Free Republic

As a staffer to an Illinois Democrat Congressman who voted for ObamaCare, Sue Klinkhamer "had constituents scream at me, spit at me and call me names that I can't put in print." Still she supported the health care take over engineered by the President and Democratic Congressional Leadership. But, no more. Now it's personal. And, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Klinkhamer is talking. Because of the provisions of ObamaCare, Klinkhamer has been notified that her insurance premium will more than double – from $291 per month to $647, a 122 percent increase. Following is the story of...

May 3, 2013 – When the dust settled and the insurers announced their proposed rate requests for Oregon’s insurance exchange, the state’s largest health insurer – Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon – decided to back away. That decision came on the heels of Regence having the highest enrollment last year compared to its rivals -- 472,902 members – just slightly ahead of Kaiser Permanente – which had 464,637 members. ... Onlookers came away stunned. Regence had been at the table all along, testifying in favor of the exchange during legislative hearings and had staff attending work sessions organized by Cover...

The hits just keep coming with every day that brings us closer to the full implementation of ObamaCare. This vile piece of illegal legislation continually rains body blows to the gut of hardworking Americans. The mainstream media is starting to cover the story because the entire fiasco is just too big to ignore, but they're still doing their level best to cover up for Obama. Prepare yourself to continue hearing about the "glitches" on the government's $600 million plus website and for the media to keep replaying Obama's speech where the talks about how "incensed" he is over the faulty...

Independence Blue Cross has sent out cancellation notices to 24,000 members in the Philadelphia region whose insurance plans do not comply with new rules under the Affordable Care Act. The cancellations were sent to about half of the Independence Blue Cross individual plan members in the Philadelphia region who purchase insurance on their own because they don't get it through work.

Rep. Renee Ellmers raised awareness of a new problem with Obamacare’s implementation: the creation of private-sector health insurance monopolies that will limit Americans’ provider choices. The major health insurance company Blue Cross Blue Shield, which is closely coordinating with the White House on Obamacare implementation, will enjoy perhaps the greatest monopoly of all, the North Carolina Republican said in a statement. “Although seven insurance companies currently operate in North Carolina, under the new Obamacare exchanges, those options will dwindle down to one in the majority of counties,” Ellmers said Thursday following the disclosure of figures by federal health officials showing...

“Looks like Obamacare is more “on track” than “train wreck,” gloated the experts on Barack Obama’s Think Progress website as they reported the Master’s healthcare scheme was literally forcing America’s insurers to lower their premiums. (1) The glad tidings arose back in May after Oregon providers Providence Health Plan and Family Care Health requested premium rate reductions from the state-run ObamaCare exchange. (Actually, the state just gets to PAY for the exchange. It’s RUN by Kathleen Sebelius at HHS.) Naturally this was big news for Affordable Care Act fans. After all, what could be better than private insurers wanting permission...

Major health insurance companies—Blue Cross, Aetna, United, Humana—have fled the Obamacare health care exchanges in various states, which are scheduled to start on Oct. 1. Insurance companies like Aetna and United have said, “thanks, but no thanks” to the public health insurance marketplace set up under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, which will facilitate government subsidies to individuals and small businesses to buy approved health plans to comply with the law. The ACA requires every American to have health insurance, or pay a penalty. Individuals who are not covered by their employer can enroll in the state or...

California´s largest for-profit health insurer, Anthem Blue Cross, is seeking to raise rates an average of 18% for more than 630,000 individual policyholders, drawing scrutiny from regulators and the ire of consumers already struggling with soaring premiums. Some Anthem customers may see rates rise as much as 25% in February under the company´s proposal at a time when medical inflation is running at historic lows nationwide. The increases are among several others proposed by California insurers, including Aetna Inc. and Health Net Inc. California insurance regulators will take the next month to review whether these rate increases are warranted,

Do you know who your insurer is? This is neither a trick question, nor a bungling of the famous 1970s parenting PSA. Rather, it’s an honest question that I’d hazard to guess a large segment of the 100 million consumers under the Blue Cross and Blue Shield umbrella would be unable to answer due to the confusing corporate structure behind this association. I mean, do you know the difference between Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska? Probably not, but...

The Blue Cross Blue Shield board announced today it is suspending their salaries as the healthcare giant also reconsiders its non-profit status and cuts benefits to its current CEO after a week of public outcry over an $11 million severance paid to ex-president and CEO Cleve L. Killingsworth. The 18-member board of directors approved the severance for Killingsworth, who left the non-profit health insurer after it lost nearly $150 million in 2009. Blue Cross paid its directors more than $1.2 million last year, records show. The directors attend meetings and work on other affairs related to the $13 billion company....

