Former Blue Cross Blue Shield ‘Spokesjerk’ Cuts Ad In Favor Of Health Reform
Former Blue Cross Blue Shield ‘Spokesjerk’ Cuts Ad In Favor Of Health Reform
The House is nearing a vote on health care legislation that is expected to be very close. At this critical juncture, a former Blue Cross Blue Shield spokesperson is doing what he can to help pass reform.
Actor and comedian Andy Cobb, who used to be the spokesman for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, has teamed up with Robert Greenwald’s Brave New Films project “Sick for Profit” to produce a new ad in favor of health care reform. In the ad, Cobb calls himself a former “spokesjerk” for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, and says that his job was to “sell you the worst product in American history: private health insurance.” Cobb calls attention to Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) for his significant contributions from the health care industry, and asks him to vote in favor of health care legislation with a public option. Watch it:
This morning, Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman interviewed Cobb. He told her, echoing remarks from Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), “This is the time when we have to say, ‘Which side are you on? The insurance companies or the American people?’ And for too long I’ve been on the wrong side of that.”
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“Which side are you on? The insurance companies or the American people?”
It’s clear that republiscum are on the side of the insurance companies, NOT America…
I wonder they are on the side of North Korea too…
November 6th, 2009 at 4:05 pmAlways nice to see insurance reps joining the side of justice.
And, campaign contributions aside, Nelson supported the public option in committee. A weak one, but a public option nonetheless.
If the Senate bill resembles what is about to be passed in the House (apparently, a weak public option available to all, so long as your state doesn’t opt out), Nelson will back it.
November 6th, 2009 at 4:09 pmHey, the guy grew a conscience. Good for him. Unfortunitly, the Repugs and some Dems KNOW these Insurance companies would let thousands die in the friggin street and will let it continue because they are either to afraid to lose their precious seat or love the money the lobbyists throw at them. That, to me, is immoral.
November 6th, 2009 at 4:11 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
Londra kulesi muhaf?z? says:
November 6th, 2009 at 4:24 pmWe’ve heard of you before…
This comment has been voted down. Click to read.
I would like to know what really changed his mind about health care reform.
Was it that he or someone he knew lost their insurance, or was it that he finally looked at the devastation that the insurance industry causes to people at their most vulnerable?
Or is he simply being an opportunist and sees a way of making money?
Either way, if it will help get true reform passed, I’ll give him some credit.
November 6th, 2009 at 4:29 pmLame, Mr. Dupe.
November 6th, 2009 at 4:29 pmevening mr. puke,
November 6th, 2009 at 4:30 pmso, inquiring minds want to know, do you have health care insurance or are you just one of dick armey’s three dollar whores?
if Senator Lieberman can change his mind to go from the right side of this issue to the wrong side, I figure a schmuck actor like me can change his mind and go from the wrong side to the right side.
Zing!
November 6th, 2009 at 4:30 pmMr@6, Dennis Kucinich and Karl Marx? WTF have you been drinking? Oh, I guess the Kool-Aid, Huh?
November 6th, 2009 at 4:30 pm“So he used to get paid to pimp for Blue Cross and now he gets paid to pimp for health care reform?”
prove it
November 6th, 2009 at 4:31 pmLondra kulesi muhaf?z? says
November 6th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
So he used to get paid to pimp for Blue Cross and now he gets paid to pimp for health care reform?
______________________________________________________________
Ah — you know his fee for working with Brave New Films?
Care to share?
November 6th, 2009 at 4:33 pmAMY GOODMAN: So, why should we believe you now, Andy?
ANDY COBB: Well, it’s a good question. I was well paid by Blue Cross, of course, to say what was scripted for me. To write what I wrote, which was that piece, and to do it for Brave New Films, I was—I was paid. I was paid the union minimum, which is minimum wage. And suffice it to say, it’s a significant pay cut.
November 6th, 2009 at 4:35 pmPrivate healthcare insurance can happily co-exist with state provided healthcare. I work for an insurance company in the UK who provides private health care.
As a nation we decided that it made sense to provide healthcare for all via general taxation. If you want to take out private health insurance, knock yourself out! No-one is stopping you. However, one of your obligations as a subject of the UK is to provide to a pot of money which ensures everyone gets the healthcare they need.
I still can’t work out what is wrong with this system? The company I work for makes profit, people are getting cured…what’s wrong?
November 6th, 2009 at 4:36 pmThank you, Mr. Cobb.
