This AHIP report on the Finance Committee bill is all the evidence anyone should require to prove how criminally despicable the health insurance cartel truly is. The upshot of the report is that if the Finance bill is passed (presumably as-is), health insurance premiums will go up.
But what AHIP, the health insurance lobby, doesn't confess to in the report is that they're going to raise premiums anyway. They're already doing it. Premiums have risen 131 percent in the last ten years -- significantly out pacing both wages and inflation -- and the rates will continue to rise. In fact, if nothing is done to regulate the cartels, the average family's annual payout to health insurance premiums will rise from $13,000 to $24,000 by 2019.
The cartels are telling us that if we pass healthcare reform, they're going to pull the trigger on the gun they're holding to our heads. Yet if we don't pass healthcare reform, they're going to pull the trigger anyway.
Good people.
At this point, were I the White House and the congressional Democrats, I would totally clamp down on these bastards. Nationalize them all. Simply because they're threatening us with a catch-22. Realistically (nationalization won't happen), the Democrats ought to cap premiums at 50 percent -- at least 50 -- below the rate of inflation. Then I would tag the amendment with the words: Suck it, you bastards.