BBC: Insurers 'could provide welfare'

[Bitter Ashes]

Good fucking god, NO!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8170265.stm

nsurers rather than the government could provide benefits such as sick leave, says a report into the industry.Setting out a possible scenario for 2020, the report said a 5% shift in the £340bn welfare state burden could save the government £17bn a year.
But consumers would need to take out insurance against sickness and job loss as a result.
The Insurance Industry Working Group was set up in October last year, comprising bosses of major firms.
The UK insurance industry is the second largest in the world.
Vision
The group was chaired by Chancellor Alistair Darling and Andrew Moss, the chief executive of Aviva.
It found that the total cost of payouts such as long-term healthcare and pensions cost £340bn a year, with the insurance industry picking up a third of the cost and the government picking up the rest.
The report suggested that the insurance sector had the capacity to play a much bigger role in providing benefits like jobseekers allowance and money for those on long-term sick leave.
Taking on 5% of the burden from the government would save the Treasury billions of pounds, but would mark a fundamental shift in the welfare state, which is funded by taxation and National Insurance contributions.
'Discussion document'
The report also pointed out that the transparency, simplicity and access of insurance products could be improved.
It also said that data and research could be shared between government and the industry to reduce the cost impact of risks such as floods and crime.
Mr Moss said the report was simply a "discussion document" and was not giving any firm recommendations, but encouraged others to take up the debate.
"Taking steps now will build customer confidence," he said.

[Kukulofori]

oh lol.

[Kwisatz Haderach]

Wow, the insurance industry says we should give more money and power to the insurance industry. What a surprise.

Not to worry, this sounds like Darling's pet idea, and it's not like he'll be in government for much longer.

[Bitter Ashes]

Wow, the insurance industry says we should give more money and power to the insurance industry. What a surprise.

Not to worry, this sounds like Darling's pet idea, and it's not like he'll be in government for much longer.
He'll be replaced by a Tory. The Tories would be doing a little war-dance about this that they didnt think of it first. The whole idea bothers me immensly.

[rednordman]

He'll be replaced by a Tory. The Tories would be doing a little war-dance about this that they didnt think of it first. The whole idea bothers me immensly.Wont they just. The nulabour party officially has no bollox (sorry about the language). Thing that really annoys me about british parament, is that when you get so-called left-wing party gets elected into power, and actually makes progressive reforms, the moment a right-wing party comes to power again, all the progress is lost and reforms thrown out the widow..

I must them ask: Why does the same not happen when a left-wing party takes over from the right-wing one? why dont they get ride of all the neo-liberal rubbish? Why do they have to keep them?

I swear that ever since 1945 the whole world has economically taken massive shifts rightwards. And to think that people accuse nulabour of being socialists!

[RebelDog]

Taking on 5% of the burden from the government would save the Treasury billions of pounds, but would mark a fundamental shift in the welfare state, which is funded by taxation and National Insurance contributions.

And where will this 'savings' come from and the extra profits for the insurance companies? From the working-class. They bail out the richest elite scumbags, they spend a fortune killing people in other countries and they now want to steal the right to life from people who have so little. How is that for anti-social behaviour. It is clear to us that the welfare state and the working-class faces massive attacks on our quality of life in the coming decades to pay for their ruling-class decedance. Darling and these insurers are grotesque parasites willing to inflict any misery on us. They are simply attacking people they think cannot or will not defend themselves. If anything like this comes to fruition there will be many facing misery and ruin while at their most vulnrable. These people are ruthless and they deserve to be treated likewise.

[Bitter Ashes]

Every time the private sector has gotton involved with the DWP there's been rampart corruption that has has real negative effects on real people. Take for example the companies like A4E that got paid for providing "Pathways to work" to those on Incap and how they'd throw people into jobs that they knew they couldnt do so that they could get paid on thier bonuses and targets. Or, even worse, Atos Origin's medical screeners. You dont get assessed by a doctor anymore for incapacity benefit by the DWP, you get assessed by Atos Origin's people who will move thier way down a tickbox system, ticking as they see fit. Again, they're paid for meeting targets of getting as many people off as possible and I couldnt believe my form when I saw it a few weeks later. At the time I couldnt walk 2 weeks out of every 4 and was totaly deaf in my left ear. They'd ticked "No mobility problems" and "No hearig problems". Obviously this contradicted what my doctor had told the DWP, but it didnt matter, Atos Origin, the private company with no doctor present, had the final say.

Stuff like this reached the papers not long ago and that should have been the panic button for Labour to say, "Privatisation of the welfare system does not work.". Unfortuantly they're as dumb as they look and have decieded to push even further ahead with it >.>

I really do dread to think about the world of insurers paying welfare. I mean, like, somebody who's rich, would no-doubt be able to afford a top of the range policy and probably recieve at least a 5 figure payout if they ever lost thier job/thier company went under. The people at the bottom are going to really have to scrimp and save for even the most basic cover. Dole for the rich and dole for the poor. Keeping the class boundries there even in the face of unemployment!

What about people who are given a "bad rating" for example? If you've got an underlying health condition, nobody is ever going to insure you as they cant make a profit from you. I'm sure too that they'd be more than happy to avoid renewing your insurance with them if they felt for one instant that you wont be profitable enough. I'm sure I'm only scratching the tip of the iceberg here too.

[rednordman]

I really do dread to think about the world of insurers paying welfare. I mean, like, somebody who's rich, would no-doubt be able to afford a top of the range policy and probably recieve at least a 5 figure payout if they ever lost thier job/thier company went under. The people at the bottom are going to really have to scrimp and save for even the most basic cover. Dole for the rich and dole for the poor. Keeping the class boundries there even in the face of unemployment!If you want to look at it from a positive perspective one could say that, people, in this country, WILL react to this level of inequality. Infact, it could be the flame to spark up a serious class war again. And that is something that is desperatly needed with the uk right now.

Things are going way way too far in the rightwards direction, and i do not see the conservatives being anymore left than Nulabour. They must have loved all of this 'free-market' dogma trip that has been a huge embarassment to labour (even if they do not realise yet).