If "We Take"

Dennis "Ooogo Chavez" Kucinich (D-Ohio) says, "we" should "take" all of the insurance industry's profits to pay for ObamaCare. "If we take that money . . .and put it into care we cover everyone." He sounds like he's trading marbles on the play ground.

Who's "we" and who gives them permission to "take", Denny? Questions for another time.

My question for now is who's right on what it is the HMOs make? Dennis K. says they make $800 billion with a "b" a year. IBD says that all together HMOs only make $13 billion. So according to IBD, total gross profit for all the HMOs is the same as the annual gross profit for WalMart, the same as for Johnson & Johnson. Oracle's gross profit is running at an annual rate of $18 billion. If Dennis K. is right, we can just nationalize the HMOs and pay for everyone. If IBD is right, "we" could "take" 100% of HMO profits over ten years and it wouldn't even pay for a fifth of the Baucus plan.

The Baucus plan in the Senate also would tax HMOs $6 bil. a year, just under half of the HMOs' annual profit (using the IBD figure). HMOs would either have to eat about half of their profits (if IBD is right) or pass the $8 billion on to its customers, thus raising rates.

So which is it--$800 billion or $13 billion?

There's not enough money in the world to pay for this.