Kyl: Health insurance companies ‘don’t need to be kept honest.’
Kyl: Health insurance companies ‘don’t need to be kept honest.’
President Obama has explained that one of the reasons he supports a robust public option as a competitor to private insurers is to “force waste out of the system and keep the insurance companies honest.” Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), who opposes a public option, tells the Wall Street Journal that insurance companies don’t need to be kept honest:
“The health insurance industry is one of the most regulated industries in America,” said Sen. Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.) on the Senate floor Monday. “They don’t need to be ‘kept honest’ by the government.”
Kyl is simply expressing the conservative view that unregulated private industry functions best. He might want to sit down and talk to Wendell Potter, a former health insurance executive who has testified that he saw how first-hand how private insurers “confuse their customers and dump the sick — all so they can satisfy their Wall Street investors.”
In fact I'm fairly certain that the lobbyists for the health insurance industry and the analysts for the industry in New York were probably doing high-fives on the news coming out of Washington that the Senate Finance Committee might be voting on a bill that does not include a public option and also that the House is not going to be voting on a bill before the recess. It's giving a gift to the health insurance industry no doubt about it.
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog Roll
First he would need to support honesty in government… ha ha… ugh.
July 29th, 2009 at 9:39 amGovernment is only for the benefit of the corporations, evidently. We the taxpayers just have to keep paying ever-increasing dues, whether in taxes or in premiums, just for the privilege of watching the coporate elites living quite well.
I am really getting sick of this country.
July 29th, 2009 at 9:40 amKeep in mind that Kyl and crooks like him gave Bush/Cheney a blank check for all the trillions spent on that Iraq stupidity.
July 29th, 2009 at 9:41 amPlease someone in the media ask Kyl and the others allow the media to cover them as they drop their government health policies for them and their families and to let us watch as they “easily” secure private policies…I mean after all they think it is just a walk in the park for the rest of us.
But seriously we need to challenge every last one each and every day to drop their coverage and walk in our shoes.
July 29th, 2009 at 9:42 amIt always amazes me how the Republicans (and to be honest, some Democrats) are able to selectively read into the Constitution whatever makes them richer…
July 29th, 2009 at 9:43 amCan I just say how ridiculous it is that a Senator from Arizona, aka Send your Water Here and home of massive foreclosing/commercial real estate catastrophe from overbuilding in a desert or scrubland, is TRYING to prevent a new option in health care and national cooperation? And this is without dealing with immigrants of all kinds coming in, or those fleeing Cali, the north, etc.
Next he’ll be against interstate highways that bring in all the people, goods, FOOD like grains, etc.
Are we sure he wasn’t created in some desert gov’t lab?
July 29th, 2009 at 9:45 am“I don’t think the government can maintain interstate highways. It eliminates choice and marketplace freedom. Let private companies make two-lane paved or unpaved roads between states. And charge tolls. USA! USA!”
July 29th, 2009 at 9:47 amYeah, but what about Republican Senators from Arizona?
July 29th, 2009 at 9:47 amThey sure as hell need to be kept honest!
Another tool in the corporate box speaks.
July 29th, 2009 at 9:48 amKyl: Health insurance companies ‘don’t need to be kept honest.’
– - Uh huh, kinda like the banks, eh Johnny?
July 29th, 2009 at 9:49 amI mentioned this the other day, but its worth noting again.
Capitalism is supposed to work for the benefit of We The People, but our system has been turned upside down. Big business has realized that it can make We The People work for them.
John Edwards was right when he said that these people (big business interests) are not simply going to lay down and give up their power. It has to be ripped from them.
Obama has to get some FDR in him and do it in a hurry. FDR called these people out. In a major speech he referred to them as “economic royalists.” He told the people that it was time for them to pay their share to make the people right for the harm they had done to the nation in the name of the almighty dollar. And the people loved him for it.
