You can't go into deep analysis to determine who the yo-yo's are. It is you and me. It is all of us with a half decent driving record (more decent than half). State legislature in Florida recently eliminated the "No-Fault Insurance" because of who knows whose interest's reasons. It was probably a good measure for some and a bad one for others. It was another one of those political decisions with lawyers controlling our lives with the "Yes or No" answer in every aspect of it. The color spectrum when making laws is only Black or White, and I do not mean race, I am talking about the narrow minded politicians and the opportunistic lawmakers to make their life easier and ours even more complicated every day. There is nothing in between to reward good drivers versus bad drivers. It is either NO-FAULT insurance or FAULT INSURANCE for everybody! Pick one. If you pick No-fault your premium goes up. Should you go for the FAULT (modified now with ridiculous amounts of coverage if you want to stay at the same level of coverage as before) you may save some money but your coverage is so minimal that God forbid if you end up in a hospital for a couple of weeks after a bad car accident. You might have to get a second mortgage on your house (hoping you own one) because that modified FAULT insurance might only cover for your first two days at any hospital.
So what are the Insurance companies doing about it? NOTHING. The reason is the usual one...GREED. Insurance companies will now make more money with this new law of FAULT insurance (for lack of better word), whether you choose no medical accident coverage at all or a "token" coverage, let's say of $15,000, which will bring your premium above the level you were paying when you had NO-FAULT insurance, which provided a much larger medical coverage.
Now, some of these Insurance companies are running scared because it seems that State legislature is thinking of reversing their decision and reinstating the NO-FAULT insurance. It is a game going on between the State politicians and the "poor" Insurance companies. And guess who are the insurance companies asking support from to maintain this new status quo? Us, the insured victims! They are sending us letters asking us to contact our state representatives, senators, or the Governor's Citizen Services Hotline, etc. etc. to ask them not to approve any deal "which harms Florida drivers or takes away our savings". This is so pathetic and laughable. We are being used as yoyo's to fight for them, not for us. Nothing changes and vaseline still works.
My suggestion to these insurance companies and state legislators is as follows: Come up with a law to to eliminate the No-Fault Insurance, but that at the same time rewards the good drivers. Do away with the No-Fault but give substantial discounts to proven safe drivers. Not $20 or similar ridiculous discounts. Allow safe drivers to buy into a Medical coverage for accidents caused by others which will not increase their insurance policy above what it was before the elimination of the No-Fault, and which will provide real coverage in relation to the ridiculous hospital and medical bills that are current today, and not 5, 10 or $15,000, as they are now offering at a premium.
My suggestion to any one receiving these letters from the car insurance companies: THROW THEM AWAY. Don't fight for them. They should fight for us! They get our money!
Friday, September 28, 2007
Monday, September 17, 2007
HEALTH CARE?
Transcript of taped conversation between President Richard Nixon and John D. Ehrlichman (1971) that led to the HMO act of 1973
Ehrlichman: " On the health business..."
Nixon: "Yeah"
Ehrlichman: " We have now narrowed down the vice president's
problems on this thing to one issue and that
is whether we should include these health maintenance
organizations like Edgar Kaiser's Permanent thing. The
vice president just cannot see it. We tried 15 ways from
Friday to explain it to him and then help him to
understand it. He finally says, "Well, I don't think they'll
work, but if the President thinks it's a good idea, I'll
support him a hundred percent".
Nixon: "Well, what's...what's the judgement?"
Ehrlichman: "Well, everybody else's judgement very strongly is that we
go with it."
Nixon: " All right."
Ehrlichman: " And, uh, uh, he's the one holdout that we have in the
whole office."
Nixon: "Say that I...I...I'd tell him I have doubts about it, but I
think that it's, uh, now let me ask you, now you give me
your judgement. You know I'm not to keen on any of
these damn medical programs."
Ehrlichman: "This, uh, let me, let me tell you how I am..."
Nixon: (Unclear)
Ehrlichman: "This, this is a..."
Nixon: "I don't (unclear)..."
Ehrlichman: "...private enterprise one."
Nixon: "Well, that appeals to me."
Ehrlichman: "Edgar Kaiser is running his Permanente deal for profit.
And the reason that he can...the reason he can do it...I
had Edgar Kaiser come in...talk to me about this and I
went into it in some depth. All the incentives are
towards less medical care, because..."
Nixon: (Unclear)
Ehrlichman: "The less care they give them, the more money
they make."
Nixon: "Fine." (Unclear)
Ehrlichman: "...and the incentives run the right way."
Nixon: "Not bad."
(Source: University of Virginia Check-February 17, 1971, 5:26 pm -
5:53 pm, Oval Office Conversation 450-23. Look for: tape rmn_e450c.)
