Friday, July 31, 2009

Greedy Capitalist Insurance Workers

Amusing.

Folkbum/Schmitz got the PartyLine memo and propose that the Greedy Capitalist Pig insurance companies are the problem.

Or most of it.

Or some of it, anyhow.

Or whatever.

It's their fault, get it? That's what QueenNancy told Schmitz to say, by gum, and that's the story he's going to stick to.

The Greedy Capitalist Pig soubriquet might come as a surprise to Leo Suycott, the former President of Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Milwaukee. The Blues were (here and elsewhere) practically the creation of organized labor; they were virtually specified as the health-insurance purveyor in union contracts when unions actually meant something in the industrial Midwest.

(The first exception was the Teamsters Union, who created the HMO prototype; see the building near 62nd/Bluemound. This gave the Teamsters' bosses the advantage of having free cash to finance their pals in organized crime, just like their pension plans did. Eventually, WEAC created its own insurance subsidiary, which horribly over-charges for the product. Talk about Greedy Pigs! But somehow Schmitzie doesn't mention WEAC, nor the Teamsters. Huh.)

In most places, The Blues replaced denominational-managed "benevolent associations" which provided medical assistance money to their Catholic, or Lutheran, (etc.) members.

It was Leo Suycott who built the Blues Buildings on Michigan Street, derided by FolkbumSchmitz. It was Leo Suycott who built the staff, including a very highly-regarded MIS group and their extraordinarily reliable and accurate Info Systems.

So now Leo and his lieutenants and predecessors are the personification of Greedy Capitalist Pigs.

Nice memorial.

14 comments:

  1. Greedy Insurance. Man, that's tired. Thier profit margins range for 1.5% to 4.5%. Hardly huge.

    ReplyDelete
  2. All you did dad, as usual, is mischaracterize what I said. Can you ever play straight?

    The question still stands. What does private health insurance bring to heath care in America? At least the Teamsters get to vote for their management. No doubt there will be lies and distortions to follow.

    Let's weep bitter tears for the abuse of these people, based on 2008 figures:

    Ron Williams - Aetna / Total Compensation: $24,300,112

    H. Edward Hanway - CIGNA / Total Compensation: $12,236,740

    Angela Braly - WellPoint / Total Compensation: $9,844,212

    Dale Wolf - Coventry Health Care / Total Compensation: $9,047,469

    And the list goes on.

    When Clinton went after health care reform, 95% off insurance premiums went to paying claims. Now it is 80%. Where do you think that money went?

    ReplyDelete
  3. One other thing dad.

    You guys are famous for this crap; twisting something we say and smearing it beyond original point ala Kerry's comments about the troop. So called this a "botched joke." What it really was -- more lying on the part of the rad right.

    My statements had to do with insurance company executives and nothing to do with the workers.

    Cut it out. It's wrong, and it's a lie. I think this has to do with at least one of the commandments.

    ReplyDelete
  4. My statements had to do with insurance company executives and nothing to do with the workers.

    Yeah, but when you attack insurance companies for "excessive profits", call them "evil", and support legislation that all but puts them out of business, the ones losing jobs will not only be the CEOs or management.

    It will be the average Joe in the cubicle who has a family to feed. People like HIM - and their families - will be punished, too. But I see unemployment was 9.7% in June (http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=usunemployment&met=unemployment_rate&tdim=true) so what's adding a few thousand more former insurance company employees to the roles, right?

    ReplyDelete
  5. What does private health insurance bring to heath care in America?

    A wide variety of choices in offerings, prices, and plans (HRA, HSA), etc. Plus good employment for 20,000 (or more) workers.

    That's why EIGHTY FIVE PERCENT of the population is "satisfied" with their insurance coverage, Keith.

    Contrast that to your Queen's numbers, fella.

    ReplyDelete
  6. My statements had to do with insurance company executives and nothing to do with the workers

    Your statements are irrelevant, as without the management, the "workers" will be looking for new work soon.

    We might agree (or not) on exec compensation scales. But your post implies that ALL private insurers should disappear.

    That's not a solution. And that's not "twisting." That's pointing out that you and Pelosi are fools.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Not carrying about insurance workers? That's rich. You people seem to have no problem with millions of jobs being exported because of free trade.

    We bust this private insurance racket which has sapped profits from all the other companies in this country and there will be plenty of jobs for those 20,000.

    Polling shows that a majority of people if give the opportunity would dump private health insurance if given the chance.

    As one liberal talk show host put it in St. Louis, for the insurance companies you all are useful idiots.

    Government raises taxes a few bucks and you squeal like stuck pigs. Health insurance raise premiums by double digits, not a peep.

    My form of capitalism are companies making and doing things people need. Your version is bend over and grab your ankles.

    ReplyDelete
  8. So 10 guys get a boatload of money and the entire system needs to be destroyed? Talk about throwing the proverbial baby with the bathwater.

    Now Prince Harry Waxman has stated forcefully that Congress does NOT have to go on ANY program that they force on the rest of us. Prince Dodd can get special "courtesy" rates on mortgages. Princess Feinstein can benefit from insider and influence peddling with the FDIC to get her hubby a great gig refi-ing forclosures. Princess Pelosi and former Prince Gore can personally benefit to the tune of millions from the very legislation they are pushing. Princes Rangel, Geitner, Daschle, et al that feel that only the little people should have to actually pay their taxes.

    Somehow, those are the pictures in my head when I think of evil rich people. Not the CEOs of the companies that employee tens of thousand, produce a product that 80% are pretty happy with, and that (and their employees) actually contribute to society.

    No matter what Obama, Reid, and Pelosi say right now, we know they are lying. Same goes for NY/DC corridor R's. They don't give a flying frito about any of the peasants. Only about keeping their own base of power in their elite bubble.

    Those that have been silent will be silent no more!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Silent? They are paying $1.2 million a day to buy Congress.

    That's your idea of silence?

    You are a job loss or a denied claim away from economic/physical oblivion as many have learned. The cost of smugness.

    ReplyDelete
  10. plenty of jobs for those 20,000

    TWENTY THOUSAND?

    That's only UHC--just one of the top five health insurers.

    BTW, you never, ever saw ME endorsing "offshoring."

    And Keith--that $1MM/day to congress--it's coming from the unions and ACORN.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Sorry dad. The major money is coming from big medicine, big pharma and the insurance companies, with lots of that going to Blue Cross Democrats. The notion that an organization like Acorn has comparable money is a bat-shit crazy fantasy. You get that from Michele Malkin?

    ReplyDelete
  12. Keith -

    Read the post again... The "silent" aren't any industry or lobbyist. The (formerly) silent are We The People. The ruling political class from both parties have pushed us just a wee bit too far in the past year with the out of control spending for favored constituents. And since I clearly have to spell it out for you - that includes the spending from the Bush administration.

    Funny how you were screeching about the spending then, but now that Obama and Co have quadrupled it you find it just dandy.

    You are also kidding yourself if you don't think that ACORN, the SEIU, MoveOn, Tides, and the other Progressive and Soros-bots don't have a trunk full of cash that they are spending in Washington and around the country every day.

    As Dad has stated more than once, We The People are getting very close to taking that paragraph in the Declaration of Independence seriously - you know the one that states "That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it". We believe that government has way over-stepped its constitutional authority on a multitude of levels and must be trimmed back to where it belongs.

    "When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny." - Thomas Jefferson

    We are buying ammo.

    ReplyDelete
  13. "We are buying ammo."

    Who are the loons?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hey mudshark, the loons are the fucking faggot morons like you who aren't going to have any protection when the revolution starts. Have fun burning in hell, you fucking faggot.

    ReplyDelete