Healthcare Daily Digest for Wednesday, 27 March: Health Insurers Eager to Maintain Authority Over Healthcare Premiums, or Duh

Well of course they are. And they’re going to use a lot of language around “protecting healthcare” and “consumers” and blah blah blah.

But come on, right? Insurers are eager to maintain authority over healthcare premiums not because of any sense of consumer protection and EVERY sense to do with lining pockets. And sure, of course, I work for a living, I like my pockets lined, I GET IT.

California’s Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones suggested that recent premium hikes — “up to 20% for Blue Shield customers and up to 18% for Anthem ” — might be kind of price-gougey. The insurers’ response: Nuh-uh.

Then there was some scrambling because Jones also suggested that maybe what was needed was someone — someone like the Insurance Commissioner of California — to maybe be the watchguard of premium hikes, something called “prior approval of health insurance premiums.”

This is not big with insurers, of course. They’ve started with the grass roots stuff, including an organization called “Californians Against Higher Health Care Costs,” which is ironic since (a) it’s not “Californians” but Californian Insurance Companies who make up the group; and (b) THIS GROUP IS OPPOSING JONES’S PLAN TO KEEP PREMIUMS DOWN.

Add this to the list of things that keep us from affordable healthcare.

Wednesday headlines:

Charts! Charts Will Explain it All!: “Six Charts That Illustrate Just How Much Higher Health Care Costs Are For Americans.”

Because You Can’t Get Something for Nothing: “President Barack Obama’s top healthcare adviser acknowledged on Tuesday that costs could rise in the individual health insurance market, particularly for men and younger people, because of the landmark 2010 healthcare restructuring due to take effect next year.”

Wireless Technology Will Save Us! Not Give Us Cancer!: “Wireless technology can empower each of us by providing round-the-clock information on the state of our health, also giving healthcare providers a holistic perspective of how we’re doing so that more informed decisions can be made that lead to healthier patients, reduced hospital stays, and lower costs.”

Take THAT, Michael Moore!: “Canada’s healthcare system is dysfunctional, too.”