December 2, 2013

"We want to be paid," said a health insurance executive. "If we want to pay claims, we need to get paid."

The NYT says he was "speaking frankly on the condition of anonymity." The article is about fears that the healthcare.gov website is seriously defective at the stage at which money gets conveyed to the health insurance companies — where, apparently, the executives are unwilling to express themselves openly.

31 comments:

Wince said...

People have gotten the word the IRS is listening.

"Nice insurance company you got there, too bad if anything were to 'appen to it."

It's getting scary.

MadisonMan said...

I suspect that if the Company Execs spoke openly, their companies would be audited.

Matt Sablan said...

Is the money is being taken from customers, and just not getting to the companies, or is the money not being taken at all? It sounds like the problem is a lot more than just getting the money to the right party, judging by the article.

Frankly, though, not too many people are going to care if the government screws over insurance companies.

MadisonMan said...

EDH: Heh.

Even if it's not true that this kind of thing happens now, the appearance/perception that something like this could happen is there (because it has happened in the past)

A good businessman prudently anticipates eventualities and takes steps to prevent the bad outcomes.

Matt Sablan said...

See, five months ago, I would have said EDH was being paranoid. But, yeah. After the list of opponents of Obama being mysteriously audited shortly after making their political positions known, combined with the whole Tea Party targeting debacle, I can't in good faith say that the IRS is NOT just a partisan club wielded by the executive branch.

jacksonjay said...

According to Henry "Third World Experience" Chao, the back end (payment delivery) hasn't been built yet!

Of course, this was news to Obama. He read about it in the paper!

hombre said...

This exec is a loon. Paid? Everybody knows you have signed up for Obamacare whether you have paid or not.

The Pinocchiobama minions have told us so.

tim maguire said...

They want to get money in to cover the money they're sending out?!?

Evil Corporations!!!

Capitalist pigs!!!!

Original Mike said...

"We want to be paid," said a health insurance executive ... on the condition of anonymity."

This Administration makes The Mob look like pikers.

Unknown said...

This via instapundit "http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2013/11/30/Political-Witch-Hunt-ObamaCare-Critics-Got-Their-Audit-Letters-On-The-Same-Day?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter " is expressly designed and instituted to cause this " the executives are unwilling to express themselves openly. " How long before people begin dying for this tyrannical rubbish ? Before field reps for the irs, or any government rep become targets ? And the mfm have exactly nothing to say except to denigrate and attempt to marginalize the people whom are targeted as well as those who are pointing these tactics out.

Terry said...

Has anyone actually bought and paid for a policy on a federal exchange?
after eight years of Bush -- who the Left assured us was a jackbooted thug -- people were far less afraid to speak out on government policy than they are after five years of Obama.

Levi Starks said...

It works like this:
The government can never have enough money, and privately owned companies and individual citizens always have too much.
And if you cry about it, the IRS will really give you something to cry about.
So shut up and eat your peas (or the stigmatized vegetable of your choice)

Birkel said...

Original Mike:
The Mob helped businesses as an enforcement mechanism for cartels. Your analogy may be wrong simply because there is not proof, yet, that the Obama Administration helps anybody except itself.

More power and less accountability than The Mob.

Levi Starks said...

As to the way the Obama administration functions, I find their tactics to be similar to those of Nazi Germany in the 30's.
I'm NOT comparing Obama to Hitler. Clearly the agenda of the Nazi party and the Democratic part are almost diametrically opposed.
But the methods by which they seek to acquire control bear a close resemblance. If only the Democrats could nail down talk radio, they'd be much closer to success. It doesn't seem like that's going to happen anytime soon, but there is definitely a demonizing of "right wing radio" by both the whitehouse, and a great deal of the print media. I can't even imagine how Goebbels would have dealt with the internet if it had been available, but I can assure you it would have been harsh.

Strelnikov said...

You mean they need money to pay claims? Who da thunk it? That's not how government works. We just pay.

Gee, this purchasing of insurance is difficult.

Anonymous said...

Althouse, Isn't this basic black letter contract law?

You (and the Feds, if you get a subsidy) make your payment and the insurance company starts your policy.

