Obama admin. demands justification for health insurer’s 39 percent rate hike

By Stephen C. Webster
Monday, February 8th, 2010 -- 8:09 pm
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Insurer spent nearly $9.5 million lobbying against health reforms; CEO's annual salary tops $10 million

healthcaremoney Obama admin. demands justification for health insurers 39 percent rate hikeIt's an issue that strikes at the core of America's health reform debate: How much should one have to pay to ensure their health care needs are met?

Now take that price and inflate it by up to 39 percent -- just to get a feel for what it is like to be one of roughly 800,000 Anthem Blue Cross customers in California who hold individual policies.

The company said its dramatic rate hike would take effect on March 1.

State regulators almost immediately promised to investigate the increase. Then, on Monday, the Obama administration got involved.

Story continues below...

In a letter faxed to Anthem Blue Cross, US Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius called for the insurer to publicly explain why it raised premiums.

"With so many families already affected by rising costs, I was very disturbed to learn through media accounts that Anthem Blue Cross plans to raise premiums for its California customers by as much as 39 percent," or 15 times faster than inflation, Sebelius wrote.

The rate hikes were "even more difficult to understand" in the light of soaring profits at Anthem Blue Cross's parent company, WellPoint Incorporated, Sebelius said.

WellPoint earned 2.7 billion dollars in the last quarter of 2009, she said, calling on the insurance company to "provide a detailed justification" for the increase.

Additionally, WellPoint CEO Angela Braly earns an annual salary of nearly $10 million and held nearly $2 million in stock options at the end of 2008. Additionally, WellPoint spent nearly $9.5 million on lobbying against health reforms in 2009, labor advocate group AFL-CIO noted in a recent release.

"As we continue the health insurance reform debate in Washington, this announcement reminds us that too many Americans can be left with unaffordable insurance each time the rates or rules change in the private market," Sebelius said.

Last month, plans to reform the US health care system hit a wall when the election of a Republican to the Senate Massachusetts seat long held by Ted Kennedy robbed the Democrats of their 60-vote supermajority in the Senate.

President Obama vowed during his campaign for the White House to reform health care and make coverage accessible to the 47 million Americans who currently do not have any, and to make coverage less of a financial drain on US workers.

"We understand and strongly share our members' concerns over the rising cost of healthcare services and the corresponding adverse impact on insurance premiums," the company said in a statement noted by The Los Angeles Times.

"Unfortunately, the individual market premiums are merely the symptoms of a larger underlying problem in California's individual market -- rising healthcare costs."

In a Monday response to Sebilius's letter, the insurer seemed to echo the oft-repeated Republican talking point that Obama's proposed health reforms must be scrapped and begun anew.

"We regret the impact this has on our members," the company said, according to The Washington Post. "It highlights why we need sustainable health care reform to manage the steadily rising costs of hospitals, drugs and doctors. As such, it is important to go back to the beginning and get health care reform done right."

President Obama has said he does not want to start from scratch on his package of health reforms and plans to hold a televised health summit with Republicans on Feb. 25.

A recent Harvard study published by the American Journal of Public Health found that over 45,000 Americans die every year for lack of health insurance -- more than the number of Americans killed by kidney disease.

Sebelius's full letter follows.

####

February 8, 2010

Leslie Margolin
President, Anthem Blue Cross
Delivered Via Fax

Dear Ms. Margolin,

One of the biggest pressures facing families, businesses and governments at every level are skyrocketing health insurance costs. With so many families already affected by rising costs, I was very disturbed to learn through media accounts that Anthem Blue Cross plans to raise premiums for its California customers by as much as 39 percent. These extraordinary increases are up to 15 times faster than inflation and threaten to make health care unaffordable for hundreds of thousands of Californians, many of whom are already struggling to make ends meet in a difficult economy.

Your company's strong financial position makes these rate increases even more difficult to understand. As you know, your parent company, WellPoint Incorporated, has seen its profits soar, earning $2.7 billion in the last quarter of 2009 alone.

I believe Anthem Blue Cross has a responsibility to provide a detailed justification for these rate increases to the public. Additionally, you should make public information on the percent of your individual market premiums that is used for medical care versus the percent that is used for administrative costs. Policy holders in the individual market deserve to know if their premium increases would be invested in better medical care or insurance company overhead costs like salaries, profits, and advertising. I am aware that the State of California is investigating this matter, and urge Anthem Blue Cross to cooperate fully. In the meantime, I will be closely monitoring the situation.

