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Title: Obama admin. demands justification for health insurer’s 39 percent rate hike
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URL Source: http://rawstory.com/2010/02/blue-cr ... a-admin-demands-justification/
Published: Feb 9, 2010
Author: http://rawstory.com/2010/02/blue-cross-h
Post Date: 2010-02-09 09:13:01 by tom007
Keywords: None
Views: 170
Comments: 10
Obama admin. demands justification for health insurer’s 39 percent rate hike By Stephen C. Webster Monday, February 8th, 2010 -- 8:09 pm Share on Facebook Stumble This! Insurer spent nearly $9.5 million lobbying against health reforms; CEO's annual salary tops $10 million healthcaremoney Obama admin. demands justification for health insurers 39 percent rate hikeIt's an issue that strikes at the core of America's health reform debate: How much should one have to pay to ensure their health care needs are met? Now take that price and inflate it by up to 39 percent -- just to get a feel for what it is like to be one of roughly 800,000 Anthem Blue Cross customers in California who hold individual policies. The company said its dramatic rate hike would take effect on March 1. State regulators almost immediately promised to investigate the increase. Then, on Monday, the Obama administration got involved. Story continues below... In a letter faxed to Anthem Blue Cross, US Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius called for the insurer to publicly explain why it raised premiums. "With so many families already affected by rising costs, I was very disturbed to learn through media accounts that Anthem Blue Cross plans to raise premiums for its California customers by as much as 39 percent," or 15 times faster than inflation, Sebelius wrote. The rate hikes were "even more difficult to understand" in the light of soaring profits at Anthem Blue Cross's parent company, WellPoint Incorporated, Sebelius said. WellPoint earned 2.7 billion dollars in the last quarter of 2009, she said, calling on the insurance company to "provide a detailed justification" for the increase. Additionally, WellPoint CEO Angela Braly earns an annual salary of nearly $10 million and held nearly $2 million in stock options at the end of 2008. Additionally, WellPoint spent nearly $9.5 million on lobbying against health reforms in 2009, labor advocate group AFL-CIO noted in a recent release. "As we continue the health insurance reform debate in Washington, this announcement reminds us that too many Americans can be left with unaffordable insurance each time the rates or rules change in the private market," Sebelius said. Last month, plans to reform the US health care system hit a wall when the election of a Republican to the Senate Massachusetts seat long held by Ted Kennedy robbed the Democrats of their 60-vote supermajority in the Senate. President Obama vowed during his campaign for the White House to reform health care and make coverage accessible to the 47 million Americans who currently do not have any, and to make coverage less of a financial drain on US workers. "We understand and strongly share our members' concerns over the rising cost of healthcare services and the corresponding adverse impact on insurance premiums," the company said in a statement noted by The Los Angeles Times. "Unfortunately, the individual market premiums are merely the symptoms of a larger underlying problem in California's individual market -- rising healthcare costs." In a Monday response to Sebilius's letter, the insurer seemed to echo the oft-repeated Republican talking point that Obama's proposed health reforms must be scrapped and begun anew. "We regret the impact this has on our members," the company said, according to The Washington Post. "It highlights why we need sustainable health care reform to manage the steadily rising costs of hospitals, drugs and doctors. As such, it is important to go back to the beginning and get health care reform done right." President Obama has said he does not want to start from scratch on his package of health reforms and plans to hold a televised health summit with Republicans on Feb. 25. A recent Harvard study published by the American Journal of Public Health found that over 45,000 Americans die every year for lack of health insurance -- more than the number of Americans killed by kidney disease. Sebelius's full letter follows. #### February 8, 2010 Leslie Margolin President, Anthem Blue Cross Delivered Via Fax Dear Ms. Margolin, One of the biggest pressures facing families, businesses and governments at every level are skyrocketing health insurance costs. With so many families already affected by rising costs, I was very disturbed to learn through media accounts that Anthem Blue Cross plans to raise premiums for its California customers by as much as 39 percent. These extraordinary increases are up to 15 times faster than inflation and threaten to make health care unaffordable for hundreds of thousands of Californians, many of whom are already struggling to make ends meet in a difficult economy. Your company's strong financial position makes these rate increases even more difficult to understand. As you know, your parent company, WellPoint Incorporated, has seen its profits soar, earning $2.7 billion in the last quarter of 2009 alone. I believe Anthem Blue Cross has a responsibility to provide a detailed justification for these rate increases to the public. Additionally, you should make public information on the percent of your individual market premiums that is used for medical care versus the percent that is used for administrative costs. Policy holders in the individual market deserve to know if their premium increases would be invested in better medical care or insurance company overhead costs like salaries, profits, and advertising. I am aware that the State of California is investigating this matter, and urge Anthem Blue Cross to cooperate fully. In the meantime, I will be closely monitoring the situation. At a time when health care costs are a critical threat to families as well as the nation's economy, I hope you appreciate the urgent nature of this request. I look forward to your prompt reply. Sincerely, Kathleen Sebelius Secretary of Health and Human Services With AFP