July 29th, 2009 at 9:51 amI can understand why he don’t want to make them be honest then he would have to be honest him self.
and we all know just how honest and respecting they are
July 29th, 2009 at 9:51 amevangenital says:
I am really getting sick of this country.
Conservatism, even though sometimes it appears to lose continues to win, mainly because one of its earliest goals, the dumbing down of public education, has been quite successful. Bush, with his ‘No Child Left Behind’ nonsense drove the final nail in the coffin, and the nation will continue to pay the price through its foreseeable future.
Trillions for war and military imperialist dreams, but a penny for health or education? America: R.I.P.
I, too, am sick of this country, what it has become thanks to greed, to want of power and authority rather than benevolence. The nation is dying; it deserves its fate.
July 29th, 2009 at 9:54 amThey don’t care about honesty at all. They all quote from a Lewin group study… but what they DON’T say is that Lewin is owned by United Health Care. They’re trying to win this one any way they can.
July 29th, 2009 at 9:57 amFranklin Delano Roosevelt, in a campaign speech, 1936:
“We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace – business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob. Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred.”
Come on, President Obama! Go for it! Stomp some butt!
July 29th, 2009 at 10:01 amHope is for the poor
July 29th, 2009 at 10:01 amBenevolence for the weak
Trust for the suckers
Kyl represents the State with kidnapping rates higher than Mexico.
They have no fresh water.
They have empty subdivisions built by developers, holding empty bags.
They have Sheriffs breaking US law with no consequences.
They have 2 Senators who are complete idiots.
I see now why you don’t need any honesty, Kyl…
July 29th, 2009 at 10:02 amNow we see why Kyl has the public option health care and not the private insurance.
July 29th, 2009 at 10:08 amComment at 16
July 29th, 2009 at 10:11 amMeant as a snark everyone
Forgot the quote marks
This might sound cruel.
I wish that everyone who voted for Sen. Jon Kyl would lose his or her job and their health insurance. I’d like to see them get denied coverage for a pre-exising condition. And I’d like to see each and everyone of them get stuck with $50,000 in medical bills.
They need to taste a dose of the same medicine they’re dishing out to the rest of America.
July 29th, 2009 at 10:11 amOh, I see. I guess we are supposed to trust these greedy bast*rds who would rather let someone die then to pay for a experimental drug or a risky transplant? Or tell a cancer patient it is to expensive for their chemo? Or better yet, if someone loses coverage due to a layoff and has a pre-existing condition that they are sorry, but you have to die because it is to expensive. I LOVE how the Repugs have told seniors (Who mostly have Medicare or Medicade) that they will DIE because it is to expensive to treat them. (A load of crap), but I guess it is OK to tell millions of young people you are on your own. And I don’t believe for a minute that 80% of the people of this country are covered.
July 29th, 2009 at 10:12 am“The savings and loan industry is one of the most regulated industries in America,” said Sen. Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.) on the Senate floor Monday. “They don’t need to be ‘kept honest’ by the government.”
“The energy industry is one of the most regulated industries in America,” said Sen. Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.) on the Senate floor Monday. “They don’t need to be ‘kept honest’ by the government.”
“The accounting industry is one of the most regulated industries in America,” said Sen. Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.) on the Senate floor Monday. “They don’t need to be ‘kept honest’ by the government.”
“The banking industry is one of the most regulated industries in America,” said Sen. Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.) on the Senate floor Monday. “They don’t need to be ‘kept honest’ by the government.”
“The mortgage industry is one of the most regulated industries in America,” said Sen. Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.) on the Senate floor Monday. “They don’t need to be ‘kept honest’ by the government.”
July 29th, 2009 at 10:18 amNah, they don’t need the government to keep them honest.
The free market will do that.
By the way, how’s that working out?