At a time when health care costs are a critical threat to families as well as the nation's economy, I hope you appreciate the urgent nature of this request. I look forward to your prompt reply.

Sincerely,

Kathleen Sebelius
Secretary of Health and Human Services

With AFP

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Story comments are below...

  • Feinstein, I think it was, complained about the Anthem rate hike. Something like 25 states have regulatory authorities to handle such matters, California doesn't, so she says it has to be a federal agency.

    I think of that as a non sequitur.

    The second thing is to observe that NY State issued requirements years ago mandating that certain things be included and you couldn't turn down (I think it was) applicants for some preexisting conditions. Both require greater outlays for patient care, which requires greater income. Which had the "unintended" consequence of higher rates. So they recently complained about having some of the highest insurance quotes in the country, even after accounting for regional cost differences.

    Now, price controls 'lite' have the same problems as other price controls. As costs go up either you make the product for less or you stop selling it. Both are "bad", because in the one case fewer conditions are covered and in the second more people aren't covered.

    Oddly, you'd think that Anthem's situation would be used for HCR-related PR instead of Dem politicking, because Anthem, in a nutshell, is what the "mandate" is about. You need to think of having healthy, low-risk people paying what amounts to a tax in order to subsidize those who are less healthy and high risk. You can quibble about the role of profit, but the underlying business model is the same.
  • I think you need to rexamine your mothers bill. A mistake you could be making is that you have individual coverage, paying for it yourself, while your mother has employer provided coverage and she only pays part of the premium. Also you need to look at apples to apples vis a vis copays, deductibles, coinsurance, out of pocket maximums and more.
  • exposer
    When “Sitting Directors” are on multiple Boards that determine profit displacement with only in house oversight, it becomes evident that profitable collusion throughout the Financial and medical communities is a “Risk Reward” venture especially when Federal Government has intervened to assure immunity in lieu of Mass Control of the People.
    Legislation and discriminatory enforcement of Anti-trust, Ethics, Breach of Trust, Due Process and Accountability have all but become passé when dealing with the out of control Financial and Medical Industrial Complexes.
    Resolution is not only with change in the environments but with Federal Government’s due diligence to enforce laws and penalize perpetrators with restitution to the violated and forced replacement of ethical business structures to assure integrity of compliance with all facets of activities. Citizens with vested interests’ involvement are a logical deterrent to oversee and question inconsistencies and unlawful acts ill effecting patrons.
    A dysfunctional and stagnant Government has allowed our catastrophic situation to occur or maybe even nudged it along. You decide what adverse influence unionization has contributed through their involvement in Medical, Education, Industry, Government, etc.
  • Concerned
    Well Point Blue Cross in Georgia is no better. a close relative in his 40's now pays $1,600 A MONTH--yes, that is right--a month for an individual policy for himself alone. Would be hard to change due to his unemployment and also pre-existing conditions. Family has to help out. This is up from $1,300 PER MONTH last year. No individual should pay this. What they do is get you to sign up and then every year they increase a large amount. And every five years they increase because you are in a new age group and increase at the same time because of "inflation." Even if you get a cheaper policy with them, they will just do these same increases and within a few years you will be back with $1,000 monthly premiums. There needs to be a national inquiry into Wellpoint as well as a comparative with states that have Blue Cross but not Wellpoint Blue Cross. Individuals have no corporation behind them to speak up for them. How has Georgia allowed this to happen?
  • nikolai
    Insurance companies also routinely DELAY payments for claims. For instance, take a $200.00 insurance payment times one million delayed payments. Figure the interest for the amount of time these one millon claims were delayed. This goes on week after week, month after month, year after year. There are plenty of ways the insurance companies fleece Americans with which they continually get away with, and then charge us for the privilege of doing business.
  • nikolai
    I just watched SAW VI. Fiction? Only the gore; the rest about the insurance leeches/gougers/ is the absolute TRUTH.
  • The Realist
    The issue with Blue Cross/Blue Shield is one of a multitude of problems going on today which diverts our attention from the overall tightening of the noose around everyone's neck. The bottom line is "survival of the fittest" and that leads to the ultimate goal of population control as stated by Kissinger in 1974 (NSSM 200): http://www.mathaba.net/0_index.shtml?x=90207 (synopsis). As the woodcutter cuts down the diseased and sickly trees to allow the strong to grow, so does the world's elite cull the sickest and weakest members of society (social Darwinism).
  • Profits aren't meant to reward customers. The author of this piece, Ms. Sebelius, and most commentators here, simply don't understand how and why business works. Or if they do, they value scoring inane political points over capitalism. Oh... they value money, but not how it is actually made.