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#1. To: All (#0)
Words are cheap. I want the HQ carpet bombed.
"Satan / Cheney in "08" My Federal BC/BS is now $1250.00 a month.
Cost less, too.
The only real problems anti-immigration types have with the non-whites already here is that they won't marry our daughters and won't adopt Haitian babies. They "refuse to assimilate." Their "culture is incompatible." THAT is not our problem. Thank God for natural gas.
First check this month. Government is making it as difficult as possible for them to drill and run pipelines. As they come on line, the gas is piped across the line into New York City, and they are bastards that are trying to put a halt to the whole thing.
The sudden increases are entirely focused on some individual policy holders. Those in a BC/BS group plan are not affected. Not that MSM will report this point or look further into why this is the case. Something is fishy about this story. Scott Brown is sworn in as MA senator and he will break the Dems clear majority hold in the senate. Obamacare is in its final death throws. Then fortuitously BC/BS announces giant premium rate increases on some of its individual policy holders not group insurance plan holders. No skin off BC/BS's nose if they lose some of their individual policy holders. But BC/BS does Obama and the Dems a GIANT PR favor. How nice. I would bet that there's a strong link between the head honchos at BC/BS and the Dem Party. However, the leftie MSM do not intend to investigate further. They are content to continue banging the drum on this superficial story line and Obamacare gets a second life. Hmmmm.....
Peter Meade, executive vice president of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, now retired, is a FOO (Friend of Obama) Regence Praises Obama's Choice of Sebelius to Lead HHS, DeParle to Lead Health Reform Office
Nice dot connection - thank you.
1. Warren Buffet is invested heavily in WellPoint [parent company of BC/BS] - he owns 3.5 Million shares - he's also a BIGTIME Obama/Dem Party supporter. 2. Liz Fowler, the senior counsel to the Dem Chairman of Senate Finance Committee, where the senate bill version of health care reform was negotiated in secret, was previously a high level public policy adviser for WellPoint before being recently hired by Max Baucus. Hmmm... www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/27155.html "Revolving door for health care aides" Some cut and paste: Some of the most influential aides in the closed-door Senate Finance Committee negotiations over health care reform have ties to interests that would be directly affected by the legislation. Before she was hired last year as senior counsel to Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Liz Fowler worked as a highly paid public policy adviser for WellPoint Inc., the nation’s largest publicly traded health benefits company. Indeed, Fowler — by several accounts the most important aide in the Gang of Six negotiations — is a seasoned veteran who has worked in a variety of areas in the health policy field. “Liz Fowler is a smart and talented individual and one of the brightest health care minds in the Senate, and she and the Finance Committee staff have been working day and night to help achieve this goal” of crafting a health care bill to lower costs and provide affordable coverage, said Scott Mulhauser, spokesman for Baucus. “Sen. Baucus has served in the Senate for more than 30 years, and the only factor that influences his decisions and the decisions of his staff is whether a policy is right for his state and for the American people. Period.” But when Baucus’s office announced in early 2008 that it was hiring Fowler, it didn’t exactly advertise that she’d been on the payroll of a massive health benefits firm. Baucus’s press release cited Fowler’s prior experience in his office and on the staff of the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) as well as her work for a private law firm. It didn’t mention her most recent work for WellPoint, where she was not a registered lobbyist but served as an adviser. WellPoint spokeswoman Cheryl Leamon said that the company does not “see it as an advantage” to have Fowler participating in the Gang of Six negotiations. 3. WellPoint does a ton of business with regards to government health insurance contracts as well as Medicaid and Medicare. In January,2009 WellPoint got into trouble with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and WellPoint was not allowed to take on new Medicare enrollees. But in September 2009,[ open enrollment time?] the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services lifted sanctions and it was business as usual for WellPoint. A cynic might wonder if WellPoint is paying back a favor today for the goodwill extended to it by the Obumski regime in September 2009.