November 6th, 2009 at 4:36 pmBCBS has e-mailed me their wish list, as well as the “findings” of
Oliver Wyman’s Actuarial and Health and Life Sciences Practice
aka a management consulting firm, of what will make a better bill. They also thanked me for my efforts to influence policy makers on these critical decisions.
Funny, they didn’t thank me for my financial support of their rich and famous lifestyle.
November 6th, 2009 at 4:37 pmMaybe I’ll get a christmas card . . .
UKBristolDave01 says:
Private healthcare insurance can happily co-exist with state provided healthcare. I work for an insurance company in the UK who provides private health care.
Just out of curiosity, how do you lure anyone into buying private insurance when people have access to public coverage?
I know that in Canada, for example, you can be assured of a private room if you are hospitalized when you have private insurance.
November 6th, 2009 at 4:43 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
Thank you Andy. You should get together with Wendell Potter and make a commercial.
November 6th, 2009 at 4:45 pm.
Dear Landry,
You never answered me regarding Prescott.
Care to pick up what history put down?
Or do you prefer to put down those who make history defending you?
.
November 6th, 2009 at 4:46 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
Isn’t that just like a troll to pick out the piece of the quote that suits him and conveniently leave out the part that he was PAID MINIMUM WAGE?
How much do you get paid troll?
November 6th, 2009 at 4:47 pmWhy can’t the Dems just deliver already? The stalling is just inflaming the Repugs and ‘Tea-baggers’. Just get it friggin passed and the ‘Tea-Baggers’ will be defeated. If this goes on longer, the Astroturfers will keep busing these Neanderthals in. The Michelle Bachmans of the world will use this as an excuse for more air time. And of course MSM will elevate this bullsh*t just for the ratings. WTF?
November 6th, 2009 at 4:47 pmThere’s a reason the Right hate and impugn Hollywood and the arts as a matter of course, why right-wing ‘comedians’ ( Dennis Miller and ummm….?) are such failures, why Ben Stein’s well-financed creationist/climate-change-denial movie flopped, why the Path to 9-11 flopped, why the “Big Hollywood” site is ignored even by the Right, why the ‘1/2-Hour News Hour‘ lasted one minuteon the entertainment clock.
They aren’t funny because they aren’t insightful because they aren’t good-hmoured because they aren’t self-deprecating becasue they have no heart because they have no empathy within them. Because they lack truth.
The actors we see in commercials are just actors taking whatever gig they can, whatever gig they have to take to “put money on their children” and to “make their pie higher”.
But once they get the opportunity to lift themselves out of the muck of necessity, the majority show themselves as what they are, flawed, self examining, inquisitive, hopeful humanists.
Most of the actors you see in the ads don’t actually endorse what they are selling, they are just doing a temporary job.
To make a living as an actor you have to master cognitive dissonance but the difference between left wing and right wing actors is that the left wing actors distinguish between necessary professional cognitive dissonance and their personal cognition.
Liberal actors will take on any role, even “the bad guy”. Conservative actors? Almost always the hero and usually violent.
Acting for the entertainment and illumination of others is not a natural profession for conservatives. acting for a self serving agenda seems to be much more their style–hence Beck’s and Boehners’ tears and outrage and the scenery chewing dramatics of current political discourse or at the over-wrought paeans to patriotism they so often employ as argument.
Actors ‘prostitute’ themselves all the time, but when they get the chance to speak their own lines, to direct themselves, the results are overwhelming;y liberal because that’s the nature of the business and the art.
November 6th, 2009 at 4:48 pm@22, Wall Street Journal? No thanks. Everyone knows WSJ is a Repug rag.
November 6th, 2009 at 4:48 pmawwww innit cute! a repuke@#19 who’s offended that someone got paid for their services.
November 6th, 2009 at 4:49 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
.
Dear Mr Puke,
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/06/rally-heart-attack/
STFU!!!
.
November 6th, 2009 at 4:51 pmmr. puke,
a) apparently you’re not going to answer my question to you
and
b) what makes you think i give a rat’s ass about an opinion piece in one of ruppie murdoch’s rags?
seriously, a simple yes or no will suffice. do you think opinion pieces are news pieces, mr. puke?
November 6th, 2009 at 4:51 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
Mr.Duke says
November 6th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
_____________________________________________________________
Do you have anything from a CREDIBLE source? Like a hard news medium?
Or do you only have a wingnut opinion column from the WSJ?
November 6th, 2009 at 4:55 pmBozo@30, All Repug trolls take opinion as news, as long as it reflects their opinion. That’s why Faux news is so popular. Even Murdoch stated MOST of the Faux News WAS opinion. Why bother with FACTS when Faux News and WSJ will TELL you what want to hear.