    That Anthem made money should be celebrated. If their 800,000 customers don't like the new rates, they can shop elsewhere. If they can't, then that is more a problem to be laid on stupid governmental laws restricting insurance to state lines, and California regulations so onerous it drives out most insurance companies.

    I like my insurance company, but I've switched them 3 times in 5 years seeking better rates. I live in a state where I have options. "Progressive" California progressed right out of having a viable competitive insurance market.
  • jenna.hastings
    I've got relatives in Chicago who used to have Blue Cross. The true stories they tell about Double Cross's refusals to pay for hospital care are outrageous. One example: my uncle got sick suddenly at home, it looked like a stroke. He was rushed to the hospital and kept in the ER for 19 hours for observation because they didn't have any rooms available where the staff could watch him. Turned out he had a minor stroke. Blue Cross then refused to pay for those 19 hours, claiming my uncle hadn't been "admitted" to the hospital - he was just in the ER for observation. My uncle almost had another stroke. It took over a year and a lawyer fighting with Double Cross before they paid the bill.
  • ronald reagan = the gift you keep paying for ...

    and these heard on noman goldman.com:

    the usa = a corporation masquerading as a country
    can't we swap rahm for dean? ... we want howard dean back in charge!
  • beltman713
    Nooooo! We don't need no stinking health care reform.
  • I'd like to know by what percentage health care costs rose - hospital visits, prescription medicine, doctors fees. If it's 39% then Anthem Blue Cross has a justified reason for the hike. I find that extremely doubtful. Let's make them provide those numbers and completely debunk their argument.
  • heaven5951
    I'm sure many of you don't remember when Southwestern Bell Telephone owned a monopoly on the phone service. We had no choice, no competition, they had horrible customer service and they charged what they wanted. However, no one was forced to own a phone. With a single payer system, it'll be similar to this, only we will be REQUIRED to pay for it. No choice in the matter. We need more competition, not less. People should be able to purchase insurance from anywhere in the country, not only in their state. I read somewhere (can't remember where) that a young man from New Jersey could buy health insurance from North Carolina (I think) for about one fifth the cost that he could buy it in New Jersey, but it wasn't allowed. Why not? Competition is good for bringing prices down.
    I was talking to a physician friend of mine, he's a neurosurgeon, and he had previously worked in Tennessee, where malpractice insurance was $40,000/yr. When he moved here (Arkansas) his premiums dropped to $20,000/yr. Why? We have malpractice caps here. There are other things to do to save money that they should try before they saddle us with a terrible plan like this.
    I heard a man from Canada on the radio the other day, who told that their governor (they call him something else) went to the USA for heart surgery because they just couldn't get him in there. And that if the governor of their province couldn't get needed surgery, imagine how the regular folks are treated. Government run healthcare is not all it's cracked up to be. In England, where dialysis was invented, they have the lowest rate of dialysis patients in Europe, they just have to turn people away. That's the difference in life and death. A death sentence. Period.
  • LumberJock
    That was a lie. The caller lied to you and to the entire audience. In rite-weng radio there is no fact checking. Asking if the listening audience agrees with a caller with a contrarian view is not fact checking.
    An outright lie told by a liar. This has been going around for 2-1/2 years now; it is still a lie.
    PERIOD!
    .
  • NadePaulKuciGravMcKi
    Pay those big corp profits or die quickly & quietly
  • single payer initiative
    The Californians need to put a single payer health care initiative on the November ballot if Schwarzenegger vetoes the one the legislature has passed. That would stop all the insurance companies in California in their tracks.
  • icenine
    I can only hope that every Republican in this country has their health insurance increase by 40% next month for starters. And then laugh as they go under trying to pay or watch their employers cut their pay or their benefits to make up for the huge increases in payroll or better yet, lay them off or fire them. Let the price gouging begin. The insurers have to make up for those millions they spent on false advertising and buying Congress. And the Republican base needs to learn about consequences of voting against their own self-interests. But of course, they'll never make the connection.
  • donofcali
    This is a perfect justification for single-payer, not-for-profit, universal health care. What more reason is required?

