It’s hard to make the case that private insurers are simply out to protect their profits any better than this:
Maybe it was just lousy timing, but many customers of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina are ticked off at the mail they’ve received recently from the state’s largest insurer.
First, they learned their rates will rise by an average of 11 percent next year.
Next, they opened a slick flier from the insurer urging them to send an enclosed pre-printed, postage-paid note to Sen. Kay Hagan denouncing what the company says is unfair competition that would be imposed by a government-backed insurance plan. The so-called public option is likely to be considered by Congress in the health-care overhaul debate.
For those who need a reminder, a public health insurance option would compete directly with private insurers like Blue Cross, and a public health insurance option wouldn’t have to turn a profit, forcing Blue Cross’s rates down.
Blue Cross extorts more money from their customers with one hand with an 11% rate increase – they do control a whopping 53% of the market in North Carolina after all [pdf], and 98% of the individual market and billions in reserve dollars, so they can get away with that kind of thing – and with the other, tries to enlist these same customers to fight against something that would Blue Cross’s rates and profits.
Fortunately, the good people of North Carolina are having none of it.
Indignant Blue Cross customers, complaining that their premium dollars are funding the campaign, have called Hagan’s office to voice support for a public option. They’ve marked through the Blue Cross message on their postcards and changed it to show they support the public option, then mailed the cards.
“I hope it backfires,” said Mark Barroso, a documentary film maker in Chatham County who is a Blue Cross customer and recipient of the mailings. “I’m doing everything I can to make sure it does.”
Beth Silberman of Durham said she “went sort of bonkers” about the mailing. “You’re hostage to them, and then they pull this,” she said. “My new premiums are funding lobbying against competition. It’s pretty disgusting.”
Check out one of the “corrected” postcards:
It’s a true grassroots effort, and one that’s already getting the attention of Senator Hagan’s office.
Thank you, Blue Cross, for making the point for us so well. Whatever the insurance companies want, you should want the opposite. If they win, you lose.
(also posted at the NOW! blog)
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Hi Jason; here’s a story for you. Several teachers in the Escondido,CA school district health insurance plan have cancer. The district has informed subscribers they will no longer be able to fund the necessary amounts because they are only getting 20 cents on the dollar they had hoped to get from the State.
So 1000,s of the teachers -and their families- will be moving to Kaiser Permante insurance plan BUT Kaiser isn’t set up for such an influx of patients.
And those that have cancer will not be able to just reference their previous doctors and treatments but have to go thru the whole PCP referral to a specialist ,etc. BEFORE they can gain any treatment.
And a story that won’t make the press is one teacher who has cancer was at UCSD overseeing/evaluating a prospective teacher when a student heard from his high school sweetheart that she was breaking up with him. He promptly put his fist thru a window,severing an artery. And so the teacher who had cancer and CPR training had to put aside his feelings of nausea,etc. from the chemo treatments and try to help this stupid kid.
And even though the vast majority of U.S. citizens don’t think that the ’stimulus’ has done them any good, Obama and Congress act as though there are many years ahead to address significant issues.
Interesting story, thanks. You have links for it, or just something you heard/are involved in?
Well boys and girls,better get used to it.The hand writing is on the wall.With so much back stabbing going on among the democrats,there will be no health reform.Even Nancy Pelosi has backed off on a robust public option.Better get out the crying towels.It’s all over,but the crying.
Jason,
Great post. I’ve heard so many heated name callers to Kay Hagan. Surely, her eyes are open now. If I didn’t have to have the doctor care and drugs for my condition, I’d boycott until they had no choice but reduce all rates.
It amazes me that people are so uninformed. I requested the UnitedHealthCare cancel my policy as they want me to pay more and I have never utilized any services from them.
” The so-called public option is likely to be considered by Congress in the health-care overhaul debate”
I love being patronized during dinnertime. Thanks.
Why does this remind me of the “dead bug letter”?
Let a thousand flowers bloom.
Reported to me by a close friend who is witness to it.
BCBS direct mail fail!
Every time we think the public option is dead and buried, some business or organization in the insurance industry decides to help us out. Before this, it was AHIP with their arrogant spokeswoman being humilated by Sen. Franken in a congressional hearing.
Now BC/BS has decided it’s their turn to help us out.
