You've probably seen this photo, it's Bernie Madoff. He's a crook.
Karen Ignagni is someone else you should know, she's the CEO of America's Health Insurance Plans(AHIP).
Bernie Madoff was a pillar of the community until his Ponzi scheme collapsed.
Ms. Ignagni of AHIP, remains a central player (she calls herself and those she represents "stakeholders"), in fact she presides over a very successful and murderous Ponzi scheme. This one though is far larger than the puny 50 billion Madoff rip off.
Ms Ignagni represents the for-profit health insurance industry, she and her thugs control $2.4 trillion in healthcare spending, fully 17% of the U.S. GDP.
You've all no doubt been following the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme If you haven't here's the whole thing in a nutshell, Bernard Madoff stole about 50 billion dollars from a bunch of rich and super rich people.
The other day, Pete Rock made this comment in my diary.
Medical care financing in the USA is a variant of the Bernard Madoff model. How else can a Blue cross CEO rake in millions for himeself and his family or another private insurer walk away with over a billion dollars in perks and benefits and stock options that in essence has been stolen from the patients enrolled in his for profit scheme?
The question, Secretary Daschle, is not "What will the insurance companies accept?" but, "What will we allow the insurance companies to deliver as boutique care, niche care when they get struck out of the core of the decision making on health care?"
Thank you Pete Rock, for clearly articulating a very elementary concept. The Question then becomes, why will the political elite and sadly this includes Tom Daschle, Senator Kennedy and even President elect Obama, foist this on the American people?
We all know the answer to this. It's because the insurance industry wields huge political muscle and they throw money at the policians. Funding politicians comes before a rational and sane overhaul of our collapsed healthcare system--an overhaul which would benefit, not AHIP, not the politicians, but the American people.
In case anyone is wondering how the for-profit scheme works, Pete Rock summarized it quite neatly, but allow me to go one step further. You and I (those of us still able to pay to be underinsured with junk insurance), dutifully sacrifice all of the small pleasures of life in order to pay the skyrocketing premiums. Then after many years of paying, the day comes that we get sick, we expect the insurer will pay for whatever our doctor says is medically necessary. Wrong. Instead, the insurer stands in the way and does whatever it takes, to either outright deny vital care or, best case scenerio, delay as long as possible the healthcare we have been paying for over many years. They hope we will go away, and many do just this. So, where has all the money gone? To executive compensation, for Wall Street profits, toward massive waste due to our fragmented system.
Yes, yes I know, nyceve really is too hard on this industry. But I don't make this stuff up. How's this for corruption a Ponzi scheme? This settlement with UnitedHealth was announced yesterday.
And keep in mind, a corrupt company like UnitedHealth will be one of the crown jewels of the "revamped" U.S. healthcare system unless we let the politicians know (including Daschle and President Obama), that this is unacceptable.
UnitedHealth settles with SEC in stock scandal
Health insurer UnitedHealth Group Inc. this week agreed to settle a civil lawsuit from the Securities and Exchange Commission related to a stock-options backdating scandal that enveloped the company in 2007.
The SEC said it declined to charge the Minnetonka, Minn.-based insurer with fraud or seek fines because of UnitedHealth’s "extraordinary cooperation in the commission’s investigation, as well as its extensive remedial measures." The company didn’t admit or deny allegations that it concealed more than $1 billion in stock option compensation between 1994 to 2005.
The company’s UnitedHealthcare is the third-largest provider of medical insurance in Georgia, according to the 2007 Atlanta Business Chronicle Book of Lists.
In a separate settlement, UnitedHealth’s former general counsel, David Lubben, agreed to pay a $575,000 penalty to the SEC and to not serve as a corporate officer or director for five years. Like his former employer, Lubben didn’t admit or deny allegations.
In its suit, the SEC accused UnitedHealth of providing senior executives and other employees with in-the-money options while secretly backdating the grants to avoid reporting the expenses to investors.
"UnitedHealth engaged in a long-running scheme to hide over a billion dollars in executive compensation," Linda Chatman Thomsen, director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, said in a statement. "By materially misstating these expenses for over a decade, UnitedHealth breached its duty to shareholders to accurately report its financial results."
http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/...
AHIP uses the Madoff model and produces worthless, self-serving and deceitful reports. This one is like a warm bucket of spit, which they cleverly call The Factors Fueling Rising Healthcare Costs - 2008. Stuff like this is no different than the worthless statements Madoff sent to his clients month after month.
This is the current American model, albeit in a nutshell. This model is responsible for untold suffering, deaths and hardship. It's a huge scandal, and Tom Daschle knows it.
Now, lest you think that a few wild-eyed libruls are the only ones who believe know that the for-profit insurance industry is a parasitic and dangerous middleman, let's see what fed up, frightened and beleaguered Americans are saying at the Obama healthcare house parties.
This is from the New York Times. Doesn't get much clearer than this.
At House Party on Health Care, the Diagnosis Is It’s Broken
VIENNA, Va. — When a dozen consumers gathered over the weekend to discuss health care at the behest of President-elect Barack Obama, they quickly agreed on one point: they despise health insurance companies.
They also agreed that health care was a right; that insurance should cover "everything," not just some services; and that coverage should be readily available from the government, as well as from employers.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
And this.
"I don’t believe health care should depend on people making money," Mr. Chatman said. "The profit motive has to be tempered, especially on the administrative side of the health care business."
Shiva S. Makki, an economist, complained that in many cases, insurers did not cover the costs of screening procedures and preventive care.
Dr. Lawrence M. Nelson, a scientist at the National Institutes of Health who emphasized that he was speaking as a private citizen, said: "The incentives in the current health insurance system are upside down. The less care you provide, the bigger your profits."
Dr. Nelson said he liked Mr. Obama’s proposal to create a new public plan, similar to Medicare, that would compete with private insurance companies.
You can let the political elite know that Ponzi Schemes are unacceptable when it comes to the long neglected healthcare of all Americans. There are a few politicians, John Conyers, Representative Pete Stark and a few others, who are not inclined to allow this corrupt industry destroy reform as they did in 1993.
1. You can read PNHP's letter to Senator Daschle.
- Host a health care discussion over the Holidays. You can watch Daschle on a video and sign up to host a Health Care Community Discussion at your home: http://change.gov/... Time is short - they want these to happen by 12/31/08.
- Contact your elected officials, especially your Congressperson. To write a member of Congress, go to https://writerep.house.gov/... if you would prefer, you can call their local or Washington office. Keep it simple. If they haven't signed on as a co-sponsor for HR 676, encourage them to, and if they already have (at this time, Rep Andre Carson is the only member of Indiana's delegation that has) encourage them to work actively to get the rest of the Indiana delegation to sign on. Visit the congressional offices in your district. They need to meet you.
- Evan Bayh deserves special attention. His wife Susan sits on the Board of Anthem/WellPoint, the largest health insurance company in the US, headquartered in Indianapolis. She sits on other healthcare-related companies as well. The largest part of their family income comes from her board activities. We need to send the Bayhs an ultimatum: Either Susan Bayh quits all the healthcare related boards of directors she is on, OR Evan Bayh should recuse himself from all debates on health issues and abstain from all votes.
- Ask Senator Dick Lugar to become the first Republican to support single payer, and to introduce a Senate version of HR 676.