November 6th, 2009 at 4:55 pm“Who’s offended? I hope he makes as much money as he can. It’s the American way!”
apparently, you, assclown. it’s the second time you’ve whined about it like a 12 year old girl with her first period.
November 6th, 2009 at 4:55 pmThat was awesome!
Heck, I’m a radically liberal person who has done some work for Wal-Mart. My “moral stand” of turning them down would have done nothing to change them. But, I made a decent amount of money and donated a sizable portion to Oxfam – thereby, funneling at least a little sliver of Wal-Mart profits to a valuable cause.
You can’t rock the boat unless you’re on it.
November 6th, 2009 at 4:56 pm.
Dear Landry,
So it’s the American way to make money…
… Fair enough.
But just a few posts before that you lambaste him for getting paid.
I guess YOU’RE the unamerican blowhard, then?
Or are you a two faced hypocrite that pines for any opportunity to make waves like the Loyal Troll you are?
Now,
Care to discuss Prescott and FDR?
.
November 6th, 2009 at 4:57 pm#6–Dukpoop–Karl Marx is dead, and unless he can rise from the dead, he is incapable of approving anything.
November 6th, 2009 at 4:58 pmBozo The Neoclown says: evening mr. puke,
so, inquiring minds want to know, do you have health care insurance or are you just one of dick armey’s three dollar whores?
Get your facts straight, Bozo!
60-seat bus @ $750 per day minimum per bus = $12.50 per passenger.
The ‘Dick Army’ is therefore comprised of twelve-and-a-half- dollar whores, NOT $3 whores as your librul ’science claims!
:D
November 6th, 2009 at 4:59 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
5th Estate says:
Bozo The Neoclown says:
Well…
… Cost of living adjustments and all.
They gotta make a living. A whores gotta eat. Eh Landry?
November 6th, 2009 at 5:03 pmmary lacewing says:
Private means that you get treatment tomorrow instead of two weeks time. The NHS has it’s downsides, I won’t deny that, with one being you may have to wait for treatment. It’s got better though.
I think the key thing about the NHS is that any political party that’s serious about power has to respect it. Not even our right wing party wants to privatise as it would be political suicide. It’s the one thing our Government does that everyone loves.
November 6th, 2009 at 5:06 pmmr. puke,
November 6th, 2009 at 5:06 pmyou never fail to disappoint. ask your granny if medicare has “ruined her life” then get back to us since all a public option would be…medicare for all.
“The ‘Dick Army’ is therefore comprised of twelve-and-a-half- dollar whores, NOT $3 whores as your librul ’science claims!”
you forgot to factor in the free donut each of the lardasses were given after their free bus ride.
November 6th, 2009 at 5:08 pmPoor Mr. Duped got all worked up and has to go take some medicine.
November 6th, 2009 at 5:10 pmmary lacewing says:
Actually Mary, it can be summed up as such;
‘Our system isn’t perfect but it’s the best we have. If you want to go private then feel free but you still have a responsibility to help out your fellow citizen.’
My God, that’s socialism isn’t it!?!?!
November 6th, 2009 at 5:13 pmUKBristolDave01 says:
Private means that you get treatment tomorrow instead of two weeks time.
Thank you for responding. Up for another question?
Why do those on ‘private’ get treated quicker? Do the private insurance companies reimburse doctors at a higher pay rate than the government does?
November 6th, 2009 at 5:17 pmMr.Duke says: “When this idiot health care bill goes into law, kindly do not cry the blues on this website when the cluster f— law ruins your life.”
Remember how your Republican BFF’s declared that tax cuts for the wealthy would make all Americans rich?
Remember how the democrats and liberals said it wouldn’t?
Remember how your Republican BFF’s said the Iraq war would be self-financed?
Remember how the democrats and liberals said it wouldn’t?
Remember how your Republican BFF’s said that torture would yield results?
Remember how the democrats and liberals said it wouldn’t?
Remember how your Republican BFF’s said that Democracy would flourish in the Middle East after elections in Afghanistan and Iraq?
Remember how the democrats and liberals said it wouldn’t?
Remember how your Republican BFF’s said that they were the party of fiscal responsibility?
Remember how the democrats and liberals said their policies would lead to a bigger deficit?
Remember how your Republican BFF’s said that their policies would generate more jobs?
Remember how the democrats and liberals said that Republican policies wouldn’t?