Something is fishy about this story. Scott Brown is sworn in as MA senator and he will break the Dems clear majority hold in the senate. Obamacare is in its final death throws. Then fortuitously BC/BS announces giant premium rate increases on some of its individual policy holders not group insurance plan holders. No skin off BC/BS's nose if they lose some of their individual policy holders. But BC/BS does Obama and the Dems a GIANT PR favor. How nice. I would bet that there's a strong link between the head honchos at BC/BS and the Dem Party. However, the leftie MSM do not intend to investigate further. They are content to continue banging the drum on this superficial story line and Obamacare gets a second life. Hmmmm..... You have a nasty suspicious devious mind. I like that in a woman. Particularly when she makes a good point. Yes, tis a very fortuitous circumstance. Individual policy holders are the most vulnerable because they are not under a group contract. Historically - up until the late 60's early 70's Heath Insurance was an option offered only to important employee positions or as part of a Union Contract - there was no big tax break, but with introduction of a write-off for providing Health Insurance to employees it became more and more common (I believe it was 1972 if memory serves - the Kennedy Bill for the last round of "Health Care Reform" - that among other things created HMOs). Up to a point it was no skin off the employer because they could write it off as an expense against Gross Income. This is also when massive medical cost inflation began, and Marcus Welby's "House Calls" went away. Effectively the Doctor stopped working for the patient, who was paying the tab, and began working for the insurance company. Since that time the governmental apparatus has been expanded effectively subsidizing higher prices. The reality is that the "cost of healthcare crisis" is one which has been created. And I believe it was done intentionally and has worked exactly as planned to bring us to the point to where Government Controlled Hellthcare is the "only" solution.
"One of the least understood strategies of the world revolution now moving rapidly toward its goal is the use of mind control as a major means of obtaining the consent of the people who will be subjects of the New World Order." K.M. Heaton, The National Educator
#2. To: tom007 (#1)
The company said its dramatic rate hike would take effect on March 1.
#3. To: tom007 (#0)
A recent Harvard study published by the American Journal of Public Health found that over 45,000 Americans die every year for lack of health insurance -- more than the number of Americans killed by kidney disease.
#4. To: Cynicom (#2)
My Federal BC/BS is now $1250.00 a month.
#5. To: Lod (#4)
#6. To: tom007, Jethro Tull, Original_Intent, christine, All (#0)
#7. To: scrapper2, all (#6)
The BC/BS White House connection.
#8. To: scrapper2 (#6)
They are content to continue banging the drum on this superficial story line and Obamacare gets a second life. Hmmmm.....
#9. To: Jethro Tull, lod, Original_Intent, christine, All (#7)
#10. To: scrapper2, tom007, Jethro Tull, christine, all (#6)
The sudden increases are entirely focused on some individual policy holders. Those in a BC/BS group plan are not affected. Not that MSM will report this point or look further into why this is the case.
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