    I still can't determine the ratio of corruption over incompetency. But one thing's for sure: Patriotism doesn't enter into the equation.
  • I really don't get why people are so quick to defend health insurance as-it-is with the free-market reasoning. Is it really American to be profiting off the denial of health coverage to the sick and needy? I sure don't think so.
  • Hologram5
    Yep, and the GOP doesn't want health reform. Well, how are those skyrocketing premiums working out for you? The status quo isn't in your favor anymore now is it?
  • nostrafarious
    This is the reason why we need a revolution. Disgusting.
  • Bullsmith
    The worst thing is that the insurance industry provides no actual benefit, all they do is skim off a bunch of health care money in profit and allocate a whole bunch more to making sure sick people don't get too much care, cause that's expensive.

    Going to a single-payer system would allow all the money that is currently spent on profit and administration to actually be spent on heath care instead. But who wants a healthy population and a competitive workforce when you can have a handful of billionaires to give tax cuts to? It's the American way.
  • exposer
    Government Intervention through legislation and lack of enforcement and diligent oversight has perpetuated Ethics Violations and Anti-Trust monopolization of certain entities to enable them to manipulate economic crises at will.
    It is time for States to initiate their authority to regulate Fair and Equitable sanctions on their business entities or impose the Imminent Domain Act to establish the necessary trade with out the unethical practices, even with Fiat money if resistance demands.
  • johnflagg
    I live in California. I had Blue Cross Health Insurance. I received my notice of this increase. I canceled my Heath Insurance. I am now among the un-insured so if something happens I will be a burden on the system. I sure am glad we don't have socialist style health care like the backwards nations in Europe.
  • thelonegunman
    its easy to justify the increase: the execs need more millions in their bank accounts...
  • DownriverDem
    Gee, will all the ignorant prancing tea baggers finally wake up now?
  • disappointedvoter
    No.
  • DownriverDem
    Until more selfish folks who have insurance get hit hard like this, the calls for change will not be heard.
    All you tea baggers, what the heck do you want? Do you have health insurance? Do your adult kids? How about your grandkids? When will the greed stop?
    Wake up folks. Hit the naysayers hard so they can finally wake up.

    Socialized medicine??? Oh please. All you are going to do is die anyway. Do you not realize that you are being played for fools by the Repubs and insurance companies. If it weren't so sad, I'd laugh my ass off.
  • Joe
    this is natural behavior for a shark or a snake the focus should be on the incompetence and or complicity the Obama administration had in letting the public option die. this administration is neocon in its foreign policy and wall street/big business in economic. so much for the whining about the ralph naders and other 3rd parties siphoning votes from democrats, too bad all of the votes werent siphoned off
  • George
    It s time to close the bastards down. Its time for single payer. NOW!
  • The Fun Ghoul
    Good... I hope every person against Health Care reform gets this rate hike!
  • shag11
    This is shameful. This is so in-your-face until it should be illegal.
  • fiftysomething
    Insurance companies are an unnecessary added cost to medical care. They are only parasites that have nothing to do with curing or healing. They take money out of the pocket of already financially strapped citizens and divide it w/greedy politicians. I mean a lot of money. We can save a lot of health care costs if we can somehow get these opportunists out of the picture.
  • There's nothing in Obama's healthcare bill that would stop such hikes. I can only conclude that the WH outrage is totally phony. If they were really concerned about this, they would have pressed Congress for a bill that is much harder on the insurers. But they didn't. Hypocrites!
  • yaright
    more scum, more often
  • joedee1960
    I'm just tired of getting false numbers put out by the government. A Little truth in the numbers would be a nice start:

    http://americaspeaksink.com/2010/02/unemploymen...
  • lorn
    Interesting take on this. The goal of controlling and manipulating statistics is one shared by corrupt governments. Right now there is a major change (but not the kind we 'hoped' for) taking place in how our government counts beans.

    http://www.dcdave.com/article5/100206.htm
  • CaptainHowdy
    Nothing will change until every Politician and Fortune 500 CEO is hanging from light poles across the country... NOTHING!
  • Hanging people? That's a very onesided solution! And NOT the only one to enforce change.

    See, it may be good idea to check how the people of other nations coped with such problems. Take the French, for instance. They didn't hang the rich and powerful! They sent them to the guillotine instead...
  • This is the status quo of health care in America that the Republicans are fighting so hard to keep in place. It's disgusting to me that Americans aren't joining together to fight for health care reform. So many of our neighbors have been manipulated into fighting against their own self interest. It's really really sad.
  • carol h.
    In the 29 industrial nations that have it, for profit health insurance is against the law. We will never get rid of these jackals. Our representatives are owned by every special interest group there is. And this industry especially. Follow the money.

