Friday, October 30, 2009

Health care hijinks

My former insurance company got caught in an act of embarrassing hypocrisy.
Earlier this week, we reported that Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina had recently sent out mailers that urged recipients to lobby Sen. Kay Hagan to oppose a public option, which it called "a slippery slope to single payer." (You can see the mailer here.)

The story was picked up by the Raleigh News & Observer, which added an additional key fact: Just before sending out the mailer, BCBS of North Carolina had informed its customers that their rates would rise by an average of 11 percent next year.
Of course the public option would force them to stop arbitrarily raising the rates of us older folks to the point they priced us out of affordable individual policies. Not so sure the average resident around here will get the irony, unfortunately.

You of course know that the House reform bill was released yesterday. From what I hear the public option was watered down quite a bit to placate the insurance industry and conservatives but it still looks better than I expected. Now to see what happens in joint committee. They can, and probably will, still screw it up before this is over.

Via HBK comes this bit of trivia. Why does Joe Lieberman oppose healthcare reform? Ask his wife. And while you're at it you can ask Evan Bayh's spouse too. Both of the women have received significant sums of money from their side gigs in the health care industry.

And this is just fascinating reading. A newly leaked Frank Luntz memo: The GOP guide to undermining health care reform without looking bad. Or in other words, how to pretend you support reform without actually reforming anything. These people are just shameless.

[More posts daily at The Detroit News]

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4 Comments:

Blogger Litzz11@yahoo.com said...

Some friends of mine just adopted a child from a foreign country. They were informed on their first doctor's visit at home that Blue Cross Blue Shield of TN may not cover their new baby because it may have "pre-existing conditions" such as allergies or other diseases.

You know, they aren't even TRYING to not look like assholes right now.

Healthcare reform can't come fast enough.

3:08:00 PM  
Blogger Libby Spencer said...

The irony BCBS is supposed to be the GOOD insurance company. They suck as bad or worse than any of them. Really wish they had gone single payer and rid us of these parasites altogether.

3:36:00 PM  
Blogger Capt. Fogg said...

My brother in law and his wife have adopted two little girls from China. Of course he's a retired Army Colonel so NO PROBLEM with the GOVERNMENT CONTROLLED health insurance. First class benefits, no death panels.

When those miserable Republican bastards give up their government health insurance I'll consider listening to them, but they don't do they?

They don't complain about Trojan Horses or takeovers or rationing or any of the other bullshit they're "protecting us" from, do they?

4:24:00 PM  
Blogger Libby Spencer said...

That is one of the more galling aspects of the opposition Fogg.

7:38:00 AM  

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