WellPoint Calls Attention To Its Own Immoral Practices In Effort To Smear Health Reform
WellPoint Calls Attention To Its Own Immoral Practices In Effort To Smear Health Reform
For-profit health insurance giant WellPoint fired off an email blast to its customers (using its Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield subsidiary) yesterday attacking the public option and Democratic plans for reforming health care, according to Politico’s Ben Smith. The email directs customers to its “grassroots Web site” for instructions on contacting legislators, a website ThinkProgress revealed to be run by the secretive corporate lobbying firm Democracy Data and Communications (DDC). DDC, which is operated by a former veteran of the astroturf organization now known as FreedomWorks, has helped various corporate and Republican interests shape legislation by helping to generate seemingly organic phone calls and letters to Congress.
In the letter to its customers, WellPoint makes a variety of false charges against health reform. Ironically, the attacks WellPoint makes against the public option are more appropriate criticisms of the way the private insurer does business:
1. THE LETTER STATES: Health reform will “increase the premiums of those with private coverage.”
– WELLPOINT POLICIES: In a recent giddy report about WellPoint’s expected profitability to investors, Barrons reported that WellPoint will be “hiking” premiums to at least “6% to 8% annually.” In 2006, WellPoint’s profits increased 34% as premiums and fees surged.
2. THE LETTER STATES: Health reform will cause “millions of Americans to lose their private coverage” and end up in the public option.
– WELLPOINT POLICIES: In March 2007, the state’s Department of Managed Health Care fined Blue Cross of California and its parent company, WellPoint, $1 million after an investigation revealed that the insurer routinely canceled individual health policies of pregnant women and chronically ill patients. Earlier this summer, despite promises by their lobbyists to the public, WellPoint refused to end the controversial practice of rescinding coverage after an applicant files a medical claim.
While WellPoint has been busy shedding customers and increasing premiums, AMNews reported that WellPoint has cut its medical loss ratio this year — meaning a greater percentage of every premium dollar is going to profits and overhead, rather than being spent on actual medical care. Not only that, while WellPoint has tried to put a “human face” on its company by encouraging their employees to show up at town halls with corporate talking points, WellPoint has cut over 1,500 jobs since the beginning of this year. As former CIGNA executive Wendell Potter has explained, private health insurance companies like WellPoint are an ATM machine for Wall Street.
In a recent interview, NPR’s Steve Inskeep forced WellPoint CEO Angela Braly to concede her company fears that “changes in the insurance market and regulations” could cut into her profits the most. That is because, as Igor Volsky has observed, WellPoint’s business model is “antithetical to regulation,” since the company aggressively pursues healthy customers who are less likely to use benefits to pay for medical care. As the company adds healthy customers, WellPoint has made a science of finding ways to deny coverage to the sick. California regulators uncovered more than 1,200 violations of the law by the company in regard to unfair rescission and claims processing practices.
Braly, who earns nearly $10 million a year, wants “sustainable reform,” yet opposes what her company calls “Obamacare,” refuses to stop rescinding coverage to the sick, and is even suspicious of an individual mandate. Although health insurance lobbyists continue to press their case that they truly want reform “this time,” WellPoint and its stealth lobbying efforts severely undermine that claim.
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I’m pretty sure the people who recieve these emails already don’t trust this company.
August 28th, 2009 at 2:32 pmSlime.
Rescission is immoral. As are those who practice it.
I’ll say it again, these people are slime.
August 28th, 2009 at 2:32 pmFined 1 million for a practice that prolly made them billions. Why don’t fines equal the money they made off the practice? O thats right, this is America, the corporatist country.
August 28th, 2009 at 2:35 pmI know a lot of people allegedly insured by Anthem.
Every single one of them despises their insurer.
Good luck with the email blasts you soulless monsters.
August 28th, 2009 at 2:36 pmParasites.
August 28th, 2009 at 2:37 pmTHE LETTER STATES: Health reform will cause “millions of Americans to lose their private coverage” and end up in the public option.
Umm… no. Increasing premiums will cause millions of Americans to lose their private coverage.
And many of us think that ending up in the public option will be a good thing.
August 28th, 2009 at 2:41 pmDid the board, with Mrs. Evan Bayh (Susan) and William H.T. Bush (George W’s Uncle Bucky), approve the campaign? If so, the red and blue teams backed it.