    If anyone is interested in just who shows up for GOP and Democratic weekend retreats, check out PBS and Bill Moyers column. It is sickening. Both parties feed at the trough of corporate America. Check PBS.org and read about it. We are all getting screwed without any of the fun.
  • Elim
    I have Anthem, but it's a group policy. I think we have a contract, so they can't raise our rates. At least, I hope this is the case.
  • Dunno, there are lots of reports about companies switching to less generous plans because of the rising costs of those group policies. And insurers guaranteeing prices, despite the high inflation of healthcare costs every year, doesn't make much sense. I guess the contracts are term limited, and at the end of the contractual term there are new negotiations. So, don't be surprised if the conditions of your healthcare change any you're confronted with a new plan with higher copayments, too!

    The problem is that both private and corporate plans come from the same failed system. And the only difference is that the companies have a bit more negotiation power (and often more knowledge about the details) than a single customer, that's all. Any real reform designed to reduce the inflation of costs has to be systemic change, not a mere bailout for the insurers, like the Senate bill.
  • turnip
    ""they can't raise our rates""

    yet.
  • Dolphyn
    I agree, "it is important to go back to the beginning and get health care reform done right."

    That means SINGLE PAYER !!!
  • I still can't believe that some of the CEO's salaries are over 10 million a year. That is just crazy to think about. Looks like a great blog. I can see that everyone has participated. I currently work for both San Diego Auto Insurance and also as a San Diego Electricians which helps me to be able to help people everyday.
  • bufbil7
    print the names and addresses of all upper executives in this and the other healthcare companies so that we may know where to find them on our way to the guillotine party!
  • unitedcorporationsofamerica
    "Obama admin. demands justification for health insurer’s 39 percent rate hike" This will be hard to do since this is just one of the many big money interests you sold your soul to. Obama is simply a spineless, black Bush retread that has continued to serve everyone but the people who elected him.
  • John C. User
    So these jerks are hiking rates for no reason while bemoaning rising costs? Talk about pissing on your leg and telling you it's raining. And that press release language is in line with a frame to put pressure on voters to do _anything_ about health care legislation. So these vampires want to scare voters into acquiescence by hiking costs. Are we so badly beaten down by B.S. artist bullies that we're gonna stand for this?

    Recap--
    Strategy: Hike costs, scare voters, get voters to go along with a greed-based industry rewrite of law.

    These jerks are worse than Dracula!
  • smallbear
    "So these jerks are hiking rates for no reason while bemoaning rising costs? "

    AND while spending millions of $$$ lobbying against health care reform, AND paying their CEOs huge multi-million dollar bonuses. If you're not incensed now, you must already by dead.
  • me2colorado
    Of course, these are the same insurance companies that the Obama administration want us to be forced into when they pass "health reform." Yeah, right. Obama and the Democrats can't have it both ways. Force us into private plans, then cry when those same plans raise rates. Fool me once ........
  • Hank Paulson
    Let them raise it 90%. We live in a free country. Free to drop the insurance companies if they raise the rates too much. What is disturbing to me is that the government is getting involved when they should stay out of private sector. We need as little government intervention as possible. Oh and $10,000,000.00 a year salary only sucks when you are not the one making it.
  • Stephen Martin
    Are you fucking kidding? Hey while we're at it, why not raise it 300%? 400%? It is a "free" country. Why not 1000%! So if the private sector decides it wants to lavishly reward itself for putting human lives on a balance sheet, you're just fine with that. You retarded fuckin, typical stupid, American asshole. Do you realize that health care is a RIGHT? What socket is your brain plugged into may I ask? A $10,000,000 dollar a year salary SUCKS when you have people dying because they can't afford what is considered a basic right and service in most advanced countries...but not OURS. You sound like you're one of those "USA is the greatest place in the world to live types." While other countries that we count as our "inferiors" don't even have this issue and everyone is taken care of. They too, are "free" countries. More "free" than Americans who can be forced into bankruptcy because of a health emergency not of their own doing, etc. Why can't we have what most major first world countries have? Because of damn fools like YOU.

    Who in their right mind would have a heart attack without insurance and then find a shed at Ace Hardware store, because that's what you're going to have to live in to pay off your "bill" for the rest of your life? With so many out of work and in dire financial straits, I find your observation so out of touch with what Americans are going through right now.

    Oh, I get it. You have "yours"...so that's okay. We'll my friend, there are a lot of good productive, honest hard working people out of work right now and many of them don't have health insurance and can no longer afford these outrageous premiums. So while you sit comfortably on your fat ass in front of a computer screen, they are agonizing whether to take their children to the hospital or not because they can't afford it....and you sit there gloating on how great things are and while people award themselves for sticking health care on a balance sheet, instead of as a basic human need, you think that is JUST GREAT.!

