Never in a million years did I think that I would find myself defending health insurance companies.

After working for one for nearly a decade, I saw many of the “evils” of said companies.  But, I have to admit, I saw many of the good also.  And for every story of “evil” insurance companies denying a poor innocent of life saving treatment, I could give you ten about the rampant fraud that we had discovered – fraud perpetrated by doctors and by insureds. 

Health costs and insurance costs have skyrocketed.  I think that we all agree on that.  The reasons for this are many, but I will name a few:

1) illegal immigrants flooding our ER departments, receiving basically free medical care on demand.

2) the “allowed” amounts paid for services when covered by Medicare / Medicaid.  When the government insurance reduces its allowed amount for services to ridiculously low levels, the medical providers then attempt to “make up” that amount by overcharging the private insurance carriers and the uninsured people who actually intend to pay their bills.  View this as a see saw.  When the government insurance payment goes to the bottom, the other side of the see saw (private insurance and individuals) end up at the top (or in this case, much higher billed amounts).

3) there is no limit on medical tort claims.  This causes malpractice insurance rates to go up, which causes medical charges to go up, etc…

During the Obamacare discussion, almost every component of the healthcare question has trembled and fell before the thugpolitics of the messiah.

The one hold out – private health insurance.

Which is why we have see the recently increased demonization of these companies.

And now this:  Democratic investigators target health insurers.

Well of course they will start investigating them.  They failed to kow tow promptly enough.

House Democrats are probing the nation’s largest insurance companies for lavish spending, demanding reams of compensation data and schedules of retreats and conferences.

Letters sent to 52 insurance companies by Democratic leaders demand extensive documents for an examination of ‘extensive compensation and other business practices in the health insurance industry.” The letters set a deadline of Sept. 14 for the documents…

By Sept. 4, the firms are supposed to supply detailed compensation data for board members and top executives, as well as a “table listing all conferences, retreats, or other events held outside company facilities from January 1, 2007, to the present that were paid for, reimbursed, or subsidized in whole or in part by your company.”

For employees or officers making $500,000 or more, the committee wants information on salary, bonus, options and pension.

And by Sept. 14, the firms are supposed to provide copies of reports from compensation consultants, plus board drafts of compensation plans and information about market share.

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