July 29th, 2009 at 10:21 amSr. Kyl,
LIES LIES LIES. That is the motto of the Republican party. PARTY FIRST!! To hell with the American People!!! WHEN ARE WE AMERICAN PEOPLE GOING TO WAKE UP?? Lets dump the bums! We have the opportunity as Americans to fix the situation at the polls. We need to demonstrate to the Republican Party that we will not sit on the side lines like they hope we will. Drive the Republicans out of the House and Senate and and back under their stupid rocks. If the American Public wants to be stupid too, then we are doomed to the dust bin of history.
July 29th, 2009 at 10:24 amKyle:“They don’t need to be ‘kept honest’ by the government.”
Kyle and the Republicans, fighting honesty, everywhere.
July 29th, 2009 at 10:25 amI expect no less from a Rethuglican nutbag like Senator Kyl. Sure encourage the continual ruination and exploitation of American people by allowing the insurance companies to remain deregulated.
GOPers are like reptiles – cold blooded and greedy!
July 29th, 2009 at 10:28 amDoes anyone besides the Representatives and Senators themselves know how much each individual pays monthly for their health care? Shouldn’t the public be aware of how much each one of these People’s Representatives” pay monthly?
July 29th, 2009 at 10:31 amGOP bumper sticker for 2010 elections:
Don’t want to be kept honest?
July 29th, 2009 at 10:32 amVote Republican
Um, yeah. Just like the banks don’t need to be kept honest, utility companies don’t need to be kept honest, the food industry doesn’t need to be kept honest, investment firms don’t need to be kept honest, the gaming industry doesn’t need to be kept honest, Ponzi schemers don’t need to be kept honest, etc.
July 29th, 2009 at 10:35 am“Regulated” to these guys is that they file tax returns and SEC statements.
July 29th, 2009 at 10:35 amPerhaps the focus of his comment should also be the focus of the Democratic Attacks… they need to start calling it Health Insurance Reform not health care reform – America’s health CARE is good if not great, but the way it is paid for is completely screwed up, over priced and debilitating
July 29th, 2009 at 10:37 am“Meaningful” health-care reform –that is, reform that actually would or will benefit the average citizen struggling withmedical bills and crushing debt– is DEAD, friends…
Nagahapun…
Oh, there’ll be a bill.
But it will leave in place all the egregious excesses of the Health Insurance parasites, and won’t do a phucking thing for the rest of us…
July 29th, 2009 at 10:43 amOK America, here we have(once again) the GOP NOT wanting to regulate or monitor an industry and holds peoples lives in their hands.
July 29th, 2009 at 10:50 amEVERY industry should have a certain amount of regulation. If anyone has any doubts about this, just look at the housing market and the stock market and the Madoff situation. Humans can NOT regulate themselves because they are(as a rule) greedy and self serving and care about NO ONE but themselves.
“They don’t need to be ‘kept honest’ by the government.”
Then who will keep them honest, Sen. Kyl? You? See, they already bought the regulators – in legislation you signed off on – oh wait, they already bought you too? My bad…
http://www.campaignmoney.org/pressroom/2009/06/08/senators-who-signed-letter-opposing-public-health-plan-took-17-7-million-in-campaign-cash-from-health-care-
July 29th, 2009 at 10:52 amRemember Kyl supported every cheney/bush move 100%. This clown is a lap dog of big business and will never support any action for accountability.
July 29th, 2009 at 11:01 amYesterday on The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, Sen. DeMint said an outside and non-partisan group of analysts, the Lewin Group, had said that the public option will harm healthcare in the US. Blitzer did not question who the Lewin Group really are:
http://www.healthjournalism.org/blog/2009/04/lewin-group-linked-to-private-insurers/
Apr. 17th, 2009 by Andrew Van Dam
In the Columbia Journalism Review, Trudy Lieberman, president of (Association of Health Care Journalism) AHCJ’s board of directors, scolded journalists for not mentioning that Lewin Group, the consultants who released a recent study claiming that a public insurance option would cost doctors and hospitals money, is ultimately part of a major insurance company.
