There Really Are “Death Panels’

Posted on August 21, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

It turns out that there really are death panels. Only they are run by insurance companies.

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7 Responses to There Really Are “Death Panels’

  1. Joe1 says:
    August 22, 2009 at 9:00 am

    The mainstream media has failed again. Insurance campanies have used panels to review costly procedures since the beginning of the insured medical care era, in the 1950’s. The MSM is useless as an institution. I want to know whether Bob Novak’s insurer refused to pay for any procedures since the discovery of Novak’s brain tumor.

  2. Rhodo Zeb says:
    August 22, 2009 at 11:53 am

    Yes precisely. All the decision-making that the ‘death panel’ people are talking about are already being made, by insurance companies, with their profit margin in mind. Well, them and the government in cases like Medicare.

    Indeed, insurance companies make more decisions than the government would (will) be making. Because the government won’t deny coverage and force you to sue them.

    I had a classmate in law school, great guy, actually a long-time university cop who took the LSAT and got into the school. By third year I was not spending too much time in the school, but I ran into him once and he told me an amazing story:

    He had been on a busy highway, right at rush hour, when a young kid in a stolen car suddenly did some absolutely insane maneuvers. This of course threw everyone for a loop, and the situation turned into a huge pile up. I am not sure if anyone died, but my classmate’s car went under an 18 wheeler, and the entire top of the compartment was sheared off.

    I couldn’t believe it of course, but he had pictures of everything with him. Had his seat not broken upon impact, dropping him back into the back seat, he would have been done for.

    His insurance company denied him coverage. This is a cop, for gosh sakes, and doubtless had the same insurance company for years. At the time he told me he was going to have to sue, go through all of the discovery and trial, and if he won he would receive enough money…basically to pay for the litigation.

    That is how the insurance companies make their money. By screwing people and using the justice system against their own customers.

    From the standpoint of the market for risk, these insurance companies are incredibly worthless. Just when you need them is when they just tell you to f*** off. Worse than just worthless because they provide the illusion of coverage.

    Why are sailors burdened by Alaska Packers’ Ass’n v. Domenico and Stilk v Myrick but insurance companies can just cut you off after years of premiums?

    Good riddance to them. They were too greedy to be allowed to survive.

  3. Rhodo Zeb says:
    August 22, 2009 at 12:01 pm

    Joe1:

    The MSM is useless as an institution.

    Nailed it.

  4. New jersey marijuana possession says:
    August 22, 2009 at 2:25 pm

    Completely agree. I just got a bill in the mail from a surgery my wife had 2 years ago saying that we owe $4000 when I had a signed page from the hospital saying X amount was all I woudl have to pay. FREAKIN CRAZY!!!! I have fought it right up to the CEO of Aetna, and they aren’t budging. Makes you think really really bad thoughts….

  5. Rhodo Zeb says:
    August 22, 2009 at 3:35 pm

    Is the video you have here the interview with Betsy McCaughey on the Daily Show?

    You know, these days a lot of video is blocked over here. So I can’t see anything. Youtube is no go, but C&L’s proprietary system works fine, so that is fortunate for me.

    Anyway, after watching the first part (!) of the extended interview with Betsy McCaughey, I can say with some assurance that I know why the GOP has not trotted her out since last time healthcare reform was on the Dem’s agenda…this woman was Lieutenant Governor of NY!

    NJMP – I feel you, bro. Its to the point where everyone is getting royally screwed. I even have a buddy, a a doctor, wife is a doctor too, and he is quite right wing, but he told me the malpractice insurance prices were completely out of control. And that was a couple years ago, totally none political discussion. Don’t even know how it came up.

  7. Rhodo Zeb says:
    August 23, 2009 at 4:35 am

    Ok thanks. I just took a wild guess, all these entities use the youtube api or something, its all blocked.

    That interview was incredible.

    Betsy really came off poorly. As in she seemed crazed, not unlike Orly Taitz, but obviously not quite as looney.

    Oh and of course she had to resign her BoD seat with the medical supplier company (rolls eyes).

    Duh.

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