I watched Bill Moyers interview Wendell Potter on the Bill Moyers Journal.  See AWM below.  The only description I can give to these insurance executives is that they put a new wrinkle to the word “deadbeat.”  They take money religiously for insurance coverage and when something goes wrong, they start looking immediately for a way out of paying what they were bound by contract to provide.  But they dress in suits and live very high off the hog, and are accepted in the White House circle.
Too bad Cigna isn’t sued for wongful death in the Sakesian story. 
There ought to be a special confinement center for these bastards.  Infect them with the AIDS virus and sentence them to work at a job where they can never make more than the minimum wage.

Matt Miller suggests Switzerland’s (no public option) health system as a possible model for the U.S.  The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and World Health Organization (WHO) survey say this about the Swiss system:

19 October 2006—Switzerland’s health system meets the important goals of good health outcomes and universal health coverage, but these successes come at a high financial cost. The OECD and the WHO, in a new report on the Swiss health system, praise the quality of the system and make recommendations to control its high spending.

The Swiss healthcare system compares well with other OECD countries. It has universal health-insurance coverage, permitting access to a broad range of modern medical services, and patients are largely satisfied with the health care they receive. However, spending on health as a share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the second highest (after the U.S.) in the OECD area, while other OECD countries perform equally well, or even better, at lower cost.

Switzerland spent 11.5% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on health in 2003, against the OECD average of 8.8%. The cost has been increasing steadily in Switzerland, rising by 2.4% of GDP between 1990 and 2004, above the OECD average increase of 1.5%. These high levels of health spending, compared with other OECD countries, reflect both the generous supply and the high prices of the services provided.

Ageing populations, coupled with new healthcare technologies, suggest that health spending will continue to rise, creating concerns about the financial sustainability of the system. “Switzerland will have to develop more cost-effective policies if it wants to better control health expenditure in the future” said John Martin, Director of the Employment, Labour and Social Affairs Directorate, OECD.

I listened to the show, but I think that both speakers missed the boat.  Yes, the high costs of everything are mentioned, but what has happened to the median wage since WW2? The degradation of the family is mentioned, but what’s to be expected when dual wage earners are required to barely survive?

For an interesting discussion on the disappearing middle class, see the lecture by Elizabeth Warren.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akVL7QY0S8A

former insurance exec spills the beans on Bill Moyers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-M10jDkmm0&feature=channel