on BT's list is oil and gas..........and we all know the record billions upon billions those guys rake in on small margins. Without searching I expect the healthcare business operates much in the same manner........huge.....huge revenues and small margins still equal huge profits when measured in dollars. Additionally.....managed healthcare didn't fare so poorly margin wise in this list: http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/global500/2009/performers/industries/profits/
Look I have no problem helping people out who are in tough situations, jobless, etc... But most adults ought to get their own insurance policies. Or else quit bitching about high premiums because that law just made your premium cover a heck of a lot more adults.
Dave, you don't seem to grasp the basic tenet of doing business. First, foremost and always the #1 goal is to earn a profit. Everything else comes after that. Why? Because without a profit you can't continue in business ( unless you have a Sugar Daddy like Obama ). Margin is the difference between cost and profit. Oil industries operate on small margins apparently but compensate by just a huge amount of cash flow. 2% of a trillion is more than 2% of a million. Note: The smaller the margin the more tenuous your continued profitability. Now get this part, Dave, because this is controversial. It is NOT a sin to earn a profit. If you ever owned your own business I would not have to explain this to you. And if you did own a business that explains why you are working for someone else now.
George......I have long since understood the need for margins. It's also a prime objective to maintain those margins and increase them when possible. In sales I have always been respectful of the need for margin while at the same time keeping the focus on a salesman's #1 objective......increase revenues. I don't begrudge any industry for making profits.......it's imperative. I do have concerns about any industry that sells services or products essential to the consumer and which has the consumer by the throat.......like oil and gas......and healthcare. They just bear closer scrutiny. Your business will set it's margins where the market will bear......subject to your competition. You don't collaborate with all of your competition to set pricing artificially high.........and if you could it's illegal and it's called collusion. When every gas pump in an area is relatively the same price and when healthcare coverages run at essentially the same costs to the public it bears watching. Just because a margin may be thin doesn't mean the profits aren't there when revenues are enormous. Would you settle for a 3% margin if you had captive clients who had no choice but to use your services and you were guaranteed revenue in the hundreds of billions?
Well, I may not be much of a businessman or a mathmatician... But if these health and oil companies have large revenues based on a very small margin... Just how do you propose cutting the prices that they charge? Just a fractional decrease in price will wipe out their margin entirely, and there goes all profit. "We're losing 5 cents on every gallon of gas we sell." "That's ok...we'll make it up on volume."
Therein lies the reason for my post.....I've just had enough of listening to the view that the insurers are gouging the captive insureds reaping obscene profits at their expense and laughing all the way to the bank. It's absurd...it's a lousy, low margin business barely able to earn above it's cost of capital, with great regulatory risk presently and prospects for more.....just the kind of thing that would compel new entrants, clamoring for a piece of the gravy train and enhance competition for the benefit of society.....NOT.