Blue Shield Hikes Rates, Disses Insurance Commissioner in California

BS Bleeding customers white will little to no calvary in sight (4.00 / 1)

Very much appreciate the content of your post: it spotlights the inhumane greed that drives the health insurance industry with the twist that BS of CA has a former philosophy student/instructor who is CEO and who apparently skipped anything and everything on ethics. Important here is remembering that the connotation of "non-profit" is not one of less greed but one that is tantamount to the inhumane greed identical to any gone public for profit. Yes, who do the executive lackeys report to? Out of state corporate monoliths that straddle our sad land in many guises.

At same time, I do not share your optimism that there is enough anger and outrage in the capitol over how Californians once again are about to be further eviscerated by this hike. Would like more evidence or signs they overall have not been as usual bribed into turning their whorish heads. Your own doubts come through in this intro clause: "If that fight fails...."

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by: Mellors @ Thu Jan 20, 2011 at 06:08:38 AM UTC

...will little to no calvary in sight? (2.00 / 1)

Damn good sight.  The place of the skull sounds scary.

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by: OnionLabel @ Thu Jan 20, 2011 at 14:24:58 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Then.... (3.00 / 2)

We should fine Blue SHield or remove their right to do business in California effective 2012.

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by: mmunson @ Thu Jan 20, 2011 at 18:32:53 PM UTC

What are the cost increases that Blue Shield is facing? (4.00 / 1)

I wondered how many seriously overweight, alcoholics, or drug addicted people are now signing up for insurance with their  pre-existing conditions and how that is affecting the cost structure of Blue Shield.

Any of us can go into the business if it is so profitable, but I don't see many rich folks scrambling to pick up this easy gold -- yes, the same people who fight over a nickle on a sidewalk apparently don't think entering the CA insurance industry is worth the time or effort.  It makes me think twice about asking Blue Shield to leave California.  Any time a company has no problem ticking off the customer it is generally because they think they have nothing left to lose.

I just choose Blue Shield over Kaiser in part, because Kaiser is refusing (well sort of, he is getting the endless run around) to treat a friend's shoulder that has a torn tendons and many other similar stories.  And further, even after their increase they are still cost competitive with Kaiser and we don't have to deal with the whole horrible HMO thing.

Cheers
John

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by: John McDonald @ Fri Jan 21, 2011 at 04:43:08 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Anthem Blue Cross (0.00 / 0)

has money to "donate" for certain "redevelopment" projects - example an "affordable" housing project thing on the corner of MLK and Broadway, affordable with rents starting around $800.00 a month... I have tried to find some reference to it on the web, --- well anyway, at one of the OPNA (Oak Park Neighborhood Association) meetings I attended there was some comment about Anthem Blue Shield because they were donating $50 million to the project that was supposed to happen here: http://www.healthycal.org/affo...

Now, I live in Oak Park, and I really like Oak Park, and goodness knows we could use new businesses, and housing that really is affordable/accessible, and all the other things. I could probably sit and talk for a week about all the things I would like to see happen here in this community.

However, back on point, a company like Anthem Blue Shield, if they have money to donate in such huge chunks, when their business is health and hospital insurance, is likely charging people too much. This is not an isolated thing, and I suppose they write it off as public relations expense - it seems to me that word of mouth about affordability and service would beat the heck out of dropping money here, there, and everywhere to "prove" they are part of the "good guys." If they really were, we'd all know, through service and affordability, now wouldn't we.

ABS "donations": - just google "Anthem Blue Shield donates to community redevelopment in California" and it gives results for all across the country... I don't think much of the company taking credit for employee charitable volunteer efforts, either, as that is the little people, not the company! A company that is resorting to gimmicks at this level needs looking at.

California needs single payer, as does the rest of the country. Well care helps to prevent situations when medical conditions and "unhealth" get out of hand. I think it is really funny (and extremely short-sighted) that a lot of people who are right on it about vehicle maintenance and regular service for their car do not get that the same principle, preventative maintenance, including professional health care, works out well and is more affordable than disaster care - just like for cars, (or roofs, or plumbing, or electrical systems, or whatever...)

That is also why all these other programs, like Healthy Families, First 5, Medi-Cal prenatal care are so important... they prevent disasters! Preventative maintenance, that is the answer.  

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by: sharra_r @ Fri Jan 21, 2011 at 11:51:31 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Source (0.00 / 0)

Do you have a link or source for the $50M donation?  I could not find it on Google.