August 28th, 2009 at 2:41 pmpaleolib says
August 28th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
I know a lot of people allegedly insured by Anthem.
Every single one of them despises their insurer.
______________________________________________________________
I’m one of those insured (on paper, anyway) by Anthem. I don’t have a choice, since it’s the only plan my employer offers.
If I had a choice between Anthem and a public option, I’d go with the government in a heartbeat. I trust them to do a better job taking care of me than these bloodsuckers.
August 28th, 2009 at 2:42 pmYeah, the red team is trying to bring real health care reform. I see how you got there……not.
August 28th, 2009 at 2:44 pmGood god, that’s just fooking DISGUSTING. Greedy pigs.
August 28th, 2009 at 2:44 pmHealthcare for profit is such an American thing to do.
Screwing the poor is such an American thing to do.
Denying the sick care is such an American thing to do.
Profiting at the cost of your own countrymen is such an American thing to do.
Mmmmm, seems to be a pattern here…wonder what it is?
August 28th, 2009 at 2:47 pmWellpoint’s Board Paid More than Executive and Judiciary Branches Combined
Wellpoint’s 16 Directors – not Execs – alone out earned President Obama, VP Biden all 15 Cabinet Secretaries and the 9 Supreme Court Justices in 2008.
http://bx.businessweek.com/us-healthcare-system/wellpoints-board-paid-more-than-executive-and-judiciary-branches-combined/12778751494005720701-8ec66684047cfe2ed4009dbf31d8e4c9/
August 28th, 2009 at 2:49 pmI should have said, “If so, relatives of key members of the red and blue teams backed it.” My apologies.
http://ir.wellpoint.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=130104&p=irol-govboard
August 28th, 2009 at 2:52 pmPersonal experience with this company showed me just how they effectively deny covering certain ‘at risk’ patients.
Pre-evaluation by a specialist was mandated by the insurance company, and when the insurance company found out that the condition was at a certain level of severity, they refused to pay the specialist outright.
The specialist called and told my wife that he would not accept me as a patient. When questioned, the specialist’s nurse told me flat out that the insurance would not cover the doctor’s fees or any treatment related to the condition.
When I asked what the hell I could do, the nurse had no suggestions, so I ended up treating it myself, and now I walk with a cane.
I told BC/BS that they could immediately cancel my health insurance with them. Why pay for something that is useless?
Sucks to be a patient these days.
August 28th, 2009 at 2:52 pmAs an Anthem customer, I can tell you, they are definitely about profit. Coverage? Yeah right.
August 28th, 2009 at 2:54 pmSo free market says went you have competition you raise your prices? why then be scared of the public option? Oh thats right cause its not about the care but its about the profit.
August 28th, 2009 at 2:54 pmso state, you hold people responsible for what their relatives do, that what you’re saying?
August 28th, 2009 at 2:54 pmAngela Braly makes $1,135,538.00 plus stocks and options (10 million) per year as CEO. Other CEOs of the other insurance companies make as much or more.
Every time she flies in a corporate jet, someone could be getting a needed cancer treatment if their claim was not being denied.
Every time she walks into the front door of her palatial home, a diabetes patient could be getting insulin or a person needing a kidney transplant could be getting dialysis if their claim was not being denied.
Every time she drives her expensive car, someone could be being screened for skin cancer or a pregnant woman could be getting prenatal care if their claim wasn’t being denied.
People are being denied claims so for-profit insurance companies can make a profit. Profits over people. Is that really the America we want to live in?
August 28th, 2009 at 2:54 pmYou know, there are some thing you just shouldn’t be making a profit off of.
August 28th, 2009 at 2:57 pmYou know, there are some thing you just shouldn’t be making a profit off of.
Slander! Profit is all! It is what makes America great!
Someone hand me a gold sandwich. /snark
August 28th, 2009 at 3:01 pmI’m a card-carrying, outrageous-premium-paying Anthem buyer (but in Virginia, where they haven’t sent this email … yet)
This is one of those things that make me wish I could tell them to take their stinking policy and shove it. But I can’t, of course, because this is America and I can’t get insurance anywhere else…
August 28th, 2009 at 3:01 pmHundreds of years ago, corporations were first chartered by Royalty in England and other European monarchies and were supposed to help the common good. Gradually, corporations have evolved into vehicles for private profit and private greed. In the 21st century in the United States, corporations have become instruments of evil. This is most obvious in the field of health care, which in most modern nations is done with a federal single-payer not-for-profit universal system. But America in the Land of Corporate Greed, health “insurance” is a giant ripoff, imporverishing thousands of paying customers each year, while grossly enriching its owners and managers and CEOs.
