Security Theft in Health Care

According to CNN's Paul Begala, there's more than one way to cut someone off at the knees.

He posted a concise commentary today about a congressional hearing this week that received virtually no national attention. There are two main parts of the article.

There's the part where he talks details about the people who had their insurance yanked out from under them just as they readied for an expensive medical treatment - and how insurers get kudos for coming up with loopholes to undermine people (their clients) in exactly that position.

And then there's the part where the three insurers testifying at the hearing refused to vow to stop that practice in the future.

So you really, really think that no public option is necessary in this health care reform process? These people were paying their premiums. If we make a competitive public option that allows for people to choose their own doctors, then the insurance companies will be forced to compete, and won't just be able to dump all their now-uninsurables (who were customers just yesterday) onto the public health care system.

That's how auto insurance works. Everyone except the worst of the worst is insured by a handful of private insurers. Coverage for damages after accidents get covered over a huge, primary accident-free customer base, so that the risks of payout can be monitored without gouging anyone's pocketbook.

Keep in mind, whatever we do now will be the way things go for decades. I don't expect that we will be reforming health care more than once...

(And yes, I realize it was just yesterday that I said I may not be doing any blog entries for awhile because of my screenplay writing. But this was just too jarring not to post.)