Reminds me of when Tom DeLay said (to an officer telling him that he could not smoke a cigar in a federal building) “I am the federal government!” …or something very close to that.
I see the graffiti on the walls, too, and it doesn’t look pretty for congress if they don’t pass some substantive health care reform. And soon.
Pluto in Capricorn. It ain’t pretty, but it’s absolutely necessary.
:-) :-) :-)
The Cosmic Roto-Rooter rolls up its sleeves.
It is unlikely we will get any sort of public option worth having maybe a trigger or something watered-down. Time to urge our progressive senators to vote AGAINST cloture, ie: support Republican filibuster. If Liebersham can do it… The progressive wing of the Democratic party can’t just lie down and allow a fake reform bill to pass. A mandate without a public option will give the anti-trust exempt insurance industry direct access to American’s pockets – health insurance will become even more expensive.
Heh. That’s also my approach to medical insurance: just don’t go to docs. Of course, I’m blessed with good health, so my scheme won’t work for everyone.
That’s why I think it would be better to wait a year or two. This is the first year I have seen any medical insurance horror stories in the MSM, despite their prevalence for years. And the insurance corps are working for their own demise by gouging rate increases and direct mailings like the one in this post.
I’ve been watching this issue since 1991, and this is the first year I see more widespread public disgust with the current system. If we wait a year or two, the public disgust will be at such a fever pitch, we’ll get a lot better legislation.
This by itself is proof that the public option would drive costs down. If that weren’t so, BCBS wouldln’t have been so desperate to avoid it they didn’t see the giant pr screw-up they were committing.
IOW, contradicting Joe Lie’s “argument” that it will cost more.
Really? Not a big point, but the MSM is where I’ve seen those stories for years – evening news on networks, local news, 60 Minutes, etc. In fact, I’ve wondered for months why they seemed to have forgotten all about those stories they did themselves.
Of course, it was all scattershot, and individual “human interest” stories; I just figured they never made the connection that the stories made the case for how wrecked our current “system” is.
Let us continue with the sinking ship analogy. A nasty pirate – call him Blue Beard of the Cross and Shield Clan – seized a ship by stupidly cutting a hole in it’s hull below the water line, the better to get aboard and start stealing from the passengers. He soon realizes his mistake as the ship starts listing. So he orders his hostages to start bailing with their hands. When that doesn’t seem to stop the sinking, Blue starts throwing passengers over board. Now at first, he tries to be reasonable about who he murders – tossing into the drink only those who have the most serious preexisting health problems, reasoning that they’ll die soon anyway. But soon he becomes more desperate and less discerning, and more and more hostages drown by the hands of his thugs. Now the government, which is very cowed by Blue, pleads with him to stop drowning passengers and offers to give him a 900 gallon an hour hydraulic pump to enable him to keep the ship afloat without throwing anyone else into the shark infested waters. Blue takes the pump in exhange for some vague promises regarding hostage welfare, but by that time the hole is taking on water at 850 gallons an hour and, even worse, it’s increasing in size and the amount of water flooding through it is increasing by 11% each hour.
Now, substitute gallons with billions of dollars and hours with years, and you’ve pretty much have our nation’ healthcare system. Oh, and the ship can only take on about 1500 gallons until it sinks.
I probably have a warped view of MSM since I watch/read so little of it. But now I notice them on the msnbc home page as a featured item, which I’ve never seen before. And hear more on cable news. But my observation is anecdotal, not scientific.
Nice analogy.
North Dakota’s got a perfect collateral example I hope our Senators are paying attention to for why we need the public option and how we know the opposition’s just a buncha whiners.
Book a flight out of Fargo heading west and the rates are modest. Book a flight out of Fargo heading east and the cost functionally doubles. What’s the difference? Discount airlines head west in this market, not east. The same big boys fly both directions. They gouge because they can…
And have I mentioned a la punaise my loathing for Lieberman is eternal and boundless….
a public health insurance option would compete directly with private insurers like Blue Cross, and a public health insurance option wouldn’t have to turn a profit, forcing Blue Cross’s rates down.
Wrong, wrong, wrong. Maybe in our dreams, but the load of steaming you-know-what that Pelosi and Reid will offer up will have a public option that’s so weak, it can’t compete.
