Posted on 02/22/2010 10:49:47 AM PST by reaganaut1
It’s the way it works with Medicare, for a long time in Northern California Blue Shield administered the plan and then NHIC won the contract and last year Palmetto... and every time they change contracts it’s a nightmare.
Will Obama shut them up like he threatened to shut Humana up?
Re: “Exactly I think BcBS in Calif deliberately sent out those huge increase notices to set odumbo up for this”
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Just so you all know, in California, the state currently at the forefront of this premium raising crisis, Blue Cross and Blue Shield are NOT the same company.
Blue Shield has successfully fought off attempts by Blue Cross to take it over for DECADES. The two organizations are bitter enemies in CA. In other states, they are cooperative partners.
The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association oversees all of the plans nationwide for things like logos and such but does not really control them at all.
WellPoint has bought up many many of the various BC/BS plans in many states, to the point where it has a monopoly in a lot of places.
How do I know? I worked there for years.
IMHO, it is even MORE about controlling the populous, in such as way as to create an unconditional dependence on the government. If they can control everything about health care, they have us by the cajones in many, many ways.
Much better deal. It is easy to rip off the Government. By the way it will not be insurance. Only a rationing and expensing scheme. Communism Sucks.
Obama already controls General Motors and Chrysler: Has he rolled back prices, has he rolled back Union demands? What right does he have to set the prices of health care insurance companies.
certainly we do not want higher prices, but freezing their prices and then demanding they take anyone with previous illness pretty much sets them up to go broke.
ah
thanks for the clarification. How insensitive to public opinion did Wellpoint have to be to send out notices of 39% increase?
Or was there another agenda?
No, that didn't happen. BCBS has been for some sort of reform to the high cost of medical care, but have been against this monster of a takeover from the get go.
Been reading the lefty notes on this? Money donate from BCBS to politicos comes from PACs funded by employees ... not from profit dollars. I believe that much is correct. If not, someone here will show otherwise.
Thank you very much for clarifying. I can’t understand why any health insurance company could be so short-sighted. I’m glad BCBS was not.
I'm actually glad that Marxism Central attempted this overreach. It pretty much ensures that the bill will go down.
I don’t understand why so many people are missing the reasons for the current round of insurance fee increases ... do you all remember last year when they passed their SCHIP and other healthcare bill? Do you remember congress MANDATED mental health coverage and some other things? Those mandates do not come without a price tag. You think insurance is expensive now, wait until Obama is done passing all his mandates.
RE: “How insensitive to public opinion did Wellpoint have to be to send out notices of 39% increase?
Or was there another agenda?”
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I’m not sure there’s a hidden agenda. They like to just throw increases out there and deal with flack when people cry ‘foul.’
The problem is that there are few choices. Costs for individual healthcare policies in CA ARE competitive, if you call price gouging competitive. I have an Aetna policy that jumped some 30% as of 1/1/10 and called around to check competitors’ premium prices. I was told by more than one broker that they are ALL raising premiums and I should just stick with what I’ve got. I called a few companies directly to confirm that.
Many insureds are cancelling their policies due to price hikes and this means the insurers raise their premiums even more to make up the loss.
It’s all a ridiculous cycle and I’d cancel, too, except if you have any savings at all, one big illness would rob you of that — it really pays to be BROKE in CA, because you can get fabulous health care and pay next to nothing.
I saw it over and over again during my years at WellPoint. People on Medicaid get the best care at little to no cost. Management would shake its collective head in disgust. I am one who really believes all the governmental intrusion into our lives and all the subsidies and the unions have created this horrifying mess.
Wow
except for the poor( and that comprises a huge part of our population thanks to raising the floor on how much income makes you poor) we are all screwed.
It is bad IN Texas but nothing like what you are going rhough in Calif.
There is no answer. We screwed ourselves when we started giving health insurance as an employee perk in lieu of increased pay. From there these huge ancillary industries have grown.
How can we give nearly everyone health care without forcing people to buy insurance?
Even letting insurence be sold across state lines won’t work since in Calif you require so many extras in your insurance than for instance idaho doesn’t require.
Blues have near monopoly conditions in a number of states because of the regs they lobbied for and the leverage they've acquired over providers.
Unlike the lefties I think the cure for the Blues is less insurance regulation not more. But good luck getting reforms passed that hurt them in states like Alabama, South Carolina, Minnesota and anywhere else they have a greater than 50% market share. I'm tired of watching the Blues lobby for single-payer as they have in Massachusetts and California. Who do you think was one of the major forces behind Romney care? Don't tell me the Blues weren't because I've seen their senior management speak about it.
The Blues are part of the problem not part of the solution. They need to have their nonprofit status pulled and they need to lose their clout with the state legislators.
On that we'll agree. Too much regulation is part of the reason prices are so high.
BTW ... you gave Mass and Cali as examples. These are lefty states, run by mostly lefty officials, and the companies based there house the same type of people. That said, while the Blues are all part of the BCBS Association, most are individual companies. Some are grouped (Regence in the Northwest states, Health Care Service Corp for IL, TX, OK and NM, and others) What happens in Cal or Mass does not represent all of the Blues plans.
Mass and Cali may be the worst examples but all of the Blues have lobbied to create protections for themselves. They are part of the problem. I've seen case after case where they've opposed state-level reforms that would open the markets to competition. The Blues and the other big insurance companies are far more interested in protecting their organizations than they are in fixing the real problems. The best way to fix that problem is to create a more competitive environment.
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