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The Hypocrisy of the Insurance Industry - More from Blue Cross Blue Shield’s Attack Ads |
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As was revealed yesterday, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina is planning attacks on President Obama’s health care plan, just a week after their national leaders stood next to Obama and promised to work for reform.
They are attacking Obama’s plan, particularly the public health insurance option, as rationed care, the predictable right-wing line. But, as Media Matters Action Network has thouroughly documented, they’re hypocrites.
In their planned ads, Blue Cross says the public health insurance option would deny care to those with pre-existing conditions. Blue Cross in North Carolina was found guilty of doing exactly that, and forced to pay $1 million in damages.
They then attack the public health insurance option by saying it will lower payments to doctors. But they themselves lowered payments to doctors, losing a $128 million lawsuit for fraudulently underpaying their providers.
They claim the public health insurance option will drive up premiums, but their premiums have gone up 119% in the last ten years.
Blue Cross claims the public health insurance option would do all the awful things it is doing right now!
And that’s the key here. Rationed care? We’ve got it now, with insurance industry bureaucrats getting in between you and your doctor. Expensive premiums? We’ve got it now; the number one cause of bankruptcy in America is medical expenses. Everything the insurance industry can throw at a public health insurance option is happening right now.
The public health insurance option, first and foremost, provides choice. Nobody will ever force you into the public health insurance option, guaranteed. And so, the insurance industry’s attacks ring false:
But ironically, by attacking the new public option the industry is showing it’s hand. They oppose the public plan not because it will do what they claim — force patients to “wait moths for appointments” and not allow them to “choose their own doctors.” If that were the case, who’d sign up for such a thing? If the public health care plan really rationed care, then most Americans would stay with their private insurers.
They fear a public option because it may actually provide comprehensive benefits at a lower price and attract new beneficiaries. They fear it, because it would force them to compete with it. And for most Americans that would be a good thing.
We need a choice so we don’t have to live with the rationed care and skyrocketing premiums we are forced to deal with now. And that means we need a public health insurance option, an alternative from the double-crossing insurance industry.
(also posted at the NOW! blog)
Where is it written that health insurers, or for that matter any corporation either for or not for profit have to support the president’s endeavors. If Blue Cross wants to finance advertisements that are critical of the president’s objectives it is certainly their right to do so. If they choose to engage in hypocritical behavior it reflects badly upon them but in this country no one if required to support anothers opinion;only their right to voice it.
I never said they don’t have a right to do this, only that they are greedy and hypocritical for doing so.
“They then attack the public health insurance option by saying it will lower payments to doctors. But they themselves lowered payments to doctors, losing a $128 million lawsuit for fraudulently underpaying their providers.”
But Medicare still reimburses doctors at lower rates than Blue Cross, so they they have a valid point.
Let me just inform all of you on something: I am a former Blue Cross Blue Shield Employee, I was employed for them from 2003-2009. One thing I learned the most while I was there is that we were to route and reroute claims to avoid paying them. Constantly mailing legitimate claims back to the providers and/or patients for basically bull-crap reasons. We were to keep doing that until the claim became a timely filing issue, then we could deny it for timely filing. So when people say Blue Cross is “underhanded,sneaky and hypocritical” they hit the nail right on the head so to speak. Not only does Blue Cross treat its members wrong, they do their employees as well. They fire employees for reporting HIPAA Violations, and believe me they have dug their holes very very deep on that issue.
It must be a mental disorder. Why would anyone think it’s a good idea to defend corporations? Corporations shouldn’t even have equal rights for crying out loud. They’re not people, so why would you want them to have 1st Amendment rights? It makes no sense. Call me what you want but I believe ALL corporations shouldn’t have the same rights you and I have.