August 28th, 2009 at 3:01 pmFor information on WellPoint’s Board compensation.
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1156039/000119312509158214/dex107.htm
The board likely approved any any coordinated campaign regarding WellPoint’s response to health reform.
August 28th, 2009 at 3:03 pmDoes anyone seriously think health care companies are going to let billions of dollars in profits slip away without a fight?
Unfair practices are usually grounds for states to impose penalties which sometime can be triple the amount of the claim. I am not sure if that provision applies to health care but these penalties are in addition to civil fines and license revocation in the states. The problem is that these penalties for unfair practices are not automatic, but rather discretionary with the insurance commissioners. However, some state governments are reluctant to impose penalties. It would be better for the new health care law to set up a mechanism to stop rescission or face automatic fines that cannot be passed on to policy holders and must come out of profits.
August 28th, 2009 at 3:08 pmSo their argument against a public option is that the public option might treat them just as bad as they’ve been treated by the insurance companies all along.
August 28th, 2009 at 3:11 pmAngela Braly kills people every day.
August 28th, 2009 at 3:12 pmRepublicans like to consider themselves Christians. Answer me this Republicans. What Would Jesus Do? Would he make a profit off the sick? Or would he try to help the sick?
August 28th, 2009 at 3:12 pmWellPoint lobbying expenses:
2008–$3.87 million
2009–$2.42 million & there’s nearly a half a year left!
http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/firmsum.php?lname=Wellpoint+Inc&year=2009
August 28th, 2009 at 3:12 pmFred, I’m sure the board of WellPoint appreciates your support.
August 28th, 2009 at 3:12 pmTHE LETTER STATES: Health reform will cause “millions of Americans to lose their private coverage” and end up in the public option.
_____________________________________________________________
Whereas, without health reform, millions of Americans will lose their private coverage through rescission or premium hikes, and will end up with no insurance at all.
August 28th, 2009 at 3:15 pmTo be, or not to be? that is the question. —
August 28th, 2009 at 3:19 pmWhether ’tis nobler in the mind, to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune;
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?
You falsly try to attribute the sins of relatives of democrats to the sins of thier relatives. Am I a felon just because my brother comits a felony?
August 28th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Oval12345678 aka James K. Sayre says:
Hundreds of years ago, corporations were first chartered by Royalty in England and other European monarchies and were supposed to help the common good. Gradually, corporations have evolved into vehicles for private profit and private greed.
I don’t really have a problem with the concept. Having the ability to pool some resources to act as a single economic entity for certain purposes adds a lot of flexibility to the economy. It’s just that the “rights” of a corporation should never be held as remotely equal to the rights of even a single human being, much less above it.
.
Daniels says:
Answer me this Republicans. What Would Jesus Do? Would he make a profit off the sick? Or would he try to help the sick?
I don’t recall the bible saying how much Jesus charged for healing people. Maybe the page with his fee schedule was accidentally left out. But even so, wouldn’t leprosy count as a pre-existing condition?
August 28th, 2009 at 3:21 pmJust what will happen to the health insurance industry when the average American finally realizes that the thousands of dollars they pay in premiums are wasted when their coverage can be cancelled at the whim of the insurance company?
When they decide that the money they spend every month is more needed in keeping a roof over their heads and food in the pantry? What the heck, if they are going to lose everything with a catastrophic illness, why pay money out to someone who is just going to take it and then say, too bad for you?
August 28th, 2009 at 3:30 pm1. THE LETTER STATES: Health reform will “increase the premiums of those with private coverage.”
In short, this is blackmail: “vote for this thing and we’ll jack your premiums even higher than we already do.”
.
2. THE LETTER STATES: Health reform will cause “millions of Americans to lose their private coverage” and end up in the public option.
Private coverage sucks. I’d prefer the public option, and I have employer-based health care coverage. It’s just not worth the trouble they put you through to try to get anything reimbursed. I might as well be uninsured for all the good my health insurance does me. At least with a public option, I’d know what my rights were.
August 28th, 2009 at 3:31 pmI resent my insurance company trying to prevent others from having insurance and access to health care.
