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Sunday, February 14, 2010
Blue Cross of N.C.: Pigs at the Trough
Fact: The NC Department of Correction's spending on hospital care for prison inmates has been out of control over the past decade: it shot up from $17.5 million in 1999 to $55.8 million in 2009.Fact: Last Aug. 5, the NC General Assembly passed its budget bill, which included a provision mandating that inmates treated at hospitals would be billed at the same rates as the State Health Plan for state workers and teachers, a reform that would have saved the state millions on hospital treatment for inmates.
Disgusting Fact: On the day that Gov. Perdue signed the budget law, state Democratic Sen. Tony Rand inserted language in a legislative housekeeping bill that effectively gutted the money-saving provision.
Really Disgusting Fact: It comes to light in an investigation by the Raleigh News & Observer (published today) that Blue Cross Blue Shield of N.C. was sending secret e-mails to Sen. Rand containing the language that he subsequently inserted to help that monopolistic health-insurance provider (so to speak) continue to rip off the state's taxpayers.
These are the same corporate tools who have gotten hysterical over the threat of actual health-insurance reform, like the "public option," and who have used the U.S. mails to induce their naive subscribers to put pressure on Sen. Kay Hagan and others not to do anything in Congress that might cause their cash cow to give less milk.
Non-profit corporation ... there's an oxymoron!
Tony Rand is now gone from the State Senate, pursued closely by the bears of prosecutorial retribution. Might his collusion with BC/BS of NC be added to the list of offenses, or was that perfectly legal in the way that only politicians could devise unethical string-pulling to be "perfectly legal"?
Labels: Blue Cross, health care, Kay Hagan, Tony Rand
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Take That, Blue Cross NC!
The latest Elon University poll found that 54% of North Carolinians support health insurance legislation that would include a public option. Some 41% said they would use a public option plan should one become available.
That latter number amounts to a huge razzberry directed at Blue Cross/Blue Shield of NC, which has spent a secret amount (the corp. won't say how much) sending out multiple propaganda pieces opposing health-care reform, the most recent featuring a postage-paid, pre-printed postcard opposing any public option reform that the recipient is supposed to sign and send to Sen. Kay Hagan. Many people have been altering those cards to reflect the feelings of a majority of North Carolinians (see above), like NC House Rep. Pricey Harrison. We heard about one guy who taped his edited card to a brick before sending it on through the postal system, which apparently is totally legal and costs Blue Cross of NC slightly more than 28 cents.
Next we can expect Blue Cross's $4-million-man, CEO Bob Greczyn, to claim that the high cost of his insurance is due to "socialists" in the state abusing his postage-paid propaganda.
That latter number amounts to a huge razzberry directed at Blue Cross/Blue Shield of NC, which has spent a secret amount (the corp. won't say how much) sending out multiple propaganda pieces opposing health-care reform, the most recent featuring a postage-paid, pre-printed postcard opposing any public option reform that the recipient is supposed to sign and send to Sen. Kay Hagan. Many people have been altering those cards to reflect the feelings of a majority of North Carolinians (see above), like NC House Rep. Pricey Harrison. We heard about one guy who taped his edited card to a brick before sending it on through the postal system, which apparently is totally legal and costs Blue Cross of NC slightly more than 28 cents.
Next we can expect Blue Cross's $4-million-man, CEO Bob Greczyn, to claim that the high cost of his insurance is due to "socialists" in the state abusing his postage-paid propaganda.
Labels: Blue Cross, Elon University poll, health care, Kay Hagan
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Using Blue Cross's Dime
It didn't take long for North Carolina citizens to figure out what to do with those Blue Cross NC postage-paid & pre-printed messages to Sen. Hagan opposing health-care reform. If you got one of those little pieces of propaganda, you might want to take a lesson in what to do with it.
