How Insurance Companies Are Like Strippers-countinued

It's easy enough to understand that the health insurance industry is opposed to the health reform bill just passed by the Senate Finance Committee, but the real question is why? Again, Ezra Klein comes through with 4 key points explaining what insurers want:

1. A stronger individual mandate
2. Elimination of the excise tax on high-cost health care plans
3. No Medicare payment cuts
4. No New Taxes

Translation? Insurance companies want everyone to be covered, but they don't want to see their profit margins decrease in the process. Real translation? Insurers are all about the money, which brings me to the point of this post, which is how insurance companies are like strippers.

Strippers make gobs of money selling an illusion. They dance around, displaying their bodies to men in exchange for tips. But in order for them to make real money, they have to find a way to make the men believe that they are interested in them. You see, if a stripper pays special attention to a man, he's likely to give her more money. She knows this of course, and she likes the money. Meanwhile, he lies to himself and is convinced that she's not doing it for the money.

Insurers are no different. They, too, sell an illusion. They offer people a false sense of security by convincing them that they are adequately insured when in fact, a great many people are under-insured. The insurer makes its money, and when the beneficiary files a claim--like the balding, overweight man who thinks buying a drink for his stripper counts as a date--they quickly find out that the insurer's actually not at all into them. They just want your money, and they'll do just about whatever it takes--except actually covering your care--to get it.

We need to wake up and realize this opposition to reform for what it is: greed. Fortunately, there is hope that the insurance industry has just shown its true colors to the public through the PWC report. Many are now convinced that, thanks to the insurers' salvo, we're actually closer to the public option than we were before, as Democratic and public opposition to the status quo has the potential to be galvanized around the very transparent and highly self-interested motives of the insurance industry. I certainly hope so.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/d-brad-wright/how-insurance-companies-a_b_323544.html