Scan Medical Insurance

Blue Cross just upped premiums by 39%, do Repubs still think that we don't need medical insurance reform?

At these astronomical rates, it won't be too long before only the super-wealthy can afford insurance. A public option will be a deterrent to skyrocketing medical insurance rates. Why anyone would be against it is beyond me. @pukeyface - My income is in the 99th percentile. Your full wages probably wouldn't pay my tax bill. Did I hear a toilet flush? :)

Public Comments

1. I HATE insurance companies, but I think govt.-run healthcare is worse. My kid had to have brain surgery at age 4, and the insurance wrangling was no picnic. However, I DON'T want govt. healthcare. I would gladly undergo the insurance wrangling AGAIN if it meant I would get the best pediatric neurosurgeon for my son's case. He was a miracle worker and cured my kid, who was deemed "uncurable" by others in the field. I DON'T want govt.-run healthcare because it will destroy the incentive for these miracle-working physicians to go into medicine. You want wal-mart trained physicians? That's what you'll get. There's a reason why people come here from all over the world for highly specialized surgery. Yes, most people in the UK do not complain about their healthcare because they need run-of-the-mill procedures, like an appendectomy or stent placement. However, when your 4-year-old is having 100 seizures per day and needs highly specialized brain surgery, do you want a govt-trained physician working on him or the best of the best? The govt.-run healthcare systems of the UK and Canada say, "Don't get sick. Wait, okay, if you're sick we'll care for you, but don't get REALLY SICK. If you do get really sick, go to the United States."
2. We want reform, we just don't want YOUR reform.
3. Before long, everyone with BCBS is going to have a "Cadillac" plan. Even if it is in price only.
4. We need to get insurance corporations (and the government) out of the way! If we let the markets work, let the CONSUMERS (patients) decide the price, in stead of large corporations with more buying power... the cost of SERVICE will go down! This has been proven!
5. Dear BrainlessNeoLib...we know there needs to be reform...not tax payer funded healthcare...you really have no idea what we want...just keep reading the Talking Points from George Sorros...
6. Yes, because facts don't matter to Republican voters. Another answerer here says high prices are bad, "but I govt. involvement in healthcare is worse". Of course she is unaware that the price increases would be higher if it wasn't for govt involvement. In Michigan, for example, Blue Cross wanted to raise the rates by more than 50 percent, but the insurance commission held them down to 22 percent.
7. No they didn't tell the truth! it was for California residents only and it was UP TO 39% if you libs would close the borders then there would be NO hike in rates....someone has to pay for all the Mexicans and I have NO problem letting azzhats that would vote for people like Pelosi and Boxer foot the bill!
8. Health Insurance reform YES. Government controled healthcare paid for by taxpauers? NO!
9. You are paying higher premiums to compensate for all the illegals in Cali getting healthcare on your dime. Get rid of illegals, watch your health premiums go down.
10. The public option doesn't work. That's why. The GOP plan of free market health care would have prevented this from happening due to increased competition and tort reform. In a free market, the market sets the fair rate. If the market deems rates go up by 39%, then that's what it is. Adjust your monthly budget to compensate.
11. Did anyone look to the reason maybe all the new mandates that passed by the States and the Fed's.
12. So you are suggesting that the increased expense just "goes away" when the government pays for it? What is beyond you is common sense. Either you pay for it in premiums or higher taxes. Insurance companies are raising the rates due to higher costs, not to make more profits. Pricing customers out of the insurance base does not increase their profits in the big picture.
13. There is nothing in ObamaCare that would have prevented those rises in premiums.
14. Check into why blue cross raised its rates. Do you actually think that a national version of the VA will lower costs or improve service.
15. We do, but not an earmark filled, pork barrell ridden, stenchy piece of legislation that does not achieve tangible reform and introduce competition into the market.
16. yes california is the waste land of high taxes and illegal aliens. you have to supplement them some how right.after all higher taxes and liberal spending is their way of life.now think of what will happen nationally with a health care bill.
17. If it has a public option I am for it if not leave it where it is in the trash barrel.
18. It's almost like BCBS wants to HELP get reform passed.
19. Republicans think we need reform, they never said that they didn't. I can't believe that that evil non-profit company raised rates..
20. There is a big difference between reform and revolution. The democratic bill right now will completely change the healthcare system in America. These rates are getting ridiculous and almost impossible for anyone to pay for. They need to open competition across state lines. Many insurance companies will go out of business but prices will have to drop.
