Corker: Country Needs Insurance Reform, Not Health Care Reform

30 Responses to “Corker: Country Needs Insurance Reform, Not Health Care Reform”

1. Gotta Wonder writes
   August 26th, 2009 3:45 pm

   So why was he not expressings such wonderful thoughts this time last year?

2. Emmett Flatus writes
   August 26th, 2009 4:25 pm

   At least one person actually able to do something understands the difference between health insurance and health care. The care is top notch, the payment system is screwed up.

3. FrankJ writes
   August 26th, 2009 4:35 pm

   Whatever the reform, it needs to be robust.

4. martin kennedy writes
   August 26th, 2009 4:49 pm

   Bingo. First stop - allow people to save money tax free to use for health care consumption. Employer based health insurance is tax deductible, but you must use after tax dollars if paying out-of-pocket for a doctor’s visit.

   Markets work well but not when the consumer is unaware and unconcerned with what something costs because a third party is going to pay.

5. MattCollins writes
   August 26th, 2009 5:33 pm

   Where in the US Constitution is the federal government allowed to have anything to do with health care or insurance?

6. TNVolunteer73 writes
   August 26th, 2009 5:34 pm

   Matt you know Obama said the US Constituton was to restrictive.

7. Brawndo the Thirst Mutilator writes
   August 26th, 2009 9:10 pm

   “Markets work well but not when the consumer is unaware and unconcerned with what something costs because a third party is going to pay.”

   That’s also a good argument against employer-based health insurance. The Swiss health care/insurance system actually has a good amount of price transparency. There are plenty of elements in their system that we should look at in reforming ours.

   Where in the US Constitution is the federal government allowed to have anything to do with health care or insurance?

   Here you go, Matt … straight from Article 1, Section 8

   “To lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare of the United States;”

8. Mike m writes
   August 27th, 2009 7:16 am

   If what this idiot is true then why hasn’t the Republican Party done anything about it in the last 8 years? It’s because like always they just talk and do nothing, they are afraid that 2 dollars of their money is going to help some poor black or white person. Republican are selfish, greedy and racist.

9. SayUncle » Care v. Insurance writes
   August 27th, 2009 7:47 am

   [...] says he’s for health insurance reform. However, I think he and those that oppose nationalized health insurance should keep making that [...]

10. pandabear writes
    August 27th, 2009 7:55 am

    The care is not topnotch.
    Mostly, and especially in TN, the care is about
    dispensing pills. The doctors here have little interest in the daily health of their patients. They are like the cops. They are only interested after the fact. Prevention is not on their agenda.

    Corker is rich and has no idea what he’s talking
    about when he refers to the common man.
    Put him on the same plans that we have and see
    how fast reform happens.

11. Jeff Johnson writes
    August 27th, 2009 8:31 am

    Bob Corker is exactly right. However you buy your health insurance, you should get the “before taxes” benefit. There are many other changes in health insurance that are needed but have been opposed by the liberals forever. I can’t get over the name calling and outright hatred for people like Bob who have worked hard to be successful and rich. It’s the product of small minds.

12. amy anderson writes
    August 27th, 2009 8:40 am

    “The doctors here have little interest in the daily health of their patients. They are like the cops. They are only interested after the fact. Prevention is not on their agenda.”

    I can attest to that! My doctor tried to get me to take pills for my ’supposed’ osteoporosis and high cholesterol when I was three pts. over the ‘trigger point’ as he called it. Heck, the pills are as bad if not worse, than the disease! But he NEVER mentioned one word about diet and lifestyle changes. So, I did it myself. But then, most of them are at the beck and call of Big Pharm and we all know BP is not and has never been in the cure business, but rather in the treatment business because that is where their obscene profits are. That is why we see so few cures of any ailment.

13. TNVolunteer73 writes
    August 27th, 2009 8:44 am

    Brandow

    So the Governmetn should be paying for Bill Gates’ healthcare, home, ect.

    Because remember General means ALL

    So if you are using that everyone must receive a welfare check, food stamps, every family with childern must recieve WIC, everyone receive the same benifits from the government, must be taxed at the same rate.

    gen·er·al (jěn’ər-əl)
    adj.

