Sep 07, 2010
General
The L.A. Times Editorializes
Thanks to the L.A. Times for its support of amending ERISA to provide meaningful remedies when insurers act in bad faith in denying claims. When there is no accountability for behaving badly in a competitive environment, you guarantee that bad behavior will increase.Will Healthcare Reform Make Insurers More Accountable?
Short answer: no. At least, nothing in the bills currently being debated in Congress will do anything to provide remedies that provide for more health insurance accountability when they wrongfully deny claims or rescind coverage. In fact, the pressure on insurers to become more aggressive in dealing with claims may increase as a result of the proposed legislation. Lisa Girion has the story here in the today's L.A. Times.I Fear This Is Right
Sadly, I think there is a lot of truth to the title of this op-ed piece, "health reform is corporate welfare." I especially like the "cherry lemon socialism" concept.A non-frivolous argument can be made for the idea that profit making corporations should be allowed to do everything within their legal power to try and shift losses to taxpayers and keep profits for themselves. One can argue that avoiding accountability for their losses is part of the market competition. If they can do it better than their competitor, they may survive while their competitor may not. This is the kind of clear eyed realism that so many conservatives are so proud to embrace. You'll find these hardy souls are often quick to ridicule liberals who try to avoid cold-blooded, survival of the fittest, thinking. However, especially for those who adhere to pure market thinking, the idea that taxpayers should be made to subsidize the losers and the winners should be allowed to keep their profits is most offensive.
I hope Congress has the cajones to stand up to the health insurance industry and put in place some mechanisms to provide for meaningful corporate accountability as well as effective healthcare reform.
