See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil

The price action of the insurance companies has been clear all along.  The insurance companies benefitted from the bill COMPARED TO the kick in the teeth they would have gotten before a deal was struck. That explains the December move in insurance stock prices. However they stand to benefit even more now that the bill is essentially dead.  That explains the move yesterday. As for today, there's a common aphorism in the market: 'buy the rumor, sell the news'. 

Nowhere do I drop 'evil' at the doorstep of rich shareholders or insurance companies.  I can only assume you believe all democrats (including me) feel this way and so inserted this yourself.  You'd be wrong.

In fact I would be the hypocrite of all time if I did believe this.  Look at my last posts fer' Chrissakes!  I said I would greedily invest in and become the 'evil' rich shareholder if it looked like the insurance companies have a competitive advantage! It makes me wonder if you're even reading my blogs or simply trolling them for leftist catchphrases to abuse. 

I have no problem if insurance companies get rich selling us insurance. I don't begrudge their right to refuse insurance to high-risk individuals.  They provide a service for profit and their customer base are paying, low-risk individuals.  In turn they provide employment to actuaries, preventing them from boring the rest of us to tears during normal business hours.  They're great corporate citizens in this regard.

The problem (well, a problem among many) lies in the 30-50 million uninsured that can't pay or are deemed to be too high-risk for the insurers to take on profitably. I for one think that covering basic health insurance (through subsidies, fine) for these individuals is a worthy use of tax dollars.  We spent hundreds of millions of our tax money for quake relief in Haiti because millions have no recourse but to die in the street without our help. It's obvious we had to act when we saw thousands afflicted in one place, suffering at one time.  Yet over time, millions of uninsured, one by one, scattered across the country, face a similar fate: they'll require urgent, emergency medical care they cannot afford. I'm proud of our government response in Haiti, as well as all the charitable contributions from the private sector.  I'd be similarly proud of our response to those uninsured that need our help.

If there is a free-market solution that substantially reduces the number of uninsured, then I'm open to it.  Perhaps one was proposed and I missed it (not being facetious, I'm not the most informed person when it comes to all the proposed legislation).  Letting insurers operate across state lines and tort reform may help reduce costs for people that can already obtain insurance, and I'm open to hearing more from Republicans on both of these issues.  But bottom line: Even with these reforms, for profit insurance companies still have two basic requirements to get a policy: money and health.  And that rules out millions and millions of people in the U.S.