Remember how your Republican BFF’s said that they were for less government interference in private lives and then tapped everyone’s phonmes and e-mails?
Remember when George Bush said that anyone who leaked a CIA undercover operative’s identy was a tratior, and then defended those who leaked Plame’s CIA status?
F-off, Mr Duke, you effing pyscho.
November 6th, 2009 at 5:21 pmUKBristolDave01 says:
‘If you want to go private then feel free but you still have a responsibility to help out your fellow citizen.’
My God, that’s socialism isn’t it!?!?!
You mean it’s not every man for himself?! haha
How civilized!
November 6th, 2009 at 5:26 pmThe success of the “idiot health care bill” takes place, Mr. Duke will disappear.
November 6th, 2009 at 5:47 pmUKBristolDave01 says:
Hello UKBristolDave01, and welcome
You write : ‘Our system isn’t perfect but it’s the best we have. If you want to go private then feel free but you still have a responsibility to help out your fellow citizen.’
I assume you must be in the process of dying from government rationing of Germ-o-lene and Owbridges cough syrup but you can’t say anything too derogatory what with all the speed-cameras watching your every move and you are just being stiff-upper-lipped and stoic in the very British way.
As a Brit myself who for years was forced to accept the oppressive shackles of publicly funded universal health care, until I came to America and gained the freedom to make my own choice between a $12 bottle of Nyquil or spending two weeks wages on antibiotics to address my TB, I can appreciate your jealousy with regard to the US system which you aren’t allowed to publicly praise on account of the CCTV and the Queen and such. :D
Having been in the US lo these many years, I can only imagine the NHS has gotten worse, what with your communist death panels and all. Frnsakly I;m amazed you are still alive.
It must be that British pluck/Dunkirk spirit that keeps you going. O;ve a good mind to send you some real eggs and nylon stockings in the mail,what with all the rationing and all. I’ll just send it to Bristol, I’m sure everyone will know it’s for you. It’s near Liverpool, right? :D
November 6th, 2009 at 5:52 pmMr.Duke says
November 6th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
___________________________________________________________
Hmmm…I guess he couldn’t respond to my request for some factual unbiased information, so he had to resort to empty threats and random fearmongering.
And another loser troll bites the dust.
November 6th, 2009 at 5:58 pmmary lacewing says [to UKBristolDave]: Why do those on ‘private’ get treated quicker?
Simple. because the queue isn’t as long, because there are less people who can afford or a willing to pay. a premium for faster service, which is a function of a shorter queue anyway.
November 6th, 2009 at 5:59 pmmissmolly says: Hmmm…I guess he couldn’t respond to my request for some factual unbiased information, so he had to resort to empty threats and random fearmongering.
YOu won the battle, missmolly ( as usual) but rest-assured Mr. Duke will be back with a new strategy of….. “stay the course”.
It’s ‘worked’ for him so far!
You might now be his ‘Bin Laden’; an overwhelming threat to everything he believes-in who can and must be destroyed at all costs, until having been utterly outmaneuvered, he gets bored and tells himself you aren’t worth his attention any more. :D
November 6th, 2009 at 6:09 pm47 – Fifth Estate – Well done! Oh, WELL DONE!!!!
November 6th, 2009 at 6:17 pm#
#
mary lacewing says:
If you go private then you will get quicker service because you’re paying a premium for that service. End of the day money will out. I’ve got private healthcare paid for via a combination of contributions from my paycheck and some cunning tax dodge by my company.
Of course, the only time I’ve needed private healthcare is the time I didn’t have it. Not to worry, I was beaten to within an inch of my life and was essentially scraped off the pavement. I had an ambulance, emergency care in A&E and and a week and a half to recover. How much did it cost me? Nothing at the point of service. I spread the cost by paying a little every month out of my salary.
So my private healthcare would have, essentially, given me more TV channels to watch. Nice
November 6th, 2009 at 6:30 pm@ 5th Estate
GREAT comments on this thread.
*applauds*
November 6th, 2009 at 7:27 pmLeftside Annie says:
Thanks Annie. I really like you too! ( I just don’t say so as often as perhaps I should). :D
November 6th, 2009 at 7:33 pmweb_geek says:
Hey there! It’s been too long man! Good to ’see’ you again. I hope all is well with you.
November 6th, 2009 at 7:35 pmLondra kulesi muhaf?z? says:
Who’s offended? I hope he makes as much money as he can. It’s the American way!
I hope your karma gives you all you deserve! ‘Nuff said you fascist d**chebag! ;)
November 7th, 2009 at 2:45 am