All the best,
John M

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by: John McDonald @ Fri Jan 21, 2011 at 14:35:32 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

The Project (0.00 / 0)

I have looked, and I am going to see what I can find. I know this was hooked in with SHRA. I was at the meeting; this particular meeting was in the spring or very early summer of 2009 and I cannot find the full notes on the OPNA site, or the info about who the prospective developer was, and I do not know if I even still have the flyer but I will certainly look... The on-line minutes of the general meetings currently only go back to Aug 2009, but there has to be something as SHRA and some funding was coming from there, too, as well as All Nations Church of God in Christ in Oak Park being very involved. Only reference I can find now is this : http://www.ancogic.org/Our%20C... The building plan was high rise, underground parking, and so on... There is that number on the link, though...

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by: sharra_r @ Sat Jan 22, 2011 at 03:51:06 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

I suspect all of these companies (4.67 / 3)

are starting in on a death spiral, where healthy people are opting out because they can't afford $15,000 to cover a family, and the people who are making it a priority are people who expect they will need care.

Further, the cost of prescriptions is high, and as new drugs come along (good news), they are on patent and the companies charge a mint for them until their patent runs out.

As far as easy gold, the situation is that health insurance has a very high barrier to entry. It's not the kind of thing you can just set up in 60 days on a corner. That, plus the fact that it is opaque, plus the fact that you can't easily shop around or change, keeps it from being a free market situation.

On top of that, any company that does try to offer a better deal is likely to be swamped with people who need more than the average amount of care. It's not like selling cars where you want every customer. And finally, because of the way insurance rules work, once you take in a customer you can potentially be stuck with them for the life of your corporation. I recently came across an insurance filing for a company that wants to raise rates on a health plan that hasn't been offered to new customers since 1975!  

Fry, don't be a hero! It's not covered by our health plan!

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by: elfling @ Mon Jan 24, 2011 at 16:38:30 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Dave Jones is a god (5.00 / 2)

Blue Shield is going to rue the day they tangled with our boy Dave. Go get 'em, Commissioner!

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by: mst @ Thu Jan 20, 2011 at 19:58:57 PM UTC

Thanks for the link (4.00 / 1)

Just sent my emails--though, honestly, I didn't have much fear my reps would support this. Still, it's always good to let them know.

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by: cfinnie @ Thu Jan 20, 2011 at 20:04:16 PM UTC

More reason to beat Vermont to Single Payer... (5.00 / 1)

 We need to get to Single Payer sooner, rather than later. Maybe this is apart of the death spiral the health insurance companies are going through because they know in some of the liberal (blue states) its very likely they'll loose the right to offer insurance.

I said this before and you keep this in mind as we go forward. Vermont is readying a plan to go Single Payer when then the Federal Health Care law goes into effect in 2012. Blue Cross has already stepped up to be the provider of the Single Payer system for Vermont.

Unless we wanna pay for an entire new branch of regional government its likely and I said this before that California with its Single Payer system will partner with Kaiser as they are already the largest health care provider in the State and will want service the Single Payer system in California which will be the largest in the country.

Kaiser will want to use that is a promotional tool to setup other states if they make the largest state controlled single payer health care system run smooth as butter.

So in a way we should do it just so we can monitor corp behavior as a Government contractor.

   

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by: djfourmoney @ Fri Jan 21, 2011 at 21:27:01 PM UTC

Kaiser, yuck... (5.00 / 1)

but for those that say single payer cannot work, there are already two systems of "single payer" run by the government, in the US of A and they do work, one is Medicare, and the other is the VA.

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by: sharra_r @ Sat Jan 22, 2011 at 03:54:33 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Three (4.00 / 1)

The Congress members' "Cadillac" plan.

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by: CaliforniaCondor @ Sat Jan 22, 2011 at 16:51:34 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

they have a mix of (0.00 / 0)

private insurance (Blue Cross, etc) plus their congressional concierge service, plus access to the military hospitals. But, they seem to think they have the same plan as everyone else.

Fry, don't be a hero! It's not covered by our health plan!

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by: elfling @ Mon Jan 24, 2011 at 16:30:51 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

When Medi-Cal/Medicaid/Medicare lowers rates paid to Doctors and/or Hospitals (0.00 / 0)

Doctors and/or Hospitals then stop accepting people who have access to these programs, What's needed is something where No Hospital and/or Doctor can refuse service to any person just cause Medi-Cal/Medicaid/Medicare rates were pushed down. If the Doctor or Hospital refuse to service Medi-Cal/Medicaid/Medicare patients, then the Doctor and/or Hospital should lose their license to practice medicine, In other words give It some sharp teeth. Otherwise It amounts to a sit down strike by Doctors and/or Hospitals.

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by: SuperJoker @ Mon Jan 24, 2011 at 17:25:44 PM UTC

[ Parent ]