    Fuck you. Honestly how stupid has this country has to stoop before someone's health is considered "important"? You're an asshole idiot not even worthy of posting anything anywhere. You probably work for them. You are obviously out of touch with reality. AND if you have health insurance LIKE I DO, which I PAY FOR, then you must realize if you are capable of doing simple math, that YOU and I are already subsidizing all those emergency room visits and people who are NOT covered and get treated. And before you blame it all on "illegal alliens", et. al., visit any hospital in any major city and most of the people coming in are from the US.

    You my friend, are a piece of work. You represent a mind set in this country that is self righteous, considers itself "Christian" and a free market capitalistic individual, but you're none of those. We have a twisted system of capitalism in our nation that is akin to socialism for the rich. Think about it you timber brained, intellectually fasting fool.
  • John C. User
    Are you the real Hank Paulson? Then you're smart enough to know that an uninsured man is just one E. Coli-tainted bag of prewashed spinach away from financial doom. Drop the insurance, and then what? Buy more overpriced crap at, uh, 'market rate'? This is obviously extortion, and you don't care. Are you undead?
  • turnip
    Health Mafia.
    This is the new normal for every industry. You don't have a choice-- remember, you are a Con- Sumer.
  • Scortch
    Drop your health insurance...it's a risk, and some will lose, but if you want to put pressure on the system, drop your insurance...the loss of customer base will force these leeches to raise prices on those with group insurance, and until the other industries are crushed under this weight, & actively on our side, the opposition is just too powerful, too capable of buying up our "representatives". You're dealing with a bunch of "Johnny Rocko's" here...what they want is "more", and they will never get enough. And just like the hero in that story, we should be fighting for a world with no place for a "Johnny Rocko"...
  • "You don't have a choice-- remember, you are a Con- Sumer."
    Hmm, there are always some choices, for the bold. Why not become a Con-Artist instead, like Maddoff?
    :D
  • enorceht
    Sebelius: 'If you're the profit police where are your badges?'
    Insurance Companies: 'Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges! I don't have to show you any stinkin' badges!'

    makes you warm and fuzzy all over to know we have such an understanding and compassionate health provider that would give money out of their own pockets to make sure you get every possible medical chance to get well and move on with a really great outlook for a great quality of life

    barf bag please
  • LumberJock
    For all of you who let someone lie about death panels, or rationing or unlimited premiums or any one of the 40 other streams of misinformation, FIX THIS.

    I'm a disabled verteran. My medical is free for life. I don't have a dog in theis hunt, but I'm doing all I can to make single payer happen.

    Why? You ask!

    Because my Sig Oth, a Federal employee has knots & knots of red tape to negotiate every year: co-pays, exclusions, deductables, contributions-in-kind and offsets. Rules exist to avoid payment and responsibility to explain a simple decision.

    If you as a taxpayer, employer, employee or unemployed victim don't support this program YOU are the thief. You are stealing the dignity of the patient and the practisoner in colusion with the provider.
  • Exposer
    We all thank you for your service and willingness to speak out on your beliefs. We all are either misinformed or uninformed to varying degrees and open communication is the only way we can clarify what is truth from what is fiction.
    I too am a veteran (61-65) with failing health, I use the VA while my wife's medical expenses are skyrocketing.
    What we all face is an agenda taking us down a path which will take the freedoms we have fought for and earned if Constitutional Governance is not demanded soon.
    Federal Government does not efficiently run any program, agency or function while they categorically claim success. Social Security and Medicare are just two sanctioned programs in trouble yet some feel they can handle another. Most of us don't.
    Government Intervention through legislation, lack of enforcement and diligent oversight has perpetuated Ethics Violations and Anti-Trust monopolization of certain entities to enable them to manipulate economic crises at will. This must be the number one priority to plug the leaks of corruption before moving to build on an unstable foundation.
  • LumberJock
    Please -
    Don't blame any level or form of government if you voted for a republican. republican philosophy is that any government is bad government and then they turn around and fire every competent employee thay can, or refuse to fund a program, or "privatize" a governing function - like Social Security.
    Quit blaming government when you (expansive plural) vote for republican't candidates. Some of the government programs that they can't destroy: TVA, Bonneville Power, VA, SS Admin & Medicare they choke with loaning out their trust funds - and it wasn't the Democrats' idea. It was nixon's.
    If we have 8 more years of government like Clinton's, we will reduce the debt; expand the role of government; repatriate factory jobs and secure the place in history that lieing republicans have earned. They learned that tax and spend is a formula for successful economic growth with vitality at the bottom of the financial chain [you (expansive plural) & me]. Whereas by borrowing and spending while cutting jobs in the private sector and hiding their chicanery under hate-the-queers rhetoric, they insure an expanded ecoomy with vitality at the top [not you & me].
    The only recourse from this position, as Democrats, is to tax and spend [repay the debt]. Do you have any T-Bills, T-Notes or other government securities - like bonds? No, I didn't think so. They must be purchased in $500,000 increments or denominations. You may go to your local broker and invest in a pool that buys bonds, but you must buy the premium and pay the sales discount for your partial.
    Until we have 16 years of uninterupted use of the White House, a fillabuster proof Senate and a working majority in the House, we wil;l have these problems and a chorus of know nothings that refute what I've just said.