    Of or affecting the entire body:

    So if it is “GENERAL WELFARE” everyone must receive the benifits, not just a select few.

14. Blue writes
    August 27th, 2009 9:32 am

    What in the hell does Corker know? I would not listen to anything that he says. I have been reading about him, and how he made his money, not impressed.

15. TN4th writes
    August 27th, 2009 9:33 am

    It sure is easy for a wealthy fella to be ignorant of the folks who don’t have job security, and hence don’t have income security to even afford to stay on the private insurance programs. No matter how much “insurance reform” there is, if you lose your income, you lose your insurance.

    The insurance companies have even managed to prevent associations from forming a group, so small employers and individuals pay through the nose to subsidize the big companies that bargain for good rates.

    Private insurance companies are shooting for a 30% profit, and it comes out of the money that should be paying for actual healthcare services.

    “Competition” is a joke. There are only a couple of dominant insurers in each market, and the products are too complicated for the average person to compare. “Choice” is a joke. If you don’t go to the doctors on the insurance companies’ lists, you don’t get covered, and most of the primary care providers on the lists are not taking new patients.

    I’d swap my $400/month half-arsed private plan (for one individual who has never spent a day in the hospital in my life and have no chronic health issues) for my mother-in-law’s Medicare any day, even if I did have to pay for it. She goes to whatever doctor she wants, and she doesn’t lie awake at night wondering how to pay for it and whether she will be able to keep it, and whether she will run out of benefits, and whether Medicare will out of the blue just deny her physicians reimbursement, or whether the hospital “forgot” to inform her that half the folks she dealt with in the hospital were contractors, not emplyees, so that their bills weren’t covered under her plan.

    Why can’t Congress give us the same plan they get? Why do Americans who have worked hard all their lives go bankrupt over medical bills when they get sick, lose their job, and lose their precious “private insurance?” Health care should be every American’s right, not their biggest fear.

16. TNVolunteer73 writes
    August 27th, 2009 9:35 am

    TN..

    85% of americans are happy with the Healthcare System.

    So it is not our biggest fear.

    Our Biggest fear is the Bankruption of our nation.

17. Brawndo the Thirst Mutilator writes
    August 27th, 2009 9:45 am

    “85% of americans are happy with the Healthcare System.”

    I’m happy with our health care system.

    I’m unhappy with our health insurance system.

18. Corn Dawg writes
    August 27th, 2009 9:48 am

    What Obama is talking about IS health insurance reform.

    Nobody… NOBODY… is talking about changing the actual delivery system of healthcare (hospitals, doctors, clinics, etc.)

    The core issue is - and has always been - reforming the insurance industry. One piece of that reform is more regulation. Specifically, making the insurers cover everyone and not denying people for pre-existing and bad health conditions. The other reform is lowering the cost of healthcare. You do that by providing competition against the private insurance companies with a public option. Once you have that competition, insurance companies will have to lower their rates to compete with the government.

    Remember, close to 15% of the cost of healthcare is the “skim” by the private insurance companies. The government runs a program - Medicare - which would have the same basic structure as a public option and its administrative cost is 4%. That’s freakin’ huge and its the reason why the insurance industry is fighting this with everything they’ve got.

    So that’s what we’re talking about here, no matter how bad the insurance companies and their Republican allies lie about “socialized medicine”. Your doctor will still be your doctor, your taxes won’t go up (unless you’re wealthy), your premiums will go down, everyone will have insurance they can take from job to job, a huge burden will be lifted off of small businesses, and the quality of care will be the same, if not better than it is now.

    Everything else you hear contrary to that is a flat-out, bald-faced LIE. Glad to see that Corker is - at least at a basic level - understanding the core concept at work here. Too bad the rest of his Party feels the need to lie about all of this. They have no interest in fixing healthcare - they only want to embarrass the President. People are starting to see that now and the Republicans are going to pay a price for their treachery in the next election. As are the Blue Dog Democrats who have obstructed reform.

19. TNVolunteer73 writes
    August 27th, 2009 9:53 am

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204313604574330442429438938.html

    So you are in the Bottom 34%

    Because 74% of americans say

    There’s also the reality that 74% of voters rate the quality of care they now receive as good or excellent. And 50% fear that if Congress passes health-care reform, it will lead to a decline in the quality of that care.

