What a surprise: Rich insurance industry opposes health care changes

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I thought other people were imagining things talking about deleted posts. But my response to you went through with only part of it deleted, the part where I said I guessed in advance that there was no point in discussing this with you.

So now when I name a successful gov't program like the CDC or the NIH you say that you think "they have had their share of missteps," though you don't actually name any. Successful apparently is defined as perfect in your mind. I guess private companies never make any missteps, just gov't agencies.

You end by saying that your demand is now for a cabinet level agency. And the standard is that they have to be perfect. You don't want to have a discussion, you just want to vent. I was right that there is no point in engaging you on this matter. You don't need me. Fume away.

You know...the nation that has evidenced Health Insurance companies' profits rising from 2+ billion $$ in 2000 to over 12+billion $$ in 2007...but, hey...don't look here: www.HealthCareforAmericaNow.org

Oversized Profits, Executive Pay

Profits at 10 of the country’s largest publicly traded health insurance companies in 2007 rose 428 percent from 2000 to 2007, from $2.4 billion to $12.9 billion, according to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

In 2007 alone the chief executive officers at these companies collected combined total compensation of $118.6 million—an average of $11.9 million each. That is 468 times more than the $25,434 an average American worker made that year.

The rising premiums paid by employers and families not only generate oversized net earnings, they also fuel controversial financial maneuvers designed to pump up insurers’ stock prices, which in turn help executives reach their personal bonus targets. From 2003 through 2008 the seven largest publicly traded health insurers, which cover 116 million Americans, spent $52.4 billion buying back their own shares. Buybacks reduce the number of shares that are publicly traded, raising the value of existing shareholders’ stakes. Companies make share repurchases with excess cash on hand or with borrowed funds. Buybacks are a way of removing money from a company’s balance sheet for the benefit of investors, reflecting management’s decision not to invest in improving a company’s operations, making the health system run more efficiently or reducing customers’ premiums.

The companies prefer to hand over the money to Wall Street investors and executives whose soaring compensation packages depend on reaching earnings-per-share goals that often would not be achieved without buybacks.

full state-by-state analysis and more: http://hcfan.3cdn.net/dadd15782e627e5b75_g9m6isltl.pdf

If with the military you mean successful from an economic point of view, which is what i am referring to, than not sure how you could include the military given that almost every major weapons program has cost overruns on a large scale. There are also lots of cases of fraud there or just outright waste where they paid too much, or didn't get what they paid for and did nothing.

Did you actually respond with NASA? Remember the first space shuttle that blew up? Not sure that I would argue CDC or NIH either, they have had their share of missteps.

But if you come up with a real answer, I will wait patiently for you to come up with one.

If you want some examples of wasteful military spending, here are just a few well known ones:
-The B-2 (the flying turkey)
-V-22 Osprey
-Divads air defense system
-Bradley IFV in its earlier days
-Zumwalt class destroyer
-The recent tanker debacle (USAF)
Need I go on?

But again, note that you have yet to come up with a major cabinet level department that even you, a diehard liberal, will say is efficient. I think that pretty much proves my point.

Interface,

I don't expect the price of postage to go down, I just don't believe that government involvement automatically will inspire cost effectiveness like apop apparently does.

My own experience with the government leads me to believe the contrary.

track inflation pretty closely:

http://www.swivel.com/graphs/show/10868557

Why would you expect postage costs to go down, given the reality of inflation?

APOP,

Try again. What is your source for your percentages?

Besides, in 50 years of mailing letters I don't ever recall the price of stamps going down.

Here's some alphabet soup of successful federal programs for you, just off the top of my head: CDC, NIH, NOAA, NTSB, NASA, USMC, USN, USAF...

Given that we are talking about the federal government here, not sure how 911 is relevant. Maybe you have different service where you are, but 911 is a local program genius, not run by the feds. Also,I must have missed the Dept. of 911 in the cabinet lineup, who is the secretary or director of 911 again apop?

I will grant that paying 44 cents to mail a letter is a bargain, but then again, usps is more a business then a government agency, according to their own website their last subsidy was in 82. That was not a terrible example, but the USPS mostly pays their own way, not really that dependent on the government. Strike two.

Interstate highways- are they really a total success? Many are not in the best of shape, and in fact I recall the democrats saying we have an infrastructure crisis looming, the interstates are a part of that. Also, the feds provide 90 % of the money for the interstates but the states actually take care of them. This doesn't speak to the condition of just the interstates (but a drive on I70 across missouri, especially in KC will), but the American Society of Civil Engineers gave our bridges a grade of C and our roads a grade of D- so not sure the interstates our a great example either. But again, I apologize, I did not realize that the interstates were a government agency. Perhaps I am just confused, maybe I just missed Obama naming his secretary of the interstate highway system and that person's confirmation hearings.

What else have you got for me? Surely one of you can do better than that?

http://shop.usps.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductCategoryDisplay?catalogId=10152&storeId=10001&categoryId=26402&langId=-1&parent_category_rn=11826&top_category=11826&WT.ac=26402