    Oh yes ... in O'Bama's Medical Payment Bill, we would have Single Payer, no insurance company with a death panel in the back room deciding who gets treeatment and who doesn't.
    .
  • kevinbaja
    bizarre.........make BILLIONS, provide tens of millions in pay ( not to mention stock options ), spent a small fortune lobbying AGAINST any kind of reform, DENY AND LIMIT CARE.......THEN wring your hands and say it is because the cost of "care" is going up......and THIS is why premiums are going through the roof ??? welcome to hell................
  • tyingtostayoptimistic
    Yes---this is why they're raising rates. They'd like their policy holders to pay their costs of lobbying against healthcare reform. This way the American consumer is screwed twice-over.
  • jimbo
    I'm one of the self-insured customers of Anthem affected by this.

    First, just to put things in perspective, not all of us saw rates go up 39%. Me, I'm one of the lucky ones--my rate only rose 20%.

    But there's something else going on here which I haven't seen noted in news reports. In addition to the rate increase, I was informed that I could switch to a different plan (for only a 6.7% increase--such a bargain!) automatically. Details of the new plan were provided in the mailing--but no side-by-side comparison of my current plan with the alternative, nor even a summary listing of the differences.

    So I called. Skip the tales of frustration engendered by Customer Service; in the end I learned that the difference between the two plans was an increase in office visit co-pays ($10 to $25), and an arcane reshuffling and redefinition of how the annual out-of-pocket maximum was defined; except for that, the two plans are Basically Just About The Same!

    Nevertheless, I asked for documentation. Which, when it arrived, contained a wee bit of extra information--nothing important, relegated to a footnote to a table. The new plan, it seems, "uses a smaller network of doctors and hospitals than" my old plan.

    Rationing my access to the physician of my choice. Not an important factor at all.

    Have other affected Anthem customers had the same experience?

    To my mind, the coercive and deceptive effort to push me toward a plan with a "smaller number of doctors and hospitals" participating is just as repugnant as the (unjustified, unexplained) increase in monthly rates.
  • Right - because at some point, when there are only 5 doctors participating in the plan whose rates only rose 6.7%, you'll have to switch to the one with the 39% hike. It's a de facto hike in your rates. They're thinking long term on this. Get everyone they can now who won't look into the fine print, and then everyone else later.
  • Wildcat
    Blue Cross is undoubtedly only responding to the California Senate's most recent passage of a Single Payer bill. They'll probably release a massive ad campaign saying "See? We were *forced* to do this by the Senate!"
  • Juan
    Insurance company response - F U, we've already bought off everyone and we know we can push you around and make you eat a steaming pile of dog poo and you'll say "May I please have another sir"
  • johntwodogs
    That absolutely should be the last straw! How much more proof is necessary to show that for profit insurance companies are not the direction health care should continue to take in America? It is long since time for Single Payer Medicare for all as shown in HR 676 and SB 703 to be inacted.
  • Palin is a 'tard
    This is why we need single payer. This latest action makes it urgently clear.
  • WJM51
    This proves that the problem isn't in rising health CARE costs. It's proof that the problem is in the health INSURANCE system, which should clearly be ABOLISHED. This year's 39% increase comes on the heels of last year's 18%, which follows the year before's 15% increase. How the hell do you think they keep paying for those $10 MILLION salaries and let's not forget those bonuses.

    It's time to give this country what it needs, which is a single payer system that tells the insurance jackals to go to hell. That is, after all, what they have been telling US for decades.