<p>Breaking: Elena Kagan demanded sex-change operation benefit for Harvard students.</p> <p>Kagan's team forced Blue-Cross, Blue-Shield to pay for sex-change operations as a benefit for students as Dean of Harvard Law.</p> <p>Our breaking news report by Amy Contrada and Peter LaBarbera, just published this morning at MassResistance.org, contains links to 2006 and 2008 articles from the Harvard Crimson newspaper, proving Elena Kagan teamed up with the Lambda "Trans-gender Task Force" as Harvard Law Dean overseeing the administrative team that forced Blue-Cross, Blue-Shield to provide sex-change operations as a paid benefit, including breast enhancement or breast-removal (but not yet genital mutilation) for students or faculty who suffer from "gender identity disorder." The partial sex-change operations must be fully covered by insurance premiums, as Kagan's administrators demanded they be funded as an "equal right."</p>

Hit by a $96 million loss from managing TennCare enrollees last year, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee will cut reimbursements to thousands of specialty physicians and to some hospitals by 14 percent and is counting on an emergency room diversion program. The losses were more than twice what BlueCross expected and could reach $135 million this year, according to a records review by the Chattanooga Times Free Press. It is the latest in a line of cutbacks looming for providers — a 7 percent rate reduction to all TennCare providers that takes effect in July, and an unresolved issue in Congress...

Another day, another study confirming that ObamaCare will increase the price of health insurance. The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association has found that premiums in the individual market will rise on average by 54% over the status quo, which translates into an extra $3,341 a year for families and $1,576 for singles. The White House denounced the report as a "sham" before it was even released, which shows how seriously it takes such concerns. The Congressional Budget Office also found this week that ObamaCare will boost premiums in the individual market by as much as 13%. But the White House...

Washington is captivated by the Senate melodrama over the so-called public option, salivating at the ring of Harry Reid's political bell (see below). But the most important health-care questions continue to be about the policy substance—particularly those that Democrats don't want asked. Foremost among them is: How will ObamaCare affect insurance premiums in the private health-care markets? Despite indignant Democratic denials, the near-certainty is that their plan will cause costs to rise across the board. The latest data on this score come from a series of state-level studies from the insurance company WellPoint Inc. At the request of Congressional delegations...

"Healthcare Reform" is not to improve the healthcare system. It's about putting insurance companies out of business, forcing us to accept government health coverage, and thus being at the mercy of politicians. Here is a billboard on Interstate 95 in Wilmington, Delaware by "Health Care for America NOW!", a left wing organization on par with ACORN that is funded by Drummond Pike.

Apparently individuals who woke up this morning to read a quarter-page story published in newspapers throughout the country with the headlines "Competition lacking among private health insurers". The AP story written by Ricard Alonso-Zaldivar is a prime example of a so-called unbiased major media organization that has once again failed to actually check the factual accuracy of a story centered upon the health care debate. The story, based upon a report published by the left-wing Urban Institute Public Policy Center cites that health care reform would lower individual health care costs by more than $200 billion by offering a public...

The region's most fragile and impoverished elderly citizens will lose some of their health insurance in January when Independence Blue Cross stops offering two plans catering to the poor. Independence Blue Cross, the region's largest health insurer, began sending letters last week to the 36,000 subscribers in the two programs, Keystone 65 Complete and Keystone 65 Value. The company says that starting Jan. 1, it can no longer afford to offer these programs because of cutbacks in federal funding for Medicare.

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. -- A Seminole County woman was expecting a new insurance card from Blue Cross, Blue Shield, but she got a lot more than that. The woman said she received a box filled with hundreds of personal, private medical records for other people. The brown box sitting on her front doorstep Friday morning, she said, didn't look too out of place. However, as soon as the Sanford woman opened it, she found stack after stack of people's private medical records that certainly weren't in the right place.

Blue Cross/Blue Shield is making some federal employees and their doctors sick. They are upset because under the health insurance company's standard option next year, patients will pay 100 percent for an operation by an out-of-network physician, up to a maximum of $7,500, "per surgeon, per surgical day," according to the Service Benefit Plan. Currently, the rate is 25 percent of what the company sets for a procedure, plus any difference between that and the billed amount. The rest of the article is here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/25/AR2008112502576.html

WASHINGTON — The health insurance industry said Wednesday that it would support a health care overhaul requiring insurers to accept all customers, regardless of illness or disability. But in return, the industry said, Congress should require all Americans to have coverage. The proposals, put forward by the insurers’ two main trade associations, have the potential to reshape and advance the debate over universal health insurance just as President-elect Barack Obama prepares to take office. In separate actions, the two trade groups, America’s Health Insurance Plans and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, announced their support for guaranteed coverage for...