b)I read the other two Elder pieces. Some good points to add to the debate. One comment here, disturbs me though, in Part 3: “Government regulations make it next to impossible for private people to make a profit. And so the vicious circle continues.” You need to try to understand what the purpose of insurance really is: to spread risk, thus making loss, when it occurs, manageable.

http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090630/OPINION/906300327/-1/NEWSMAP
In health care: so-called diseases created by Big Pharma advertising in order to sell pills. An insurance industry feared (rather than looked to for comfort) by most of its customers for its reputation of doing everything they can to protect profits from claims and such prudent practices as denying coverage for the most needy with pre-existing conditions clauses.
Of all parts of our life, health care would seem to be the one in which it is most important to eliminate the profit and greed factor. People who are not involved heart and soul with the opportunity to do this inherently meaningful work for fellow humans should not be permitted to practice health care.

Bottom line: health care is too important to be trusted to a bottom line. Hint: AIG (who got way out of line and way off base in their profit-making mania, to the detriment of, firstly their policyholders and secondly, the entire global financial system)

c. You’re gonna believe Anthem, so, here’s what the little big guys have to say.

http://www.courant.com/business/hc-anthemfollow.artjul02,0,3279420.story

Anthem said it needs the rate increases because its claim costs are rising and that it wants the increases to take effect Oct. 1 instead of the usual Jan. 1 start. On Wednesday, Anthem said it wouldn’t withdraw its proposal. “The bottom line is that increases in claim costs for Anthem’s individual plans have surpassed premium increases significantly enough to require that we request a rate increase in October,” said Sarah Yeager, an Anthem spokeswoman.

Anthem’s well-compensated CEO Larry Glasscock oversaw a merger with Health Point.

http://hr.blr.com/news.aspx?id=4121

http://www.answers.com/topic/larry-c-glasscock

“… analysts believed that competition might be hampered should smaller insurers be driven from the market, which could fuel price increases. Doctors were also concerned that the merger marked a nationwide trend toward a health-care system governed by a handful of publicly traded corporations operating primarily for the welfare of shareholders.

We’re all in “good hands” here, aren’t we bloggie?

b.) And we’ve covered the matter of who the uninsured are here at BN. There’s more about that, if you’re interested. Larry Elder has been running a series of columns about it at Townhall, the latest of which appears today.

c.) Sounds like at least some Anthem customers might want to do some shopping around. I’d be interested to see what Anthem had to say about why it found this rate hike necessary. Businesses don’t generally just arbitraritly jack prices, knowing full well it invites customers to go to the competiton.

News Flash:
http://www.courant.com/business/hc-anthem-rates.artjul01,0,1022396.story
Anthem Blue Cross Seeks Large Rate Increase On Health Insurance For Individuals

Gee, let’s see, what kind of trade-offs? Food or shelter this time?

By DIANE LEVICK The Hartford Courant

July 1, 2009

Far fewer Americans buy their own insurance than get it through employers, but the individual market is a key focus of the nation’s health care reform debate because it could provide a way to get more people covered. Anthem’s rate filing is likely to fuel the already caustic attacks on the individual market, which already faces questions about its fairness and affordability.

The size of Anthem’s proposed rate hike is “outrageous,” said Janet Davenport, a spokeswoman for the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut. “This will be devastating for individuals who are already between the devil and the deep blue sea, anguishing over how they’re going to obtain health coverage.”

The rate proposal “exacerbates the crisis, and it will contribute to the numbers of uninsured,” Davenport said

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-07-01-health-insurance_N.htm

TLANTA (AP) — The percentage of Americans with private health insurance has hit its lowest mark in 50 years, according to two new government reports. About 65% of non-elderly Americans had private insurance in 2008, down from 67% the year before, according to preliminary data released Wednesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “It’s bad news,” said Kenneth Thorpe, a health policy researcher at Emory University.

In the 1970s and early 1980s, nearly 80% of Americans had private coverage, according to CDC officials.

Some experts blamed the faltering economy and corporate decisions to raise health insurance premiums — or do away with employee coverage — as the main drivers of the recent data. They say coverage statistics for 2009 may look even worse.