I am tired of people having to come to work sick, to send their kids to school sick, to have to go to emergency rooms to receive any treatment.
I don’t want my food served by sick people, my hotel rooms made up by sick people, I don’t want to constantly have to be exposed to sick people in public, just because they don’t have health care coverage.
Wellpoint, YOU are costing us all our health. You are not keeping us healthy, you are making us all sick.
Stop it. Now.
August 28th, 2009 at 3:35 pmThe letter, like everything that comes off the desks of corporate America, is very carefully crafted. What they are saying is true—Health reform will cause “millions of Americans to lose their private coverage” and end up in the public option.
What the letter really means is this—Health reform will cause Wellpoint to lose millions of Americans who choose to drop their overpriced, underperforming private coverage and end up in the public option.
August 28th, 2009 at 3:41 pmThis has got to come to a head at some point. The number of uninsured keeps going up. At some point people are going to start getting violent because they don’t have coverage, can’t get it or thought they were covered only to find out they were recinded. Insurance companies can bite the bullet now or in the near future because at some point the sorry assed politicians that currenly protect them will be swept away by the fury of the people.
August 28th, 2009 at 3:43 pmElBruce says:
I don’t recall the bible saying how much Jesus charged for healing people. Maybe the page with his fee schedule was accidentally left out. But even so, wouldn’t leprosy count as a pre-existing condition?
It’s a simple question. And the answer is simple as well. Republicans like to consider themselves christians. Jesus didn’t make a profit off peoples illness. Nor did he charge to heal those in need.
So when republicans support the for profit medical system, are they following the teachings of Jesus?
It isn’t in the bible cause Jesus didn’t charge people to heal them. Guess it shows how much they have twisted religion to benefit their corporations.
August 28th, 2009 at 3:48 pmMy sister is self-employed, and the only insurance she can afford is catastrophic insurance with a very high deductible, since she has to pay for it herself.
Tomorrow, she is having her hip replaced. In about another month, she is having the other hip replaced. This isn’t cosmetic surgery. Both of her hips have degenerated to the point where she has become disabled enough that it’s affecting her ability to earn a living (she’s a professional musician). She had been putting off the surgery due to the cost, but it’s reached a point where she can’t do that any longer.
Between her deductible and services not covered by her insurance (post-operative therapy, for example), she will be out about $10,000. That’s just medical expenses — that’s not even counting her lost income during her recovery period. But she’s glad for the insurance — if she had to pay the whole thing, the cost would be much, much more.
The kicker is that after she has this done, her insurance carrier will probably drop her because she has become too expensive. And now that she has a pre-existing condition, she won’t be able to get insurance anywhere else.
Private insurance. Something you can pour your money into for years, and for that you get to use it for one major event. Make it good.
August 28th, 2009 at 3:50 pmIn a New York Times story today ,… one executive acknowledges that the industry is all about rationing care:
…”We believe there’s a better way to control costs by controlling utilization and getting people involved in their health care.”
…private for-profit health care companies … ration care, .. but as the insurance industry admits right here for all to see… The obvious truth is that the health insurance industry works hard to “control utilization” – that is, it works hard to make sure that when you need a costly medical service, you are “controlled” from getting it. (H/T David Sirota)
The article attempts to evoke sympathy for the “average people” who work for the industry.
August 28th, 2009 at 4:29 pmUnfortunately, Miss c Molly,
August 28th, 2009 at 4:33 pmYour sister’s story is more prevalent than the talking heads on TV would have us believe.
I, too, was in the same insurance pool as your sister — I was lucky — I didn’t need to use the insurance. If I had, it would have been as you say, a one-time deal, because I would have been dropped and then been uninsured until the age of Medicare.
Good luck to her and you.
A modest proposal:
We could completely fund single payer health care by this simple idea: How about we charge every Big Insurance Chief Officer, and every scumpig who claimed a bonus for denial of coverage that resulted in death or permanent damage, with fraud and penalize them by subjecting them to the same type of civil assets forfeiture that we currently use against (non-CIA) drug sealers.
And then do the same to the banksters.
August 28th, 2009 at 4:36 pmOop; DEALERS!
The letters are starting to wear off my keyboard.
August 28th, 2009 at 4:37 pmIt is an obscene perversion that corporations exist to do nothing but push paper around while they deny health care to sick and needy persons, so that the corporation can make a profit in the market.