(Lewin Group is) part of Ingenix, which is owned by United Healthcare Group, the insurance behemoth that has been buying up insurance companies left and right, expanding its reach into just about every segment of the health-insurance market. Its flagship, UnitedHealthcare, helps make it the largest health insurer in the country. It’s a safe bet that United is not too keen on a public plan that might shrink its business.
July 29th, 2009 at 11:01 amraynman says:
It always amazes me how the Republicans (and to be honest, some Democrats) are able to selectively read into the Constitution whatever makes them richer…
Why does that surprise you? These people – fine Christians, all – read into the BIBLE whatever makes them richer.
To them, we’re all simply sheep to be shorn of our wool and butchered for our mutton. They believe we ought to be grateful that they allow us to eat a little grass (figuratively speaking).
July 29th, 2009 at 11:13 ammmm, tasty. John Kyl, US Stentor and insurance company pimp.
Heavily regulated? The same kind of regulation that was stripped away from the banking industry. The insurance companies love ya, John. Live long and fester.
July 29th, 2009 at 11:21 amOff Topic
Does anyone at TP check for typos in the articles? (i.e. “…that he saw how first-hand how private insurers…”) We all make mistakes in posting comments but TP is not a small time blogger. I notice these errors slipping in more and more. It distracts form the content. How about tightening up the editing TP? Kyl is a Health Care Industry tool BTW.
July 29th, 2009 at 11:23 amold_norm,
Typos have been more of a problem lately. I agree, proofreading is sadly neglected on TP.
And yeah, Kyl is a tool.
July 29th, 2009 at 11:27 amSigh… typcal American conservative mindset: that EVERYTHING on god’s green earth can be solved by a free market. Wake up, Kyl, THIS IS THE FREE MARKET! Where greedy slobs like you get everything and people like us get nothing.
Their other mindset is that government isn’t trustworthy. Trust the free market instead of the dictatorial government.
Sorry, I’m more inclined to give money to a government where I know there are at least rules and regulations versus to a corporation, whose sole purpose of existence is to make a profit.
They’ll go on to cite how the government has screwed up the bailouts, etc. Um, yeah, government ISN’T trustworthy, Kyl, I agree with you there. You know why it isn’t trustworthy? Because people like you run it. YOU make it untrustworthy, because your wall street friends ask you to.
July 29th, 2009 at 11:31 amCan you say captive economy?
July 29th, 2009 at 11:35 amI fail to see how lobbying politicians, to ignore their duty as representatives of the people, is in any way honest.
July 29th, 2009 at 11:40 amSen. Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.) says, “The health insurance industry is one of the most regulated industries in America”.
Prove it, you lying sack of crap.
July 29th, 2009 at 11:55 aminsurance companies are exempt from anti-trust laws…
July 29th, 2009 at 12:28 pmYeah, right. No business has ever done anything dishonest.
Perhaps Kyl would like to explain the connections between the insurance companies and the investment companies (often under corporate umbrellas together – see AIG).
July 29th, 2009 at 12:37 pmOn the surface, the statement is literally absurd. Regulation IS ‘the government keeping them homest. Most of the legal system is the government keeping somebody honest.
So, let’s be charitable and have him say that there are already enough regulations on the books, and we don’t need more. Less overtly absurd.
But that’s still absurd: “Lookit how thick this lawbook is! Why do we need another law?” is simply a false appeal to quantity. Loopholes need to be closed, evil practices stopped. Even if you believe there are too many laws, ripping a random chunk of pages out of the US code is not a good idea.
And there is the matter of enforcement: There are good fraud laws on the books, but if the SEC doesn’t investigate Bernie Madoff he gets away with it. But the financial industry is ‘one of the most heavily regulated in the country!” We already have these laws against murder, robbery and assault–what do we need police for?
