Regardless of all the feel-good new-age Harry and Louise-type ads we will see from the insurance industry about the “need for health care reform” I think this market movement shows exactly how the health insurance industry values the public option. They are terrified of it, and their stocks went up on news that it’s going away.

May as well by stock in blood diamonds.

Why isn’t this some from of illegal stock manipulation scam? /sarcasm

eh, they’ve been going up and down all summer based on momentary news. They soared in late June when the public option appeared to be a non-starter then dropped like a rock after the House and HELP committees passed their bills. I wouldn’t put too much stake in them rising now except for responding to the Finance Committee news and so investors are profit-taking. My brother is a stock broker and even he says buy insurance stocks and he thinks a public option will pass…you sell the stocks immediately when that news breaks and you made a profit.

Stocks respond to the news of the day, they don’t predict the future…Wall Street couldn’t predict a snowstorm in Minnesota in January.

um, that’s what I wrote.

Teddy, good post. I would quibble with the part about profits from stock the company owns that it bought in stock buyback programs. That stock goes into the treasuy, or is retired, but until it is sold, it can’t be a profit maker.

Those stock repurchase programs are a way of rewarding shareholders. It raises the price when the company bids for the stock. That is why when I look at the money situation in those giant life insurance companies, like Aetna, I put the stock repurchase money in the same category as dividends, because both benefit shareholders.

Would it not be more on point and then also just plain honest if corporations,Wall St. and big American banks just elected U.S.Senators or Representatives to Congress and these people were given truthful disclosure titles?

Max Baucus/$$ Senator from Big Private Health Insurers.

Chuck Grassley/$$ Senator from Big Private Health Insurers.

It certainly can be a profit-maker for the CEO, however, who likely receives a substantial portion of his/her compensation in stock and stock options. Push those prices higher with a stock buy-back, and it’s money in the bank for the CEO.

Because under our current form of government in the United States of Goldman Sachs, stock manipulation scams are no longer illegal. /no snark

SOOOOOOOOOEEEEEEEEEY!

In other words, if you are so happy with your health care that you want to kep paying 20% more per year for the rest of your life;
This is great news.

Isn’t unfettered Capitalism just the cat’s meeeeow?

This ought to tell you right then and there what will happen if and when this piece of shit health care bill goes into effect. It’ll be the same thing that happened here in MA: Premiums will skyrockets, people will get thrown off their existing plans yet it will still be made mandatory. Those who were insured will no longer be insured but heavily penalized for “refusing” affordable health care. The government option, even if there is one, will not be competitive with the HMO’s at all except in competing to see who can charge the most. Deductibles will go through the roof… It’ll be a macroscopic version of the piece of shit health care bill left behind by Romney. And all because Baucus rolled over for a handful of Republicans who are laughing up their sleeves over our “filibuster-proof” majority.

By the way, even though I’ve personally thanked everyone who’d done so, I’d still like to thank everyone who helped me yesterday with my crisis. My fiancée and I deeply appreciate the kind and generous gestures (although we’re not so appreciative of John “Garbo” Aravosis banning me from ABlog). We’re not out of the woods yet but at least we won’t have to worry about paying the rent and going hungry for the immediate future.

I’d think that the “up” vs. “down” represents a very good barometer of what the investors think is the potential value if the public option fails….and mind you, these re just the folks “speculating” on the odds. If it really happens that no public option passes (and this even without the effect of no mandatory employer sanctions) then the stocks will fly.

Meanwhile I wonder how much benefit these “regional coops” will offer folks in places like North Dakota that have an option between Blue Cross and Blue Shield…oh wait wasn’t there supposed to be a hyphen between those two?

I am 60 years old and FINALLY figured it out: It doesn’t make any difference who is elected to office. This country is controlled by those with millions of dollars to donate to said elected official.

How stupid I feel.

Strict limits on campaign spending is the only hope we have.

If you expect incumbents to pass strict limits on campaign spending, you are indeed an optimist. Other hopes exist but they involve thinking outside the box and taking personal responsibility for what goes on, that is rejecting hierarchical thinking. We’re not there yet. Perhaps we need more disappointment.

Indeed it is a big boon to insiders with options.

One reason often given by corporations to justify their stock buyback programs is that dividends are paid out of after-tax income, and are taxed again as income to the shareholder. Stock buybacks increase the price of the shares, and gain on sale of the stock is only taxed at the shareholder level, and at a very low rate.

I’d sue the insurance companies for making me sick, but my carrier would rightly deny my claim as a pre-existing condition.

As Max & the Baucus Caucus, they’re just doing the jobs the insurance companies get paid to do — who could possibly object?

Meanwhile, President Obama’s personal doctor of two decades is leading a single-payer rally on the National Mall Thursday.

The Constant Weader at http://www.RealityChex.com

“Righteous indignation” on our part will accomplish little if anything.

Sen. Bernie Sanders – one of only a handful of lawmaker with the guts to tell it like it is – said that millions and millions of people must protest against the sell-out that is being directed by the medical-profits industry

“Keyboard activism” won’t get it done. In order to win true health care reform we’ll have to march in the streets. If we fail to do so, if we fail to act in our own best interests and in the best interests of other everyday people, the health care crisis will worsen.

Our resolve will be tested by how we proceed from here on out. Will we fight for justice, or will we act like sheep?

I don’t know campaign finance laws or the laws regarding lobbyists gifts but suppose ! gave Holy Joe a million dollars then I tell him if you vote way the value of my companies stocks will spike at least for that day.
Good news from the government cause 1 day or more spikes in stock price all the time. Anyway Joe if he was a sleaze bag could take the cash, buy some stock vote like he is told to, sell the stock as the price spikes and make an even bigger profit.
The hire his wife at a huge salary to consult for the campaign. Does anyone know if this is even against the law?
How do we find out if such a thing has happened?

Obama knew what he was doing when he said he wants “health INSURANCE reform”*: It’s where the money is, and where our money will be going, under the mandates. Millions of Americans will learn what “unfunded mandates” really are.

*From Obama’s primetime press conference, July 2 2, 2009, where Obama did say he was for “health insurance reform” — in his prepared, thus carefully vetted, opening remarks. The very first opening remarks, his first sentence:

Before I take your questions, I want to talk for a few minutes about the progress we’re making on health insurance reform and where it fits into our broader economic strategy.

Sixth paragraph (about a sentence or so each):

And health-insurance reform is central to that effort.

Paragraph 11:

…a lot of Americans may be wondering: What’s in this for me? How does my family stand to benefit from health-insurance reform?

Paragraph 16:

I’ve also pledged that health-insurance reform will not add to our deficit over the next decade, and I mean it.

Paragraph 18:

That will not happen with health-insurance reform. It will be paid for.

Wow, how could I have missed that messaging?? It’s right there. Insurance reform.

Public plan or public option? Obama did not mention it until the second to last questioner used the phrase in his question:

Steve Koff, the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Q Thank you. Just to follow up on Jake’s question earlier, sir: So many Americans are concerned that this plan, particularly the government insurance, the public option, would lead to reduced benefits or reduced coverage. Two questions.

One, can you guarantee that this legislation will lock in and say the government will never deny any services, that that’s going to be decided by the doctor and the patient, and the government will not deny any coverage? And secondarily, can you, as a symbolic gesture, say that you and the Congress will abide by the same benefits in that public option?

Pretty heavy messaging there. Count the “health insurance reform” mentions: 5. Public plan: 0. 5 to 0.

Capiche?