News outa California has Well Point ready to raise their rates by as much as 39%. They say the cost of healthcare is jumping up big - it takes a lot to keep somebody in a hospital bed; younger people choose to spend their paychecks on something other than health insurance; people who get laid off can't afford insurance; so the pool of insured people shrinks, and on average, gets older and sicker and cost the insurer more (duh).
So what do we need to do? Let's raise taxes on the middle class. That's what's happening, guys. Say it any way you wanna say it, but the system of mostly private; under-regulated mini-monopolies behaves like any unelected bureaucracy behaves when it's not really accountable to anybody. The Executive Committee takes a look at the marketing numbers, and they decide you've got a few extra bucks that you're currently spending on movies or weekend hobbies or whatever; and they decide you'll prob'ly sit still for an increase in your premiums of about x%. They're taxing you, plain and simple, and you've got nothin' to say about it.
And let's not kid ourselves about how the virtues of the free market will balance things out for us because if one company goes overboard, another will rise to challenge it. Bullshit. Markets in this country are anything but free. They've long since been captured by a few very giant conglomerates. And since SCOTUS decided companies are the same as people, the path is clear for them now to finish the job of taking us back to the good old days of aristocracy and noble entitlement - everything and everywhere is owned by some private entity, with a ruling class making all the laws and all the decisions; and handing down the power and the wealth to their semi-literate offspring.
Welcome back to the 18th century.
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