A Republican Irony
By Louise
In a republican irony of all ironies...If history had been different, Doug Holtz-Eakin would be in the White House pushing the republican domestic agenda and blocking health-care reform, at McCain's side. He was McCain's top health-care guru. He's now unemployed -- and his COBRA health coverage is running out. But...it gets worse. He has one of those pesky "preexisting conditions" that insurance companies often cite in denying coverage. He says, "If you look at my file, any insurance company would go, 'Hmm . . .' " Hmmmm, indeed.
A new Senate analysis suggests that for-profit insurance companies spend as little as 66 cents of each dollar on health care, “while the rest covers administrative expenses, marketing and company profits, according to the analysis.” And, of course, they have to pay that $100 million a year plus in compensation to Stephen Hemsley, the CEO of United Healthcare.
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
By webmaster
Hello All
Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
Please follow us across to hartmannreport.com - this will be the only place going forward to read Thom's blog posts and articles.
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From Cracking the Code:
"No one communicates more thoughtfully or effectively on the radio airwaves than Thom Hartmann. He gets inside the arguments and helps people to think them through—to understand how to respond when they’re talking about public issues with coworkers, neighbors, and friends. This book explores some of the key perspectives behind his approach, teaching us not just how to find the facts, but to talk about what they mean in a way that people will hear."
From Cracking the Code:
"No one communicates more thoughtfully or effectively on the radio airwaves than Thom Hartmann. He gets inside the arguments and helps people to think them through—to understand how to respond when they’re talking about public issues with coworkers, neighbors, and friends. This book explores some of the key perspectives behind his approach, teaching us not just how to find the facts, but to talk about what they mean in a way that people will hear."
From Unequal Protection, 2nd Edition:
"Hartmann combines a remarkable piece of historical research with a brilliant literary style to tell the grand story of corporate corruption and its consequences for society with the force and readability of a great novel."
United Healthcare has gobbled up a whole lot of the competition and put in some really stupid rules to govern its employees. To give you an example of what they consider important. When United Healthcare purchased Americhoice(a then black minority owned insurance company), they moved people around from cubicles and floors to correspond to their salary. So if you were a low paid worker and you had a fair sized cubicle, you were moved to a smaller one that befit your low salary. Stephen Hemsley''s salary is obscene.
I find their rules for healthcare reimbursement to be hard to follow. I never seem to use up my deductible. Another example, they purchased LabCorp and immediately proceeded to mandate that LabCorp be used exclusively. A routine bloodworkup would be billed at $1,000.00, adjusted to $200 which would be fully billed to the patient while not even applied to the deductible at all.