ELIZABETH WARREN SHOWS HER IGNORANCE
Elizabeth Warren is the current favorite for the Democratic presidential nomination, but one wonders how voters will react when they learn about her bizarrely radical agenda. Warren openly advocates making all private health insurance–the kind that a large majority of Americans have–illegal. She hasn’t begun to think through the implications of this extreme proposal, but when voters begin to contemplate it, my guess they will vote against her, enthusiastically.
Yesterday Warren was asked what would become of all those people who are now employed in the health insurance industry. Her answer shows her ignorance of insurance, as well as of the economy in general:
Q: Where do those who work in health insurance go when private insurance is eliminated?
Sen. Warren: "No one gets left behind. Some of the people currently working in health insurance will work in other parts of insurance. In life insurance, in auto insurance, in car insurance."
4,058 people are talking about this
Because insurance is insurance, right? Health insurance, life insurance: it’s all the same! And if we adopt Warren’s plan, the demand for auto accident claims adjusters will magically increase.
Perhaps the politest thing we can say here is that Warren is not a detail person. Which doesn’t deter her from undertaking to destroy the most widely-used and most popular methods of obtaining medical care for one’s family.
WARREN’S IGNORANCE: WORSE THAN WE THINK
A knowledgeable reader who asks to remain anonymous writes to comment on John’s post condemning the ignorance of Elizabeth Warren. I’m not sure ignorance is the right word, but our reader follows up on John’s point:
Her ignorance is even worse than you think. In the first place nationalization of health insurance affects more than just those purchasing individual or employer-sponsored insurance. Most Medicaid beneficiaries have private sector insurance that they select through state Medicaid programs. UCare is an example in Minnesota.
Also, a growing proportion Medicare beneficiaries opt out of regular Medicare in favor of Medicare Advantage. At present, 35 percent of eligible seniors elect private insurance over regular Medicare. UnitedHealth is a leading provider of Medicare Advantage.
Moreover, the regular Medicare program is predominantly administered by the private sector. A health care claim processed for a traditional Medicare beneficiary, or a customer service call handled, will almost invariably be through contracts with private sector companies. The contractors are often Blue Cross Blue Shield Plans.
So in addition to the effects on private insurance companies serving people under 65 that you think of, the private sector also provides actual coverage or administrative services to a high percent of everyone else. (Btw, I would not like to have to explain to seniors why they will lose the Medicare Advantage plan that they have chosen.) And processing claims and handling calls is a requirement that must be met, and people must be employed, even under Medicare for All.
Senator Warren observes that many of those two million people do not work for insurance companies but in hospitals and doctors’ offices. It would be difficult to see how they transition to life insurance.
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