    We are the ONLY industrialized country that routinely lets it's citizens go bankrupt and lose their hones over medical bills. NO ONE else treats it's own citizens so shabbily. NO ONE else puts profit above people's lives. We are the ONLY Ones who are so disgusting and morally bankrupt.

    This is what happens when you let those with more money than brains or compassion make your decisions. The life and death ones will ALWAYS end in death for YOU, life and profit for them. To hell with them and their profits. I'd MUCH rather see HUMANS keep living than to see these scum bags get one more penny of their ill gotten gains. PUT THEM OUT OF BUSINESS BY LAW! Hold them accountable for EVERY American who died for lack of coverage, make them buy back the houses of those they have taken premium payments from and then declined payment. Make them give back to the country for a goddamned change. They are nothing but parasites. They don't deliver one single aspirin to anyone, they cure NOTHING. They withhold money and get people killed or bankrupted. And they eat up at least 30% off of the top of every dollar spent on health care in this country.

    Could someone please tell me just what GOOD they are? I see no reason for their continued existence.
  • Exposer
    I’m in total agreement that Corporate Takeover in America is a major problem and am infuriated by Government’s Collusion to insure that only select entities enhance their share of the pie while taxpayers assume the liabilities that lay by the wayside when the businesses fold, Pension Funds are breached, with revenue and job loss in communities and as the dust settles the real villains and their puppets share in the spoils.
    Insurance Companies keep the cash flow of America moving to Banks to maintain the over inflated and fictional wealth of the United States. Their restrictions have been lifted by Government, their Legal Reserve has been cut in half, their liabilities have been reduced by allowing co-insurers, forced participation by citizens, unfounded death prevention features in automobiles and litigation to resolve denied valid claims that are too expensive to pursue that we give in. We really need some truth from Washington.
    The scheme is to collect money today for deferred gratification much later in life or death.
    Exactly what Government is proposing without resolving the inequities that perpetuate fraud, theft, misuse of authority, price fixing, tort reform, ethics violations or the many other imperfections through contractual agreement, discrimination and coercion which is mostly the results of unionization.
    This very sad and catastrophic situation needs serious thought toward the root problems as opposed to reaction with superficial implications of resolve. With HCR the winners will remain the same, the losers will also remain same but with greater adverse effects and the bridges to recovery will be destroyed forever. If this description of the proposed legislation isn’t the probable interpretation, it hasn’t been read or understood. Please try to relate the Rhetoric to the realistic result potential.
    I doubt there are very many sound plans of resolve out there but to impetuously grab at straws when drowning will only grow the problems.
    As the Dangling Carrot gets bigger, so do the Asses that chase rainbows.
    My sincerest apologies if anyone has taken offense by my remarks, as that was not the intent, but I find myself doing what is necessary to get people thinking things through as opposed to taking what is suggested without diligent processing.
  • PeteWa
    America's sad story the last thirty years; we're watching the French Revolution in reverse.
  • donofcali
    Touche. We're watching the confused citizens fighting for their right to be oppressed.
  • rinsac
    Just a very clear sign we need to GET RID of the Insurance companies. Another example of how corporate America continues to SCREW us all.
  • Exposer
    Proposed legislation and the New Agency established covertly through the stimulus package, has already changed the Medical Communities terminology for diagnosis, standard treatment, quality of care and terms of medical necessity that I have encountered since March, 09.
    I do not condone Ethics violations nor do I support legislation that coerces me to follow a path of destruction.
    We will all suffer through this transition and many of us will not survive, but it will take more than Pen and Paper to cease seeking the truth and the real perpetrators of this devastating catastrophe that our multicultural society must again unite to overcome.
  • overdoneputaforkinit
    Let's see, 2.7 billion in profits, estimate average health insurance $5,000 a year, so those profits would pay for 540,000 policies a year. Insurance companies are blood suckers!
  • KelLogges
    WellPoint earned "2.7 billion dollars in the last quarter" of 2009, she said

    NOT PER YEAR

    raise your bloodsucker estimate 4 times, there are 4 quartes in the whole year (smile)


    Try $10 Billion plus yearly profit and pay for 2.2 Million policies
  • PeteWa
    and what did the public want?
    single payer.
    this is exactly why.

    America is a farce.
  • stev1
    agreed,
    ...and a deadly farce at that.
  • metoo
    Yeah! My social security got no COLA increase this year because, supposedly, there was no increase in the cost of living. Then, days later on January 15, I received a notice that my insurance premiums from Blue Hoowey were being increased by 10%.
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