Senate committee approves health care plan

[alfred russel]

The problem is that laws like that, even if they do not intend to create that situation (price collusion) often provide cover for it anyway. If you let them, they will certainly collude, since it is in their interests to do so - and the law seems to give them the cover they need for that.

An insurance company without loss information can not write insurance. If you don't have much loss information, you are not going to be able to write competitive policies due to your inability to narrow the reasonable range of future losses. Loss information doesn't grow on trees: it is generated by insurance companies. In 1945 it made sense to allow for the sharing of information because small insurers wouldn't be able to generate much loss data on their own--but collectively they could do so.

Today there aren't as many small insurers, though there are still some. Even big insurers are small in certain lines of business and in certain markets. Maybe it makes sense to revisit this as a part of insurance reform (which is definitely needed). But this seems to be a temper tantrum move by people who have been fired up by the health care rhetoric and want to lash out at insurance companies--not a thoughtful step toward reform.

[alfred russel]

Nancy Pelosi on insurance companies:

It's almost immoral what they are doing. Of course they've been immoral all along in how they have treated the people that they insure. They are the villains. They have been part of the problem in a major way.

[Caliga]

It's almost immoral what they are doing. Of course they've been immoral all along in how they have treated the people that they insure. They are the villains. They have been part of the problem in a major way.

Hardly shocking considering the district she represents.

[alfred russel]

It's almost immoral what they are doing. Of course they've been immoral all along in how they have treated the people that they insure. They are the villains. They have been part of the problem in a major way.

Hardly shocking considering the district she represents.

She is the speaker of the house and supposedly overseeing insurance reform.

[Caliga]

She is the speaker of the house and supposedly overseeing insurance reform.

She may be the speaker of the house, but that doesn't change the fact that she represents, and is voted in or out, by a whacko liberal district in San Francisco.

[Berkut]

You know, for all the outrage over the death panel stuff, I have not heard any Dems bitching about whathisface from Georgia claiming that Republicans want everyone to die as quickly as possible when they get sick.

[ulmont]

I have not heard any Dems bitching about whathisface from Georgia claiming that Republicans want everyone to die as quickly as possible when they get sick.

Alan Grayson is from Florida.

[The Minsky Moment]

The problem with state regulation is that passing the mustard with North Dakota regulators will not make it any easier for you to enter New Jersey market, for example.  It's a huge problem in itself, as you have to deal with 50 regulators instead of one, but at least it prevents the race to the bottom that you mention.

That will be of little solace to the citizens of North Dakota though.

[DGuller]

The problem with state regulation is that passing the mustard with North Dakota regulators will not make it any easier for you to enter New Jersey market, for example.  It's a huge problem in itself, as you have to deal with 50 regulators instead of one, but at least it prevents the race to the bottom that you mention.

That will be of little solace to the citizens of North Dakota though.

Yes, idiot regulators will screw the residents of the state they're regulating.  However, that's not the point you were making. 

You were implying that insurers could shop around among 50 regulators, and pick the one most pliable to regulate you in the whole of US, which is very much untrue.  Yes, you can pick the least stringent of the 50 regulators if you're an insurance company, as long as you want to write insurance only in their state.

[The Minsky Moment]

You were implying that insurers could shop around among 50 regulators, and pick the one most pliable to regulate you in the whole of US, which is very much untrue.  Yes, you can pick the least stringent of the 50 regulators if you're an insurance company, as long as you want to write insurance only in their state.

I am implying that under M-F some states will become regulatory dumping grounds.  that may not directly impact people living in other states, as long as they don't move, but it is still not a good outcome.

[DGuller]

I am implying that under M-F some states will become regulatory dumping grounds.  that may not directly impact people living in other states, as long as they don't move, but it is still not a good outcome.

What is a regulatory dumping ground?

[garbon]

She may be the speaker of the house, but that doesn't change the fact that she represents, and is voted in or out, by a whacko liberal district in San Francisco.

Her district covers most of SF.

[garbon]

Nancy Pelosi on insurance companies:

It's almost immoral what they are doing. Of course they've been immoral all along in how they have treated the people that they insure. They are the villains. They have been part of the problem in a major way.

I heard a commercial (for some debt consolidation or something company) on the radio today that home mortgages should be illegal because they force you to pay so much more when you add in interest than if you had bought the house outright on day 1.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Nancy Pelosi on insurance companies:

It's almost immoral what they are doing. Of course they've been immoral all along in how they have treated the people that they insure. They are the villains. They have been part of the problem in a major way.

I heard a commercial (for some debt consolidation or something company) on the radio today that home mortgages should be illegal because they force you to pay so much more when you add in interest than if you had bought the house outright on day 1.

I hear similar ones saying that debtors shouldn't have to pay back what the greedy credit card companies made them spend.

[garbon]

I liked the debt relief program that you can only enter if you have over $10,000 in credit card debt.