Interesting, isn't it? These HMOs have been around screwing our lives since that conversation took place during a Republican government ran by a president and a vice president who had to resign from power. However, the damage caused was not corrected. We live, (or rather die) with it since the conversation between Richard Nixon and John D. Ehrlichman in 1971 that led to the HMO act of 1973. It's been 34 years already! And no president in this country, since, has had the courage to at least propose an alternate plan to help his constituants, mainly the poor and the middle class. The rich don't need any plan.
So here comes Hillary Clinton, running as a formidable candidate to the presidency for 2009, who has the bravery of offering a plan called "Universal Health Care" to enable us to have decent coverage. And before this plan is laid out in detail, most Americans are already against it. Apparently this plan sounds "socialist", or if you want to...even "communist!" How stupid are we? Isn't the current one administered by the HMOs a communist plan? They control our health. They tells us what we can have and what we can't. They tell us what doctors to go to. They even tell us if our illnesses are to be treated or not. Isn't that communism?
Until we remove the blindfold from our eyes, which unfortunately seems to be part of the apparel most of us permanently wear, we will never have a REAL, GOOD, HUMANE HEALTH CARE plan
I would vote for Hillary Clinton's plan if I knew we would automatically get rid of all the leaches, a.k.a HMOs. For now I am trying to find out more about her plan, without a blindfold and with an open mind. Rather than contributing to polls with complete ignorance of the facts.
Oh, yes, regarding that transcript of Nixon and Ehrlichman...are you surprised?
Note: If you are interested in more details about the Edgar Kaiser's Permanente Plan you may check it out with Google. Kaiser claims that the HMOs are clones of his original PERMANENTE PLAN.
Ehrlichman: " On the health business..."
Nixon: "Yeah"
Ehrlichman: " We have now narrowed down the vice president's
problems on this thing to one issue and that
is whether we should include these health maintenance
organizations like Edgar Kaiser's Permanent thing. The
vice president just cannot see it. We tried 15 ways from
Friday to explain it to him and then help him to
understand it. He finally says, "Well, I don't think they'll
work, but if the President thinks it's a good idea, I'll
support him a hundred percent".
Nixon: "Well, what's...what's the judgement?"
Ehrlichman: "Well, everybody else's judgement very strongly is that we
go with it."
Nixon: " All right."
Ehrlichman: " And, uh, uh, he's the one holdout that we have in the
whole office."
Nixon: "Say that I...I...I'd tell him I have doubts about it, but I
think that it's, uh, now let me ask you, now you give me
your judgement. You know I'm not to keen on any of
these damn medical programs."
Ehrlichman: "This, uh, let me, let me tell you how I am..."
Nixon: (Unclear)
Ehrlichman: "This, this is a..."
Nixon: "I don't (unclear)..."
Ehrlichman: "...private enterprise one."
Nixon: "Well, that appeals to me."
Ehrlichman: "Edgar Kaiser is running his Permanente deal for profit.
And the reason that he can...the reason he can do it...I
had Edgar Kaiser come in...talk to me about this and I
went into it in some depth. All the incentives are
towards less medical care, because..."
Nixon: (Unclear)
Ehrlichman: "The less care they give them, the more money
they make."
Nixon: "Fine." (Unclear)
Ehrlichman: "...and the incentives run the right way."
Nixon: "Not bad."
(Source: University of Virginia Check-February 17, 1971, 5:26 pm -
5:53 pm, Oval Office Conversation 450-23. Look for: tape rmn_e450c.)
Interesting, isn't it? These HMOs have been around screwing our lives since that conversation took place during a Republican government ran by a president and a vice president who had to resign from power. However, the damage caused was not corrected. We live, (or rather die) with it since the conversation between Richard Nixon and John D. Ehrlichman in 1971 that led to the HMO act of 1973. It's been 34 years already! And no president in this country, since, has had the courage to at least propose an alternate plan to help his constituants, mainly the poor and the middle class. The rich don't need any plan.
So here comes Hillary Clinton, running as a formidable candidate to the presidency for 2009, who has the bravery of offering a plan called "Universal Health Care" to enable us to have decent coverage. And before this plan is laid out in detail, most Americans are already against it. Apparently this plan sounds "socialist", or if you want to...even "communist!" How stupid are we? Isn't the current one administered by the HMOs a communist plan? They control our health. They tells us what we can have and what we can't. They tell us what doctors to go to. They even tell us if our illnesses are to be treated or not. Isn't that communism?
Until we remove the blindfold from our eyes, which unfortunately seems to be part of the apparel most of us permanently wear, we will never have a REAL, GOOD, HUMANE HEALTH CARE plan
I would vote for Hillary Clinton's plan if I knew we would automatically get rid of all the leaches, a.k.a HMOs. For now I am trying to find out more about her plan, without a blindfold and with an open mind. Rather than contributing to polls with complete ignorance of the facts.
Oh, yes, regarding that transcript of Nixon and Ehrlichman...are you surprised?
Note: If you are interested in more details about the Edgar Kaiser's Permanente Plan you may check it out with Google. Kaiser claims that the HMOs are clones of his original PERMANENTE PLAN.
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