The health insurance industry routinely violates the law, and is routinely fined millions of dollars. They pay the fines, and go right back to their bad behavior, because they’re making billions. If they treated insurance like they treated gambling–get convicted of a crime, and you lose your license to issue insurance in the state–things might be different.
1) The American Public wants new regulations: they want ‘pre-existing conditions’ clauses to be outlawed. They want the practice of disallowing claims after the fact outlawed. Saying that there are already lots of other regulations on the books: why do we need another two? Is a ridiculous argument.
2) The free market process that consservatives loooove so much supposedly regulates good behavior by market pressure–but when the government exerts some market pressure they scream bloody murder. So the Republicans are against regulation AND against market pressure: it may look kind of like the free market idea, but is really a lea that the big corporatilons should be allowed to do whatever they want. Again, it’s absurd–but a lot less funny.
The free marketers sell their system to people that it magically turns bad behavior into good results. And that can happen–but not if you gut the market of its actual corrective mechanisms. Which is what the Republicans always do unless they’re stopped.
July 29th, 2009 at 12:41 pmIt looks like a comprehensive health care reform will not be passed again at least in our life time…even with a super majority on congress, we cannot get a healthcare reform passed…it just tells you that this country is being run by corporations that paid congressman to support their interest instead of for the people…US is now on the path of no return.
July 29th, 2009 at 12:42 pmAbout a year ago, I moved out of Arizona after having lived there for more than forty years. What a relief to get out of that intellectual backwater!
On August 30, 2006, I completed an exchange with Senator Kyl concerning unwarranted eavesdropping, which he apparently supported with no equivocation in spite of its constitutionality issues. Rummaging through old files today, I found a copy of my letter. It was lengthy, but the opening and closing paragraphs are interesting. They read:
****
Senator Kyl:
I’m in receipt of your letter dated August 17, 2006 – your response to my letter to you dated May 11, 2006. You write:
Dear Mr. [...]:
I’m sorry to be so long in answering your letter
As should be evident, in the wake of the disabling of the plot to blow up airliners en route to the United States from Britain, intelligence work and surveillance carried out under the law are important in foiling those who would do us harm.
Please continue to offer your comments, if you have any.
Sincerely, (etc.)
Yes, sir, I do indeed have some comments.
[snipped]
Dare I hope, sir, that you are not one who is in league with those who would prefer to simply do away with our Constitution entirely, that you are not among those willing to use “terrorism” as the tool to enable the final ceding of our unique American birthright to those who demand power at the expense of individual civil liberties? Suffice to say you have thus far done little to curb my suspicions and much to enliven them. In that context, sir, you may rest assured that I shall be watching ALL of your votes on constitutional issues VERY closely.
Please continue to respond and offer your comments, if you have any.
Regards, {etc.}
****
Never heard from him again.
July 29th, 2009 at 12:43 pmI’ve dealt with health ins. for over 30 years. They hire lawyers to come up with “legal” methods to delay payment to doctors, to drop patients and do dismiss or deny claims. They are the equivalent of John Yoo writing legal rationalizations for shredding the constitution They need to be regulated reigned in.
July 29th, 2009 at 1:11 pmGovernment officials are much more honest than people who work in the private sector.
I’ve never known the government to screw anyone out of anything.
I actually love the government so much, I just want to let it take care of me. I want to feel its motherly embrace wash over me in its authoritarian goodness.
I really just want to submit myself to it so that I can watch tv and go camping without having to worry about stuff.
July 29th, 2009 at 1:44 pmInsurance is one of the most important industries for Government to regulate, because it is, along with banking, the most asymmetric, in that one side of the contract knows far more (astronomically more, in fact) about critical facts than the other. The Insurance Company makes money primarily based on this asymmetric information relationship. The policy holder is obligated by law to reveal to the insurer any information pertinent to the contract, but in practice, the insurer is free to hide nearly any information it wishes.
That’s why the Government *must* force the company to reveal ALL pertinent information, just as it does for the policy holder.
