Political Forecasts & Protests @ Health Insurers' Mtg.

Prognostications galore as America's Health Insurance Plans, the tradegroup of private health insurers, turned the stage over to former lawmakers and presidential advisers to discuss the future of U.S. health care during the group's annual meeting in San Francisco on last week. There were voices for a national health plan from working people -- here’s a sampling:

‘Alphonso Pines, 55, a union representative for United Here Local 2, was one of many raising his voice for a single-payer health-care system and against the for-profit multi-payer one. “If everybody’s covered then costs would have to go down,” he said.

Pines blamed health insurers for suppressing workers’ wages. “They’re greedy. They keep raising rates….They’ve had a good time under the Bush administration without no checks and balances.”

‘Mark Fisher, a non-union plumber in San Francisco, said he heard about the rally on the radio and wanted to join the protest on behalf of people who can’t get insurance — even though he has no beef personally with the care he’s received. Health insurers drive costs up, and a Canadian-style system would be more efficient, he argued.

‘“They’re a middle man,” he said of private health insurers. “They serve no useful purpose.”
‘“The American system works very well for me,” said Fisher, 65, who pegged his annual income at $100,000. “But morally the system is corrupt. It’s very unfair to the person who works for an hourly wage.”’

See the Health Matters blog, link given below. http://blogs.marketwatch.com/healthmatters/2008/06/20/health-insurers-meeting-abuzz-with-political-forecasting-and-protests/?siteid=nwtpf