Take a look at the provisions that are contained in this bill. When you put them together, they spell the death knell of the business model that the vampiric health insurance companies have been using to drain the life blood from their customers and from the economy. They will no longer be able to rack up their obscene profits through a number of mechanisms that have now been made illegal
Oh, there is so much more we could have wanted from this bill, but it is a START--a start to putting the for-profit health insurance companies out of business. Just look at the revenue streams that are being cut off.
First, there is the prohibition on denying coverage due to pre-existing conditions--immediately for children and by 2014 for everyone. That throws a monkey wrench into their ability to project costs and losses. Take for example my wife, who has Lyme disease. That is a condition that even certain parts of the medical establishment who are beholden to the insurance industry are trying to deny even exists. The reason they are so against covering Lyme is that there is no reliable way to predict its effects. In the case of my wife, they are slight. In the cases of other patients they are devastating. So no one with Lyme disease could get coverage--but that will change and the insurance companies will have to cover it no matter what it does to their bottom lines or executive bonuses.
Then there is the prohibition against selectively denying coverage. Boy, will that screw up their actuarial tables and projections. You got the Purple Gleep, boy? Sorry, no coverage. Well, now they have to cover the Purple Gleep and who can say what that alongside folks with the Galloping Siberian Scongese will cost. Tough. They have to cover it.
Oh, and they can no longer charge different premiums based on gender, health status or occupation. You have to cover sword swallowers the same as baby sitters. Try to figure the odds on that, assholes!
And then there is the standard out-of-pocket spending limit so no one will have to face bankruptcy--except, of course, the insurance companies!
Then we have the prohibition on annual (now) and lifetime (later) spending caps. In other words, once you're covered, and you get sick there is a lifetime commitment for coverage no matter what the cost.
Oh, yeah, and no recissions--you can't abandon someone who is covered because the bottom line is not looking good. Pay up, Jack!
The list goes on.
What I think this really means is that the for-profit business model of the for-profit health insurance industry can be broken and they will start to fail. And then--oh dear!
What do we do? Well, we broaden the pool to the entire population, institute single payer and keep everyone covered. Because at that point the private health insurance companies will not be able to keep up. They will fail and the government will have to step in and save the day.
I actually hope this was a conscious strategy by the Obama administration, but it really doesn't matter. It looks like that is where it is heading and there is really nothing the Republicans and their insurance industry masters can do about it.