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Obama assumes insurers’ dishonesty
Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2009 | 2:03 a.m.
President Barack Obama likes to say that the “public option” for health insurance will keep the private insurers honest. He says it will be like FedEx and UPS competing against the Postal Service. He also likes to say that if the government will run its health insurance plan as inefficiently as his critics say, then private insurers have nothing to worry about. He engages in sophistry. He implies that insurance companies are not honest.
First, Fortune magazine ranks the health insurance industry’s profitability 35th out of 53 industries, at 2.2 percent of revenue. Surely a dishonest industry would do better than that.
Second, competition is all that is needed to keep any company honest. FedEx and UPS exist because the Postal Service is inefficient; it doesn’t exist to keep them honest. They keep each other honest.
The Postal Service exists only through tax subsidies and a monopoly on carrying first-class mail. Eliminate those, and packages and mail will be delivered more cost effectively. Similarly, if you eliminate state laws limiting competition among health insurers, costs will come down.
Third, if the president’s critics correctly believe that the government is inefficient at running anything other than wars, then it’s a waste of resources to fund a public option. But if, as he apparently believes, the government can compete effectively against companies with only 2.2 percent profit margins, then his goal is to put the private companies out of business and gain control of our health care.
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We'd all be better off if the bankers' dishonesty had been assumed. And who is it that thinks government is efficient at running wars? Soldiers and contractors can tell you different.
"The Postal Service exists only through tax subsidies"
BZZT! WRONG!
The Postal Reorganization Act of 1971 spun the USPS off of the federal government into it's own, self-funded agency. With the exception of minor subsidies (usually to keep open underperforming post offices that the USPS wants to close but members of Congress don't), the Postal Service survives on the revenue it generates and is barred by law from turning a profit.
DouglasDemocrat is correct.
So why did the editors choose to print a letter with such a basic error?
Don't you have a responsibility to do a little fact checking, editors?
If it's on it's own why is it listed on the Bureau of public debt, Division of Federal Investments?
RUN DATE: 08/31/09 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF TREASURY PAGE: 92
RUN TIME: 17:24:54 BUREAU OF THE PUBLIC DEBT
PROGRAM NAME: GAPN901 OFFICE OF PUBLIC DEBT ACCOUNTING
DIVISION OF FEDERAL INVESTMENTS
* * * DAILY PRINCIPAL OUTSTANDING * * *
DETAIL SUMMARY
FOR THE PERIOD ENDED: 08/31/2009
SECURITY DESCRIPTION INVESTMENT REDEMPTION PAR
-------------------------------------------------
POSTAL SERVICE FUND (000000000184020)
MARKET BASED BILL 09/15/2009 9,451,468.20 .00 9,451,468.20
SUB TOTALS FOR : MARKET BASED BILLS 9,451,468.20 .00 9,451,468.20
ONE DAY CERTIFICATE 0.110% 09/01/2009 94,600,000.00 .00 94,600,000.00
ONE DAY CERTIFICATE 0.237% 09/01/2009 905,400,000.00 .00 905,400,000.00
SUB TOTALS FOR : ONE DAY CERTIFICATES 1,000,000,000.00 .00 1,000,000,000.00
GRAND TOTALS FOR INVESTOR (000000000184020) 1,009,451,468.20 .00 1,009,451,468.20
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
POSTAL SERVICE RETIREE (000000000245391)
SPECIAL ISSUE BOND 3.250% 06/30/2010 2,933,750,000.00 .00 2,933,750,000.00
SPECIAL ISSUE BOND 3.250% 06/30/2011 651,944,000.00 .00 651,944,000.00
SPECIAL ISSUE BOND 3.250% 06/30/2012 651,944,000.00 .00 651,944,000.00
SPECIAL ISSUE BOND 3.250% 06/30/2013 651,944,000.00 .00 651,944,000.00
SPECIAL ISSUE BOND 3.250% 06/30/2014 651,944,000.00 .00 651,944,000.00
SPECIAL ISSUE BOND 3.250% 06/30/2015 651,944,000.00 .00 651,944,000.00
SPECIAL ISSUE BOND 3.250% 06/30/2016 651,945,000.00 .00 651,945,000.00
SPECIAL ISSUE BOND 3.250% 06/30/2017 651,945,000.00 .00 651,945,000.00
SPECIAL ISSUE BOND 3.250% 06/30/2018 651,945,000.00 .00 651,945,000.00
SPECIAL ISSUE BOND 3.250% 06/30/2019 651,944,000.00 .00 651,944,000.00
SPECIAL ISSUE BOND 4.000% 06/30/2010 440,161,000.00 .00 440,161,000.00
SPECIAL ISSUE BOND 4.000% 06/30/2011 440,161,000.00 .00 440,161,000.00
SPECIAL ISSUE BOND 4.000% 06/30/2012 440,161,000.00 .00 440,161,000.00
SPECIAL ISSUE BOND 4.000% 06/30/2013 440,161,000.00 .00 440,161,000.00
SPECIAL ISSUE BOND 4.000% 06/30/2014 440,161,000.00 .00 440,161,000.00
"If it's on it's own why is it listed on the Bureau of public debt, Division of Federal Investments?"
The Treasury Department has the option of purchasing the obligations of the Postal Service, but all operating expenses are internally generated by postal revenues.
If I'm reading this correctly the Treasury Dept has invested roughly a billion dollars in the postal services, and another roughly 3 trillion in the retiree account? Any idea why?
Why have Obama, Reid, and Pelosi not addressed McCarran-Ferguson.
McCarran-Ferguson Act (1945) passed within a year of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling ending anti-trust exemptions that insurance companies had enjoyed for decades.
No one is seriously discussing striking down McCarran-Ferguson today.
It's not part of the current conversation in the House and Senate bills. McCarran-Ferguson is considered "a big, messy problem that would be very difficult to unwind ... I don't see any part of this legislation that's going to try to reform McCarran-Ferguson,"
The National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies writes in an online posting this spring that any change to McCarran-Ferguson "could decrease market stability, reduce affordability and availability of products, stifle innovation and expansion, diminish industry efficiency, and ultimately, inhibit rather than increase competition in the insurance marketplace."
My mail is always delivered on time.
DON'T MESS WITH THE POST OFFICE.
I purchased a new GMC in January and now on Saturdays, I can take it to the post office and get it serviced.