A letter to: Boxer, Feinstein and Obama. We received a letter from Anthem Blue Cross last week that in essence says that you have no health insurance security at all - even if you are current with all your premiums. The letter code is HCID:339A63055, Contract Code: 7889. In reading the five page document it makes it clear that Blue Cross/Anthem intends to stop writing and stop carrying individual health plans in the near future. In fact, it is quite clear that this is their intention as they are providing you with a list of time frames in which your coverage will disappear. Is this a result of the new Healthcare Law? If so, what are you doing about it? What are you doing about this? I am sure that all the others will follow suit and this is happening under your watch. A prompt reply with specific actions is requested - no, demanded!
That e-mail was sent today, Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend. I am sure that the government takes time off, except when the GOP doesn’t want recess appointment (that is another blog at another time). However, I expect that Boxer, Feinstein and Mr. Obama are working anyway – this is a big country to run.
Is this Blue Cross letter is a result of the new Healthcare Law? What this going to happen anyway? Is this the best case for a single payer system? Would citizens get this kind of letter from a universal Government Medicare Program? It couldn’t happen. It wouldn't happen!
We know that private insurance premiums are on the rise as are deductibles and the negotiated rates are decreasing. So, the insurance companies are charging more for which they are paying less. The CEOs are taking record breaking bonuses and salaries. Even Blue Shield’s CEO is getting in excess of $4MM a year and Blue Shield is a non-profit corporation.
So, when you get the 180 day notice to find other coverage (prior to the law governing pre existing conditions exclusions taking effect) you are screwed. You paid your premiums for years, the insurance company knows all there is to know about you and will be glad to share that data with the Medical Information Bureau – you are screwed! Who is gonna want you – at any price or deductible or stop gap? Forget it. Blue Cross is number one in group policies – if you are an individual you are screwed.
But, our Tea Party friends, who will be getting just as screwed, do not want any safety net such as Universal Healthcare. No, can’t have that because that is socialism – or is it? It is part of the social contract that the government has with its citizens, you and I, is to support the citizen’s right to the pursuit of happiness. Can’t be happy if you are not healthy or not getting healthcare.
We can talk about all the abuses, we can talk about all that it is wrong with Universal Healthcare, when push comes to shove, it is still better that what we have. The Canadian system is terrible until you talk to a Canadian. The system in England is very bad until you talk to a Brit – they all think Americans are nuts when it come to healthcare! I heard the rhetoric so I asked many friends in Canada, I called some in the UK and they all said the same thing – America has the best technology but the worst delivery systems for that technology. So, they feel that access is the best when it is available. The long waits that we hear about. True, but that is in areas and towns where there are limited facilities – much like we have in Texas, central California, the Dakotas, etc.
So, what is the point? We have an opportunity to tell our government that enough is enough. Medicare for all – it works and will work forever when healthier citizens are paying into the system, not just covering the oldest, least healthiest part of our population. That would be the best group plan ever!
You decide!
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