August 28th, 2009 at 4:37 pmAll these arguments against health care reform are done with the intention of obfuscating the real issue whether health care is a right or privilege. I would suggest that pollsters would find that most people think health care should be a right. I am not sure if anyone has done a real poll on this.
August 28th, 2009 at 4:44 pmThinkProgress states: “In a recent interview, NPR’s Steve Inskeep forced WellPoint CEO Angela Braly to concede her company fears that “changes in the insurance market and regulations” could cut into her profits the most.” Bold and italics are my emphasis.
‘forced’ is a strong word, even in this context – does a reputable interviewer force an answer? Please chose your words carefully, ThinkProgress is an oft-quoted website of those that wish to do reasoned debate harm as well as good. Force is what the those against Health care reform use; albeit through the itimidation of shouted word and brandishment of firearms, not merely strong words.
August 28th, 2009 at 4:45 pmMarie says
August 28th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Unfortunately, Miss c Molly,
Your sister’s story is more prevalent than the talking heads on TV would have us believe.
____________________________________________________________
And to listen to some of the anti-reform crowd, you’d think all my sister has to do is go to an emergency room…
Thank you for your kind wishes. I’ll pass them on.
August 28th, 2009 at 5:15 pmWellPoint Calls Attention To Its Own Immoral Practices In Effort To Smear Health Reform
This is where an ambulance chasing lawyer steps in.
August 28th, 2009 at 6:09 pmThe board is ultimately responsible for a campaign like this. You can keep your head in the sand, Fred.
August 28th, 2009 at 7:21 pmThis hypocrisy is true of so many things the GOP says.
For example, Cheney claims that Obama is “trying to politicize the justice department”.
Is that the pot calling the kettle black?
August 28th, 2009 at 9:06 pm23. state of the division points out:
“For information on WellPoint’s Board compensation.
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1156039/000119312509158214/dex107.htm
The board likely approved any any coordinated campaign regarding WellPoint’s response to health reform.”
The problem with boards is in thinking they really have alot of control over what their officers do with the company’s by-laws. CEO’s have fought tooth and nail at stopping shareholders from having more of a say in compensation packages. I have a friend who is a chief legal counsel for a fortune 500 company who said flat out that shareholders do not have as much power as the general public seems to think they have. If the public really wants to get a handle on the outrageous amounts of bonuses that CEOs and other officers rake in, there must be a mandatory tax of 90% on any thing outside of a corporate officers yearly salary. Board members will think twice about paying a tax that high to the state.
August 28th, 2009 at 9:55 pmIf one is informed, one is not surprised by this. Creating “personhood/personship” for corporations has been one of the most vile acts of the last century. We will will feel the effects well into the next.
August 29th, 2009 at 2:04 amkwsventures says:
This is where an ambulance chasing lawyer steps in.
I find it fascinating how you love lawyers when they benefit corporations, and hate them when they go against corporations. At least be consistent, if you insist on being stupid.
August 29th, 2009 at 2:55 amMy late wife and I both worked for Wellpoint during the late ’90s/early 2000’s, under the names John Hancock and Unicare. During that period, Wellpoint “swallowed up” many similar group plans under the auspices of BC/BS of California. We saw, first hand, how a supposed service industry turned to be driven by greed and profitability at the expense of their insured’s lives and health. Please check out this Facebook link. Once the insurance execs get wind of this suggestion, the greedy bastards will quake in their boots, all the way down to their fooking 401K’s, profit sharing and, maybe even their consciences, if they even have one!
August 29th, 2009 at 8:01 am
Here is the link!
August 29th, 2009 at 8:02 amThe link didn’t come through! Maybe Wellpoint has hacked this site! Trying again! Please excuse me as I am still cyber challenged!
August 29th, 2009 at 8:06 am
Okay! Since the link didn’t print, here is the entire note. Am sorry about the length! Please read it and forward!
The Health Care Debate, Dilema and Remembering Senator Edward Kennedy
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Thu at 9:33am | Edit Note | Delete
I woke up last Sunday to more evidence that we, as a country, are blind to the needs of the many versus the wants of a few. With the death of Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, a PRIME supporter of heath care reform, my hopes seem to have come down even further. It seems that we cannot get the plan that so many of us citizens want. And yet, Senator Kennedy’s memory refills me with that hope that, if we act together, we CAN achieve the dream of universal health care coverage.
