Clinton bashes insurance companies

So, Senator Clinton is going to be announcing her health plan on Monday. No details, except that she's going to ensure that insurance companies have dramatically reduced input into deciding how health insurance is paid for in the United States.

All this goes back to the "greedy insurance company" populist line that people like to espouse, particularly on health care. I always find it amusing that most people who are in favor of a single-payer health care system use "insurance company greed" as one of their top reasons. Of course, in Michigan, that's a ridiculous point.

Health insurance in the state is provided by a reasonably large number of companies but the largest are Blue Cross of Michigan, Aetna, Health Alliance Plan, and M-CARE. Of these four, only Aetna is a for-profit company. The other three are all non-profits. I love the idea that the non-profits are "greedy."

Clinton Readies U.S. Health Insurance Plan as Pitfalls Loom
Bloomberg.com

Hillary Clinton, offering a new prescription for providing all Americans with health-care insurance, is seeking to avoid a repeat of her first, failed bid to revamp the system.

While Democratic presidential rivals John Edwards and Barack Obama released health-care plans several months ago, the issue is more complex for the senator from New York.

Clinton's previous effort gives her a voice of authority on health-care coverage now, with 65 percent of Americans in a July Gallup poll expressing "a great deal" or "a fair amount" of confidence in her on the issue. That's more than any other White House contender. At the same time, it evokes memories of the bureaucracy-laden, 1,342-page proposal that critics still call "Hillarycare."

"It's very tricky for her," said Robert Blendon, professor of health policy and political analysis at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. "But she's not going to get elected president unless she can get through to people on health care," said Bob Laszewski, a Washington health policy analyst.