If the back end doesn't get the full payment to the insurer, they don't issue you a card and don't cover you.

n.n said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
n.n said...

Insurance is equivalent to health care. A web site is equivalent to availability. Increasing total costs while expanding total subsidies is equivalent to affordability. Trillion dollar deficits and creative accounting are insufficient to compensate. The economies must be improving, or something. I wonder what else they are doing behind the curtain.

Writ Small said...

Darth Vader: Calrissian. Take the princess and the Wookie to my ship.

Lando: You said they'd be left at the city under my supervision!

Darth Vader: I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further.

. . .

Lando: Lord Vader, what about Leia and the Wookiee?

Darth Vader: They must never again leave this city.

Lando: [outraged] That was never a condition of our agreement, nor was giving Han to this bounty hunter!

Darth Vader: Perhaps you think you're being treated unfairly?

Lando: [after a pause; nervous tone] No.

Darth Vader: Good. You know it would be unfortunate if I had to leave a garrison here.

Lando: [to himself] This deal is getting worse all the time!

Michael K said...

"I'm NOT comparing Obama to Hitler. Clearly the agenda of the Nazi party and the Democratic part are almost diametrically opposed. "

Oh ? Ask Israel.

"In November, 1932, Thyssen and Hjalmar Schacht were the main organisers of a letter to President Paul von Hindenburg urging him to appoint Hitler as Chancellor."

Anybody see parallels with the Obama billionaires ?

Insufficiently Sensitive said...

money gets conveyed to the health insurance companies — where, apparently, the executives are unwilling to express themselves openly.

That's because they sold out so eagerly for the mere Obamapromise of brigades and armies and army groups of healthy young suckers, whose premiums would disproportionately (hah!) fill insurance coffers for decades before their payouts would get serious.

Now, with the 'rollout' into the shop for repairs, the Obamapromise looks pretty nebulous beside the hundreds of millions those same insurance executives spent in hard cash to hype Obamacare before it ever passed Congress.

bbkingfish said...

"...and please remember to click through the Amazon portal..."

YoungHegelian said...

@IS,

I, like you, have little sympathy for the insurance companies. They thought that they were going to hop on the gravy train with the Democratic push for universal health care and come out ahead.

Hello? A huge swath of the country was against it from the get-go. The Republicans were united against it. Is there a 1st world country where the insurance industry is making a killing off of government-mandated health care? And, did you really think that the Democratic dimwits in the House & Senate were going to pull off a massive change like this cleanly, not using you as whipping boys if anything went wrong?

It's time for some corporate boards to clean house at some major insurance companies.

Joe said...

"Clearly the agenda of the Nazi party and the Democratic part[y] are almost diametrically opposed."

Are they? Seriously. Seems that the Democratic Party has simply picked a different scapegoat, which using a similar rhetoric--in our case, it's the middle-class (for the feminists it's specifically white, heterosexual males, especially if middle-class.)

A hallmark of Naziism was crony capitalism--socialization through regulation, rather than the government directly taking over business. At the core, liberals of all stripes they know better than the people and can run a country and the economy better than the people and the free market. Unfortunately, in this regard, too many Republicans agree.

Rusty said...

My college room mate wrote the code that let insurance companies rate insurance with PC. He told something interesting.
Insurance companies don't make any money on premiums. In face that money goes out almost as soon as it comes in. Insurance companies make their profit on investments.

mccullough said...

Bend over and grab your ankles like the rest of us, anonymous insurance executive.

Joe said...

Rusty, I suspect insurance companies do make some money on premiums, but they make even more money the same way Amazon does--interest on float. Cash flow is king!

David said...

I clicked in to be snarky: "Was anyone under the impression that the insurance companies didn't want to be paid?"

But then I realized that yes, there are people who don't realize this, and even more who think that it's evil.

David said...

"Joe said...
Rusty, I suspect insurance companies do make some money on premiums, but they make even more money the same way Amazon does--interest on float. Cash flow is king!"

So Amazon is all about interest on the float?

Have you seen what short term interest rates are these days?

There is no interest on the float.

jr565 said...

If they want to get paid then they can't be too happy about the expansion of medicare. And by they, I mean doctors.

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