Labels: Blue Cross, health care, Kay Hagan
Friday, October 23, 2009
Blue Cross Is SO Going to Hell
The North Carolina insurance monopoly of Blue Cross/Blue Shield NC, the company raking in the "nonprofit" profits to enable it to pay its CEO some $3.99 million -- MILLION -- in "nonprofit" salary -- that company is flooding the state of North Carolina with little postcards designed for postage-paid mailing to Sen. Kay Hagan, saying we're opposed to socialistic, communistic, zombie-istic health care reform that might eat into said "nonprofit" profits.
If you get such a card, be prepared for the robo-call followup, as testified about in an e-mail this a.m. from some Ashe Countians:
So much money that is otherwise NOT going to the health care of their clients but rather to fight much needed reform of the sort of criminal immorality that Blue Cross NC so amply illustrates.
If you get such a card, be prepared for the robo-call followup, as testified about in an e-mail this a.m. from some Ashe Countians:
Have people in Watauga County been receiving the BCBS postcard to send to Kay Hagan? At our house it was followed up by a robo call the next day telling us how easy it would be just to sign the card and send it in. I called the Greensboro Hagan office and learned that hundreds of cards had already been received. It is discouraging to fight a gorilla with so much money.
So much money that is otherwise NOT going to the health care of their clients but rather to fight much needed reform of the sort of criminal immorality that Blue Cross NC so amply illustrates.
Labels: Blue Cross, health care
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
Burr on a Leash
Big phony health-care event in Charlotte today on behalf of Sen. Dick Burr, at which fellow senators John McCain and Mitch McConnell will also appear, saying approximately (1) the U.S. has the greatest health-care system in the world and (2) we're all completely and totally in favor of reforming the greatest health-care system in the world, so long as the big corps get to keep all their profits and even increase them.
The event is being paid for by big corp Carolinas HealthCare Systems, which runs 25 hospitals in Charlotte and South Carolina.
No conflict of interest here. None.
Meanwhile, the multi-millionaire CEO of N.C. Blue Cross/Blue Shield, the insurance giant that has grown obscenely rich from maintaining a monopoly over state employees' insurance (among others), says he's against competition (duh) but very much for a public mandate that everyone buy insurance, since that will increase his profits several billionfold.
If these blood-suckers were capable of shame, which clearly they are not, they'd be hiding their fat faces in the sub-basement of the Department of Can We Get Any More Greedy?
The event is being paid for by big corp Carolinas HealthCare Systems, which runs 25 hospitals in Charlotte and South Carolina.
No conflict of interest here. None.
Meanwhile, the multi-millionaire CEO of N.C. Blue Cross/Blue Shield, the insurance giant that has grown obscenely rich from maintaining a monopoly over state employees' insurance (among others), says he's against competition (duh) but very much for a public mandate that everyone buy insurance, since that will increase his profits several billionfold.
If these blood-suckers were capable of shame, which clearly they are not, they'd be hiding their fat faces in the sub-basement of the Department of Can We Get Any More Greedy?
Labels: Blue Cross, health care, John McCain, Mitch McConnell, Richard Burr
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Blue Cross ... Bad Dog!
We, like 96% of North Carolinians, are insured by Blue Cross/Blue Shield. They have a virtual monopoly on insurance coverage in the state.
They are totally in bed with Madam Foxx and the rest of her ilk in trying to bamboozle the public that any competition (remember that good ole American principle?) would not only be bad for their profit margins specifically but bad for Americanism and God and unadulterated apple pie generally!
Senator Kay Hagan is inclined to listen to Blue Cross executives more than to the rest of us, unfortunately.
They are totally in bed with Madam Foxx and the rest of her ilk in trying to bamboozle the public that any competition (remember that good ole American principle?) would not only be bad for their profit margins specifically but bad for Americanism and God and unadulterated apple pie generally!
Senator Kay Hagan is inclined to listen to Blue Cross executives more than to the rest of us, unfortunately.
Labels: Blue Cross, health care, Kay Hagan, Virginia Foxx
