Following the Money; Corrupt Bastards Edition

The greedy, blood-drenched motherfuckers people who are profiting from our nation's current "system" of delivering health care, which spends far more money per capita than any other nation, are lining up to try and block any implementation of health care reform on a state level, and they are handing out boatloads of cash in order to accomplish it.

Like about a dozen other states, Florida is debating a proposed amendment to its state constitution that would try to block, at least symbolically, much of the proposed federal health care overhaul on the grounds that it tramples individual liberty.

But what unites the proposal’s legislative backers is more than ideology. Its 42 co-sponsors, all Republicans, were almost all recipients of outsized campaign contributions from major health care interests, a total of about $765,000 in 2008, according to a new study by the National Institute on Money in State Politics, a nonpartisan group based in Helena, Mont.

Billions and billions of dollars, which those fuckers have harvested from the premiums that we paid them in order to have health insurance.

The rate of inflation for 2008 was 3.8%, for 2009 it is shaping up to be 1.8%. Contrast that with the rate increases of health insurance companies; I've talked to some small business owners who are facing premium hikes of 20%. Even the GOP-mouthpiece WSJ noted that health insurance premiums for the `00s went up 131% though the rate of inflation for the decade was 28%.

The real truth of the matter is that the insurance industry is really happy with the current state of affairs. They ratchet up the premiums by huge amounts, they have departments which are dedicated to denying payment to the insured and their CEOs are paid amounts that would seem small only if compared to that of Ponzi schemershedge-fund managers. They will fight any change tooth-and-nail, for the very last thing they care about is serving the needs of their customers.