21. We need to reform the system but getting more government into the health care business is the problem not the solution. The government already controls 50% of the market with medicaid and medicare,and is exactly why prices are high. When there is no competition prices rise, and it just so happens Americas health care market is uncompetitive.
22. Are we safe in assuming that you are jobless, do not pay taxes and do not take care of your family and want the American tax payer to buy your health care insurance for you. You show me that you are a responsible person that just cannot buy insurance and i will be glad to direct you to at a half dozens government programs already in force. BUT I DO NOT WANT HELP YOU IN ANYWAY!
23. Republicans have become the tools of the insurance industry and their conservative followers work against their own self interests due to their blind adherence to outdated ideology and faulty reasoning. The proposed health insurance reforms, including the public option, would help address the current problems of the uninsured, underinsured and premiums that keep rising far faster than the rate of inflation. Republicans however are more concerned about political power plays than in any effective reforms that would actually benefit the interests of the American people.
24. 12 trillion $$$ debt and heading towards 14 trillion as I write this.....we cannot afford anymore debt!!!!!!!!!!!!
25. To any problem there are many solutions. However, when you ask a liberal, the ONLY solution they will ever propose is the iron fist of government. That's it. There are literally millions of different things we can do to lower the cost of health insurance that don't involve the government. And yet the ONLY solution you offer is more government. Why is that? Liberals say: "There is ONLY 1 solution, and that is the iron fist of government" Conservatives say "There are millions of solutions other than the government, let's try them" You tell me, which one is more intelligent, logical, and reasonable? The person that can only come up with one solution, or the person that can come up with millions?
26. Under obaminations "health care reform" plan it will cost trillions of dollars more! Using his plan would be like cutting off your arm because you have a hang nail! We want to REDUCE health care costs NOT INCREASE them! Right now we pay over twice the cost for health care than any other country AND we have over twice the "preventable deaths" of any other country! The US health care system is NOT even considered a "first world" health care system! The US gets people to see the doctor the fastest in the world but also you are more than twice as likely to die from a "preventable death"! NOT a good track record! Of course that seems to be one of the largest complaints! You have to wait to see a doctor more minor problems! I guess the fact that you are more likely to die doesn't bother a lot of people! US healthcare is like McDonalds! Fast service but NOT the healthiest of foods or medical care! We NEED health care REFORM! NOT just to throw money at the problem and call it reform! The only thing obamination seems to know how to do!
27. Yes they still do think that. You see, the wealthy Gop don't want to wait to see the Dr because the poor are sick also. You are in their way. The wealthy want a two class system, them and the workers. They do not want to interact with us any more than to pay us for the work we do for them. They prefer to hire illegals because they work even cheaper. The only people against healthcare reform are those who profit from the present system, those who delusionally think they are in the top 5% of wage scale, those who have been brainwashed to think social security, medicare, public schools, etc, don't work. Yes, there is corruption and waste, but the wealthy businesses are usually the ones who are doing the most stealing from these programs through false billing practices and fraud. Most of the people who are very wealthy from their own ideas in the last fifty years have come through the public school system, so it must not be that bad? A single payer system with universal coverage would be the best.
28. They do. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-usmvYOPfco http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DKDdVXsC2I They support reforms that they never brought in during the eight long years that Bush the second was in power. Why does no other developed nation have the US model of healthcare? Because in the US model, insurance companies use death panels to deny care to those they are meant to cover. And then they raise costs [1]. Not only does the USA spend more on healthcare than any other nation [2], it finds itself bottom of the table when it comes to preventable deaths due to treatable conditions when it comes to developed nations [3]. The sad thing is that rather than focus on these things, the right spreads lies and half truths about the reforms and how healthcare works abroad [4]. But, if you think that my points are wrong, e-mail me with proof.