July 29th, 2009 at 1:55 pmKyl does not want to keep insurance companies honest because he has been regularly accepting bribes from the health insurance industry. Bribery is a crime and he needs to be punished for his crime.
When an elected official accepts bribes from corporations, it is treason and the punishment for treason is death by hanging.
July 29th, 2009 at 1:56 pmTroll, I sure hope you aren’t planning to use Medicare when you retire. And next time you go on a trip stay off the interstates. If a natural disaster hits your area, you best turn down any federal assisstance. Also, I don’t want to see your children in the public schools or taking student loans for college. Oh yes, that FHA loan you took out for your house. You have to pay it back immediately in cash. Stay out of the national parks and off the public beaches and waterways. I don’t want to see your kind when I am enjoying my recreation.
July 29th, 2009 at 2:04 pmIt’s not a matter of trust, it’s a matter of power.
I don’t trust either government or big business, but I have far more power to influence government than I have influencing big business.
As a mater of fact, most of the time the only power I have over big business is through government–the courts, my congressman, the city council.
It’s a false negative, and pretty stupid.
July 29th, 2009 at 2:36 pmNobody actually says that, if public health care is established, we’ll be able to rely mindlessly on the government.
What they say is, that when you get screwed, or when something goes wrong, there’s far more ways to influence a public system than a huge private system which is actively hostile to your interest, and will use your own premium money to fight you.
Honestly, this absurd cynicism dipswitvh is ludicrous: gummint–Click! harriblecynical bureaucratic nightmare Corporation: Click! religious faith in American Free Enterprise!
I’ve never known the government to screw anyone out of anything.
July 29th, 2009 at 3:12 pm—-
Demonization of abstractions is bizarre…
“Trust me, I’m an insurance company and have only what’s best for you in mind.”
July 29th, 2009 at 3:15 pmAHahahahahahahahahahaahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahah…suffers heart attack from hysteria. “Sorry, you’re not covered for that.”
insurance companies don’t need to be kept honest
Do ya think they pay him to say things like that?
Jon Kyl; traitor to the American people and corporate whore.
July 29th, 2009 at 3:51 pmIn all fairness to Kyl, health industry contributions was only 4th on his list of top donors during his last campaign (2006)
As for his “free market” claim, he is hoping that we somehow forget that AZ is one of the hardest hit states on mortgage foreclosures, and Real Estate entities donations were #2 on his list of campaign donations.
All we know for sure is that he is in lockstep with the GOP in sustaining the Party of No attack on President Obama. So we can chalk him up as willing to say anything against Healthcare reform or any other action that does require regulation. Fortunately, his vote won’t count for much.
If any of these Senators would actually step outside their bubble of like-minded associates in DC or in their home states, they would probably be shocked at what they are hearing.
His #1 Campaign Contributors were Senior citizens, so I expect to hear him beat the bush with the false cry of “killing seniors”. That argument is so irrational, it is hard to discuss. Even when presented with FACTS about Advanced Directives, some on the AARP website are saying that the government should not require the physician to talk to the patient…or document the end of life decision discussion…it just goes on and on and is very very sad to see how few of these individuals are willing to do any fact finding on their own, but make their choices based on what they watch on TV.
July 29th, 2009 at 4:37 pmKyl = free market = $$$ = rich pols = poor constituents = GOP in power. go figure.
July 29th, 2009 at 4:59 pmTrolls keep voting down common sense responses… if that’s all you can do.
*
http://insurancecompanyrules.org/
*
July 30th, 2009 at 12:16 amWait a minute – look at that photo again. He’s making the universal signal for “where’s the scratch? gimme my moolah. it’s payof time, insurance companies of America.” Jeez, Chief Insurance Company Pimp and US Stentor Kyl expects instant gratification when he bloviates for his clients. Gives a whole new meaning to chutzpah.
July 30th, 2009 at 1:44 am