    The most important fundamental is that 68% of American voters have health-insurance coverage they rate good or excellent.

20. TNVolunteer73 writes
    August 27th, 2009 9:55 am

    Corndawg

    Read Sectin 102 Clause 2 of the HR3200

    If you insurance changes ANYTHING in your policy you will be FORCED to take the “Public Option”

21. TNVolunteer73 writes
    August 27th, 2009 9:55 am

    It has nothing to do with health insurance, healthcare just Control.

22. Brawndo the Thirst Mutilator writes
    August 27th, 2009 9:56 am

    TNVol73: “So the Governmetn should be paying for Bill Gates’ healthcare, home, ect.

    Because remember General means ALL”

    Nope. “General welfare” doesn’t mean that the government is our provider.

    The government is Constitutionally permitted, however, under that clause to ensure that we all have access to the health care system since having a healthy population is most definitely to the benefit of the uninsured and insured alike. The government is also permitted to correct market failures that threaten the population as a whole. The market failure in the insurance business is one such threat to you, me, and everyone else. It needs to be seriously regulated, face competition, and subsidized for those who can’t afford it.

    I know you haven’t been ignoring my comments on this subject. I also know that we generally agree on the solution to the health insurance problem.

23. TNVolunteer73 writes
    August 27th, 2009 10:01 am

    Brandow.. Yes it does Government Welfare provides for people Food, Housing Healthcare day care some people.

    So if this is “General Welfare” the same financial monies must be provided for every citizen. If it does not it is not meeting the definition of “General Welfare.”

    It is “Selective Welfare”

24. Brawndo the Thirst Mutilator writes
    August 27th, 2009 10:08 am

    I think you’re arguing semantics here. General welfare does not mean it’s our provider and it never has.

    “The most important fundamental is that 68% of American voters have health-insurance coverage they rate good or excellent.”

    I’m in that 68% too. I like the insurance that I’ve had for the last 10 years.

    Too bad it’s inexplicably tied to my employment. If I were to ever become dissatisfied with them, I couldn’t change insurers due to the market failures in this industry.

25. Brawndo the Thirst Mutilator writes
    August 27th, 2009 10:12 am

    “If you insurance changes ANYTHING in your policy you will be FORCED to take the “Public Option””

    No it doesn’t. You know this, too.

    You will however have to select a policy from a health insurance exchange, which includes several options from competing insurance companies as well as the “dreaded” public option.

    I’ve stated before that I’m not a fan of the public option, but no one’s being forced to take it. The only way anyone would be forced into it would be if we continue to allow private insurers to cherry-pick customers.

26. Brawndo the Thirst Mutilator writes
    August 27th, 2009 10:13 am

    “There’s also the reality that 74% of voters rate the quality of care they now receive as good or excellent. And 50% fear that if Congress passes health-care reform, it will lead to a decline in the quality of that care.”

    Then the conservatives’ misinformation campaign is working. A lot of people are wrongly equating health insurance reform with government-run health care.

27. Emmett Flatus writes
    August 27th, 2009 12:25 pm

    Corn Dawg demands, “…making the insurers cover everyone and not denying people for pre-existing and bad health conditions.”

    One quick question there, Doggie. If a healthy person pays $400 per month for an insurance policy for which he/she medically qualified, how much should a person with continuing conditions for which they use thousands of dollars of services annually pay for their policy?

28. Brawndo the Thirst Mutilator writes
    August 27th, 2009 12:33 pm

    If we require insurers to cover everyone with pre-existing conditions and bad health, then their pricing will probably resemble a employer group plan where everyone pays the same thing.

    People in bad health generally can’t work and pay higher premiums to the extent someone who’s healthy can. Call it socialist-ic-ky-ish (if you’re a tea partier), but community rating is the best way to approach this conflict between a person’s ability to pay and the health care they need. Younger and healthier people shouldn’t mind, since they’ll need the favor returned in their later years.

29. RED writes
    August 27th, 2009 12:55 pm

    corndawg,hussein needs no help with embarrassment……..does just fine all by his lonesome……

30. RED writes
    August 27th, 2009 12:57 pm

    and mikem…..are black republicans racist?