Sunday, after listening to all the talking heads regarding health care reform, I sent this note off to my Congressional Representative, Ms. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL-9th) and Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL). I am totally disgusted with our non-bipartisan political scheme, where insurance lobbies, pharmaceutical lobbies, physician lobbies, have the power and funds to keep our representatives bottled up from representing us in both legislative houses of government. The far right tells lies about death committees, threatened loss of choice and unaffordability for employers. The far left is currently not capable of mustering the proper amount of support for a public option. The moderates just sit there, wringing their hands and worrying about their seats and whether or not their actions will get them re-elected or replaced. THIS HAS TO END NOW!
Please read this note. If you agree, copy it and send it to YOUR Representatives. If you don’t, then come up with another solution.
Dear Ms. Schakowsky:
The time has come to end the angry town hall meetings and take the insurance company bulls and their political supporters, both Republican and Democrat, by the horns. This country’s health care insurance industry is nothing more than a scam. Costs are out of control. Providers are out of control. Hospitals are investing tons of money on overpriced technical equipment and expansion so they can boast they are the biggest and the best in the area. It seems to me, a 15 year medical claims examiner and processor veteran, that greed and profitability has entered the health care market and has made heath care almost unattainable for many Americans, myself included. To guarantee profitability in the private sector, benefits that were so rich in the past have dwindled down to almost bare minimum. High deductibles, high out of pocket expenses, high and unfair charges by providers and hospitals, outrageous limitations on services and equipment, and decisions made by committees of non-medical personnel, makes medical insurance almost impossible to obtain for low income or fixed income citizens. The insurance industry, with their high pocket investors only want to see profits on their investments. These people do not care about Americans who cannot maintain a healthy life; they don’t care about infant mortality in minorities; they don’t care about onset of cancer and other life stealing, catastrophic conditions that menace the public; they don’t care about people with emotional and psychological challenges; they only care about their bottom line and how much profit they can generate.
The nay sayers continue to attack health care reform with lies about death committees, which, by the way, already exist within the insurance companies! They attack personal choice by saying you won’t be able to keep what you already have in terms of coverage and providers under the health care reform suggestions. They say that a public option will create more uninsured citizens because private sector small businesses won’t be able to afford the coverage anymore. These arguments, in a capitalist supply and demand society are spurious at best. However, these comments spur the debate and the vigorous opposition to health care reform. They are posed by somewhat ignorant supporters who believe that their rights are being stepped on. Nothing could be farther from the truth! Ms. Schakowsky, it’s time to end the bickering and take into account the lives of those citizens who are uninsured, in limbo between unemployment and Medicare, young people who are struck down by debilitating illnesses requiring catastrophic and radical treatment, such as cancer and other ailments, older citizens who are not of Medicare age, uninsured because the cost is prohibitive to them or their employer. As children, we learned the Pledge of Allegiance to our flag where, during the Eisenhower administration, the words “Under God” were added. While this injects “religion”into the pledge, it also injects the common thread and question “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The answer, down through the eons, is a resounding “YES!” The far right recognizes this fundamental tenant from the bible. The far left recognizes this as our responsibility. So, where is the argument? Why are we fighting this fundamental of all battles? Other countries have done it, why can’t we?
The solution is quite simple. A single payer system with no restrictions on care. Yes, it goes against every idea that this society holds as supposedly near and dear to our hearts. Since 1965, we have paid taxes into a system called Medicare, in order to preserve the health of our senior citizens. At the outset, those who automatically qualified reaped a huge benefit in terms of health care costs. However, with time, people figured out a way to defraud the system in such a great way that it is now in peril. Yet, the ground work for a single payer system was laid by President Johnson and that Congress. It has, despite the fraud and mismanagement, shown that it can work to the benefit of our citizens.
