RUSH: We’ll go to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Ed, thank you for waiting. Welcome to the program.
CALLER: Hey, mega car buying dittos, Rush. An honor to talk to you.
RUSH: Thank you, sir.
CALLER: Hey, I just want to comment, I work in the financial and insurance field, and one of the things that I see in e-mails that come back and forth from wholesalers and stuff that talk to these insurance companies, and they’re already saying the first phase of adding children to these plans and putting all these guaranteed issues on is at least going to raise premiums in the next six to eight months at least ten to 15% to start with. And where’s all these savings coming up that they’re talking about —
RUSH: There’s one problem with that. That’s eventually going to be true, but it isn’t true now because the Democrats left that out of the bill. Remember we had this last week. Guaranteeing children’s coverage who have preexisting conditions doesn’t go into effect until 2014. Obama is out there touting it as though it’s immediate but it’s not in the bill. They’re going to have to go in and do some kind of a — I don’t know what kind of fix to put it back in, but it’s not going to be a technical fix. I mean they’re gonna have to rewrite the law. They can’t just go in and say, ‘Oh, we meant immediately,’ and scratch out 2014 and put — (interruption) Sebelius said they’re gonna do an executive order? Well, okay. Why, of course. We’re not a democracy anymore, what the hell. I apologize, folks. I’m an American, you know, I’m not used to things the way we’re doing ’em now, and yeah, of course, executive order. So your insurance agent is right, when that happens, there’s no way premiums can do anything but go up.
Look, folks, I don’t know if people understand what health insurance is. I think people don’t understand, even some of these people in Washington do not understand what insurance is. Nobody can insure their health. You can’t do it. It’s not possible. And that’s not what you’re buying, you’re not insuring good health. When you have health insurance you theoretically are insuring yourself against the risk of a catastrophic event or accident. Same thing with your homeowners, same thing with an automobile. You’re insuring yourself against something catastrophic. And the higher deductible you pay, theoretically the lower your premium. Well, health insurance has now become just nothing more than a public utility. And if you can wait until you get sick or crash the car to insure yourself and get full coverage, you’re not talking insurance, you’re talking private sector subsidies, which can’t work. Private sector can’t subsidize anything, goes out of business. And the private sector cannot compete with government because government does not have to show a profit. So we’re all headed to single payer. Preexisting condition.
You know, if you’re driving your car, and you have an insurance policy, and you have a wreck and it’s your fault, your premium goes up. A lot of people don’t like it, but it’s business. It’s the way it works. You have become a greater risk, pure and simple. The statistics don’t lie. Kids, you give them a car or driver’s license, age 16 or 17, the statistics are that they’re going to have a bunch of wrecks. It’s gonna cost more to insure your kids than it will you, and if your kid has an accident then look out because the premium’s going to skyrocket even more. And everybody understands why. Now, people still get mad when it happens. ‘All it took was one wreck and they canceled me, one wreck, I had to go to another insurance company.’ Well, you found one.
Now, a preexisting condition, what is a preexisting condition? A preexisting condition is terminal cancer. You want to insure somebody against terminal cancer. You’re not insuring anybody anything. You’re simply going out and making somebody else pay for your treatment. Now, if an insurance company is mandated by law to cover your treatment, even though you have an identifiable disease, and that treatment is going to be very expensive, I’m sorry, the premium is going to be very high because somebody has to pay for your treatment. Somebody has to and eventually where we’re headed here is that your neighbors, all of our neighbors, all of our taxpayer friends, those who work and pay taxes are going to pay the brunt of it, those who don’t work and don’t pay taxes are going to get all the coverage, by design, returning the nation’s wealth to its rightful owners.
Amery, Wisconsin, and Jay, you’re next on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Hello, Rush. It’s a pleasure to talk to you.
RUSH: Thank you.
CALLER: Give you a little background, I have a small construction company, and we received notice this week, and I don’t know if we’re on an island out here or not, but our health insurance policy is going to go up 54%, and that renews in June.
RUSH: Your insurance company sent you this notification?
CALLER: Yes.
RUSH: Did they tell you why?
CALLER: No. We have a healthy group, we don’t have any problems, so, you know, it can’t come from that direction. The only thing that I can imagine is they’re just anticipating their costs going up and this is the start of what’s going to happen.
RUSH: Well, you see what’s going to happen here is that once these kind of things are learned by people like Nancy Pelosi and Henry Waxman they’re going to say that there’s no reason for this, that Obamacare, the health care legislation lowers cost, that this is just the greedy insurance companies taking advantage of this and trying to fool people because the Republicans have put out the word that this is an Armageddon type thing, and they want to turn everybody against their insurance company so that the private insurance industry ceases to exist in a few years. Fifty-four percent increase. You ought to ask ’em why, just as a curiosity. They’ll tell you. Ask ’em why.
CALLER: We’re asking. We haven’t received an answer yet. I guess it takes ’em time. I don’t know.
RUSH: Well, how long has it been since you requested a reason?
CALLER: Three days.
RUSH: Oh, that’s nothing. They might not have gotten to it yet. Did you ask ’em on the phone or ask ’em by written communication?
CALLER: Well, I asked them on the phone. When I received the notice I was pretty quick to jump on the phone.
RUSH: Yeah, and they said they’ll get back to you?
CALLER: Yep.
RUSH: I’d sure like to know what they say when they get back to you. Snerdley’s going to get your phone number if you don’t mind.
CALLER: No, that’s fine.
RUSH: We’re going to check in with you periodically because I want to find out what they tell you as to why you’re getting a 54% increase. It may have nothing to do with health care. It may be that they’ve lost a bunch of people that they also insure, that their pool has gotten smaller, and that they have to charge everybody else remaining in the pool a little bit more, could be any reason at all. And it could also be that they’re crooks, which is what Obama is going to try to portray them as. I just want to hear what they have to say.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I missed this in trying to catch up with show prep for today. It’s yesterday from Life and Health Insurance News: ‘The health insurance industry has agreed to comply with a provision of the health care reform law requiring them to provide insurance to children with pre-existing medical conditions within 6 months.’ So the caller was right. I was not wrong, I was just uninformed, but now I am properly informed. ‘The industry is doing so even though some of its lawyers dispute the scope of the provision in the law as interpreted by Congress and the administration. Health insurers’ view — supported by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners as well as healthcare lawyers and consultants — is that the provision mandating that insurers allow parents to buy coverage for children with preexisting conditions doesn’t kick in under the law until 2014,’ but look, we didn’t mean that. They meant it to happen pretty soon so we’re going to go ahead and do it.
‘In a letter to Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, America’s Health Insurance Plans said in a letter dated March 29 that it will comply with the administration’s interpretation of the provision.’ Now, this group, they’re all in. The health insurance industry, by the way, has pretty much now bought into Obamacare and a lot of people, ‘Why? I mean, he’s targeting them for destruction.’ Look, folks, they know it, but this is called protection. If the insurance companies fight Obama on this they’re not going to have time to make a quick buck and get out in time. He has told them, he has targeted them and they know full well. It’s like trying to get the drug companies on board for health care. You promise them a bunch of goodies, ‘We won’t hit you as hard if you become our allies in this.’ And that’s basically what they told the insurance companies. So it’s trying to be the last one eaten by the alligator, that’s just what they’re doing here. That’s why I’m going to really be interested to see what these CEOs say to Waxman when they get up there on April 21st.