Debunking the Myth Surrounding Health Insurance

Health care is one of the most misunderstood subjects in American politics and economics today. Many Alaskans, who pay millions of dollars into health care each year, do not realize that insurance companies place the client's hard earned dollars into a pool that funds the operation of other financial vehicles. Many, if not most of the for profit insurance companies, operate under the management of an umbrella company that manages investment brokerages, investment banking, mortgage insurance and other high risk institutions. When the high risk companies lose money, those costs get shifted back to the insurance company, and ultimately to the client.
My health insurance company recently raised my monthly premium. Their excuse: the cost of medical treatment had gone up. This tired, worn out, post 9/11 excuse needs to be debunked. If one looks closely at the national statistics for the cost of health care (bandaids, hourly wages for nurses, staff, etc.), the costs have not increased enough to account for the sharp increase in health insurance premiums. Senior care, while having risen as baby boomers deal with age related health issues, does not account for the increase as most of these individuals have been absorbed into medicaid/medicare. So what accounts for the increased health care costs to our health insurance companies? They are internal: investment losses from other companies operating under the umbrella company. The existence of these umbrella organizations were authorized with the passage of Graham, Leach, Bliley in 1999. If a sister company made a poor decision to underwrite insurance policies for bad home loans, the health insurance passed that cost to us. If the brokerage firm operating under the umbrella, took a beating in the housing market, the health insurance company took the blow. Our precious pool of money has been dipped into to stave off disaster for the parent company, and its subsidiaries.
Why? Simple. Because Americans need health insurance. The money generated by our premiums has produced a healthy financial resource, which has been used to augment losses. Are there any regulations in place to protect our funds? The income from our premiums keeps coming in, and in a high risk business venture, it provides stability.
Well, I don't support the use of my hard earned money to cover risky business ventures. I do not seek to turn a profit on my investment. My money should be sitting in a comfy, protected fund with millions of other insurers dollars, waiting for the day when I might need it. It shouldn't be floating around the globe propping up fly by night investment schemes. I don't mind that portions of the pool be invested in traditional, low risk financial vehicles in order that it may be carefully grown; however, I protest vigorously that it has been frittered away with not so much as a peep of protest from our government.
I blame the Bush administration for failing to oversee the insurance industry during a time when oversight was critical. Insurance companies all over America began wailing over losses from 9/11 even before the dust had settled. Were the losses truly from the insurance claims, or were they from the market that nose dived shortly after the towers fell? It can be reasonably argued that once again the fear and panic of 9/11 was used to fleece our pockets.
Here is a resource for anyone wanting to wade through the actual numbers and dollar figures for medical costs.
http://www.cms.hhs.gov/Nationa...
We need to smoke the insurance companies out. If we can't have a single payer system, then we can at least demand that health insurance companies be separated from the "umbrella of financial doom" under which they now operate. The same umbrella that we have paid billions to prop up. Many insurance companies are already in the process of doing so. Lets run the free loaders out of our health insurance pool. If they want a safe investment, they can invest in bonds. They already have the money from TARP. They can't be allowed to gamble our future away, then blithely demand that we pay more to cover for their poor investment strategies.
Lets clean 'em up. Move 'em out. I have a sneaking suspicion that if government turns its focus on what really lies at the bottom of "the terrible rise in the cost of health care," much good work could be accomplished.
Why do I care? I attended the inauguration in DC. Helping to shed light on the current ins and outs of the health insurance industry is my contribution to our President's effort to rebuild a government of which we can be proud. His election into office, gave great hope to my father who passed away from cancer in March. I watched him struggle with prescription bills near the end of his life. I have been mute with grief long enough. This is for you dad.