The time has come to look at a single payer system the same way as the insurance companies look at their profit generating juggernaut. Considering the ENTIRE population of the United States as a “medical group”, approximately 350,000,000 lives, the size of a premium for medical insurance for a family of 4 could be drastically reduced to a manageable level and paid either by continuing payroll deductions or personally by the month, quarter or yearly. Fee schedules for providers and hospital facilities, including special tests and services should be the same across the country, whether services are provided in the smallest facility in Illinois or the largest hospital complex and research facility in the country. There are some major problems that would have to be worked out, such as cost for highly technical equipment already in the system and keeping costs of new equipment down to a reasonable level, possibly decreasing profits to manufacturers, but made up in volume because of the wider availability of that equipment. There would be no more “boards” deciding medical necessity for reconstructive surgery in relation to cancers; they would be replaced by common sense! Procedures, such as body enhancements for purely cosmetic reasons and other elective procedures would still be on the not covered list, however, subject to review by a medical panel to determine whether it IS elective or necessary for the patient’s well being, both physical and emotional. Illnesses and conditions due to emotional and mental problems would be treated as any other condition, subject to the same benefit level as any other medical condition; mental and emotional conditions SHOULD be covered and treated like any other! Physicians would be held to their Hippocratic oath “not to do harm to their patients”. Malpractice could be entirely eliminated and malpractice insurance could be a thing of the past; that would also eliminate the need for costly legislation to achieve torte reform. There are many benefits here that would serve the country, its economy and its general nature, well.
Ms. Schakowsky, this may seem like the rantings of some obsessed documentarian, but conditions in other countries have shown that this is, indeed, the most beneficial path to follow. Yes, there are problems with their systems too, but those seem to stem from a lack of qualified providers, not how the system works. Their providers seem to exist quite well with one car rather than 4, a smaller home rather than the “manor estate”, a lifestyle that is healthy and happy. It would do the Congress well to experience being uninsured and tackling a medical problem such as the one that Senator Edward Kennedy, a major supporter of health care reform, is dealing with. Can a comparison be done, comparing Senator Kennedy’s congressional coverage, versus the coverage of a high ranking insurance executive, versus a business owner’s coverage, versus his employee’s coverage, versus Medicaid, versus total out of pocket expenses for an uninsured patient for the same condition? What radical treatments are being used? How far would the physicians go in each individual’s case? What would happen in another country, say in Australia or England or CUBA?
The time has come for action. Please see what you can do to garner support for a single payer plan. Its time has arrived and the continued life of this country depends on it and your activities for it!
Sincerely yours,
Norman K. Siegel
Constituent of the 9th Congressional District of the State of Illinois
I challenge each and every one who reads this, to take a stand. The time has come to join the other countries of the world in taking care of one another. This would have been one of the the dreams that Senator Kennedy spoke to all of us about. Let’s remember him by pressuring our Representatives to do something positive for the citizens of this nation and end this fruitless debate with a common sense solution!
August 29th, 2009 at 8:12 amTo see how corporate board’s hide from transparency and accountability:
http://peureport.blogspot.com/2009/08/corporate-boards-are-web-for-government.html
While Union Pacific is in the transportation business, it’s instructive of health care.
August 29th, 2009 at 1:07 pmThese people must think their customers are incredibly stupid. I just got my rate increase notice for next year. Imagine the company is sending out notices on how much the gouging is going up while trying to make us believe that stopping their abusive practices will be bad for customers. I haven’t opened the letter yet because I don’t want to see. After the last 2 years my rates have doubled so another increase notice is liable to make me ill for several days, and since I have Blue Cross I can’t afford illness. Can’t really afford being well either with the rates jacked up so much each year. These insurance companies are predators, plain and simple. Inhumanity instead of medicine. All so our friends on Wall St (who’ve already done so much for the country lately) can make a profit at the expense our health. Our system is wrong. Very very wrong.
August 29th, 2009 at 6:24 pmAsk Native Americans in Montana about their lousy public option health care.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203706604574376981533298534.html
August 29th, 2009 at 10:03 pm<em.kwsventures says:
Ask Native Americans in Montana about their lousy public option health care.
So you’re saying that public health care should be better than that? Well OK, I agree.
August 30th, 2009 at 7:21 amThese health insurance companies that claim to back reform regulations are not to be trusted anymore then they are to be trusted about their regular business ethics (an oxymoron).
August 30th, 2009 at 9:05 pmI was a 28+ year employee at Wellpoint, formerly Anthem, here in Kentucky. Wellpoint merged with us in Dec 2008. Shortly after merger, I noticed many older, long term employees were being fired for “lack of performance”. I wrote a letter to the CEO to ask why all of a sudden good employees were not “performing”. Sure enough, within 6 weeks I was fired by an out of state manager. Is Wellpoint rotten ? Only from the inside out.
August 31st, 2009 at 4:24 pm