Saturday, December 7, 2024

A murdered health insurance ceo has us talking about healthcare - again. Here's an actual solution...

With all of the increasing attention being paid to health insurance lately, I recalled a podcast I did in 2019 that so fits - "healthcare, making a nation sick."  

      Photo credit: Scott Graham on Unsplash

Spoiler alert: the healthcare system is really about bankcare.  And all of the politicians from all parties are complicit in it NOT being fixed (think how many federal elections this debate has continued to occur with still no solution - both parties, so stop blaming the other side here).  The attention, lately is not because of all the people who have been harmed by insurance for a generation or more , but because a billionaire revenue insurance company ceo making 10 million a year was murdered.  Poor deaths get little attention.  Healthcare debt bankruptcy, still number one in bankruptcies, is normalized.  The attention about healthcare needs all people to unite really - but honestly the fame and wealth has us talking again: except for the sad death of a human (please consider the guy that was killed by the way,  he is a husband,  a dad and he was murdered) as the head of an insurance company,  for most of us this will continue to be business as usual.  Anyway,  this podcast,  like most of them I've done a number of years ago, just repeat history it seems .... but it's a different take on the problem... and there are solutuions.  If you would,  take a listen,  and share to others, enjoy the snark too.

Friday, February 16, 2024

350 million dollars, legal maneuvering and upending the rules; but who will it help?

I'm intrigued that our culture is surprised that corporations manipulate rules, laws and regulations for their own gain.  This case, might just create a precedent that is worthy of note for all corporations.   It means,  maybe,  the rules in 'big business' will have to change.   Real estate and tax rules, create all kinds of breaks for corporate America – and these useful rules in this kind of a case are routine examples (not surprising) – including for non-profit corporate America.  Real estate markets for property values is also a shocker? Even in non-corporate America, the valuation of homes is a norm built into the system.  Look at the valuation and loan system between realtors, appraisers and banks, who as a team of in common interests, literally set and create the standards (by law) that cause home values to increase – and  we the people keep buying.  How about non-profit health insurance companies and non-profit universities; how many people have been hurt unfairly by the legal and inflated processes within these highly regulated businesses?  Hopefully, this precedent, if it stands, will bring the house of cards tumbling down, so that real people get help; I am not talking about Trump - I'm talking about an emerging precedent in this corporate case that has far reaching implications – potentially, for everyone.  

       Photo Credit: Unsplash and Bermix Studio

The larger than Trump Inc and the larger than New York Govt schism here is so much more radical (and expensive) than this huge company and these audacious courtroom players (on both of sides of this case) might intend (maybe,  maybe not).  “Legalized number manipulating" is almost everywhere – hidden in the millions of words and thousands of pages of a tax code that even computer algorithms can't master.   The base of legal maneuvering for better numbers - on which corporations thrive, can be found in a complicated 70,000 page tax code that makes it (legally and feasibly) possible.  Legal or not, political or not, left or right or not, right or wrong or not, “awake” or not, the money involved – must be staggering.  It remains to be seen if a precedent is about to unfold that may very well serve to reshape America.  Hopefully,  for the good of the average US citizen. ~Kurt LaRose

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna135283