Under the circumstances, I think it’s reprehensible that sites like FDL are having anything to do with this dreck. We should all be fighting to KILL the emerging legislation, since it will only make things worse.
Ah, Sunshine,
I was trying to remember on an earlier thread who the pup was whose name was always attached to that observation……….it was the punster! Thank you! *smooch*
Could be, but then that would be another 40-some-thousand needless deaths. Perhaps with a compromise bill there would be fewer.
However, there are members of the house who are determined to defeat the bill, if it is not progressive enough, so you may get your wish.
If the worst happens, and they pass a really weak bill (or no bill), I suspect that the outrage from the public will be so close to torches & pitchforks that congress may decide to amend the bill during next year’s election cycle. If not, many of them will suffer the consequences. (Just look at what’s happening in NJ, with Corzine overtaking Christie. H/C is only one of the issues, but it’s a biggie.)
Fwiw… I don’t think that cost containment is the only thing that needs to be addressed. There is so much more needed, in order to achieve true health care reform, but when people are going bankrupt and losing their homes because they cannot afford the mediocre care they’re getting now, then that fire needs to be put out.
Somewhere online today, I think I read that 7 of 10 bankruptcies are due to astronomical health care bills. That’s huge.
The liberals and progressives had better start calling out the blue dogs and that scum bag Lieberman in public. I’m sick of this polite bullshit! Harry Reid should print this story, call a news conference and bitch slap Lieberman with some facts. Tell the press to ask Joe what he thinks of this latest move by the mob he’s trying to protect and warn this dwarft that he and the rest of the people in the “Democratic Caucus” should wait for the CBO’s scoring before judging this part of the bill. I’m sick of this back and forth. Every Dem including Obama had better realize that anything less than a robust public option will not be tolerated by us. We will quickly organize again and primary every one of their sorry asses out if they don’t vote for real healthcare reform. They’re not getting away with selling us off to scum sucking, cash whoring, douchebage insurance companies who want to bleed us of everything we own!
Oh, and perhaps we should send a thank you to every one of them for keeping Teddy’s spirit alive as they gut this bill!
The red cross was taken, green for safety, blue for piracy, black for the plague. “Black Cross Insurance Meglo Inc. Your best chance at a quick death”. Pay online and you get a 10% refund if they pass health reform. Of 2040’s bill.
Boy, Blue Cross NC must be stupid stupid stupid.
what good is capitalism without being able to make mega profits off the sick and needy?
throw in some wars for profits and we have ourselves capitalism american style
support our troops has become support for our wars for profits
even the media wont touch capitalism as the cause of our decline
capitalism has become patroitism in our america
as we slide down the tubes and borrow trillions from the communists
and we brag how great our capitalism is as we are hated around the world and borrow from communists our so called enemy.
in a dumbed down society this can be accomplished
the end of an era for americans
maybe we can borrow our way out of this decline?
wealth can be as harsh of teacher as poverty
what I find interesting is our absolute denial of our decline
My wife and I are both in our late 50s and in good health. We have individual coverage from BCBS-NC, and with this latest increase our premiums will rise to $10,000 dollars in 2010 if we keep our coverage at the same level. As our premiums have increased over the past few years, we feel less like customers and more like victims of a protection racket. This attempt to enlist us to lobby Senator Hagan against the Public Option comes as no surprise. Only a parasitical company drunk off of the financial blood of its hosts would do something like this. What is now clear is that health insurance companies like BCBS are not really necessary for a health care system to work. They are the middlemen who take a big cut of the action and who have become far too powerful, but they are expendable. A single payer plan will effectively put them out of business, and deservedly so. I hope that one day in this country it will be done.
I hear you, rpnc. My wife and I just passed 50 and we have a 17 year old in high school. Our premiums just got hiked to $11,200 per year, with a $5000 deductible. I am going to send a thank you letter to them, however. They finally convinced my wife to move back to Spain with me.
I also read that angry recipients were wrapping bricks and attaching the postage paid envelopes to them before mailing them to their representatives.
I wish you and your family good health and good fortune in Spain, and I am happy you have that option to consider. As it happens, we have a connection with Holland that could become more significant for us in time. Several of my friends who have connections abroad are also mulling over their options, primarily due to their situations regarding health insurance, and given the situation here it is easy to understand why. I also wonder how much this is happening across the USA.