“Are they going to try to storm the building?” a man in a dark business suit asked a colleague inside the Capitol Hilton ballroom, during a break in the America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) conference this afternoon. “Or are we not going to let that happen?”
Directly outside the Hilton's well-guarded doors, about a hundred protesters had gathered to denounce the rapacious insurance executives they believed to be inside the Hilton. It was impossible to make out their chants from inside the hotel, but that didn’t stop the conference attendees from trying to pull back the gauzy beige curtains to take a peek at the crowd. Crowding the sidewalk and spilling down the street, the protesters wielded signs reading “Insurance Profits--Bad!” as their pitchforks.
Health Care for America Now! (HCAN), the group behind the demonstration, trotted out seven families who said they’d suffered directly at the hands of the insurance industry, and they demanded that AHIP President Karen Ignagni come out by 3 p.m. to meet them. Richard Kirsch, HCAN’s national campaign manager, told the crowd that Ignagni made $1.6 million last year and denounced her for lacking “the guts, courage, and basic decent humanity to look [the families] in the eye." After all, Kirsch pointed out, did she show up? “No!” the crowd screamed. “They’re all scared,” he concluded.
Back inside the Hilton, the conference attendees weren’t exactly quaking in their boots--most were just helping themselves to coffee and granola bars before the next session began. In the ballroom, a Pennsylvania representative from BlueCross BlueShield noted that the industry had successfully warded off a 2-percent tax on insurance comampanies that the state government had been trying to impose to raise revenue. “Point for the evil empire," he said, with a self-deprecating laugh.Downstairs in the lobby, one woman attending the conference admitted that she didn’t even work for an insurance company--she helped state governments manage their insurance issues. Peering out at the chanting, sign-waving demonstrators, she concluded: “I guess everyone has to make someone [else] evil.”
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COMMENTS (4)
In popular culture, the phrase "Let them eat cake" is often attributed to Marie Antoinette. However, there is no evidence to support that she ever uttered this phrase, and it is now generally regarded as a "journalistic cliché"[89] which first appeared in The Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.[90] -wikipedia
In popular culture, the phrase "Let them eat cake" is often attributed to Marie Antoinette. However, there is no evidence to support that she ever uttered this phrase, and it is now generally regarded as a "journalistic cliché"[89] which first appeared in The Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.[90] -wikipedia
The way in which Khimm approaches this is typical.
The kumbaya demonstrators and the evil insurance corporations trotting out their anecdotes and their victums to demonize each other.
What gets left out of course is how political and economic power meld to sustain this fiasco they are fighting over.
How were Washington and New York interwined in the creation on a healthcare delivery system that rejected the far more inclusive, progressive approach of all our democratic allies? And how are they still interwined to produce "reform" legislation in which advocating a "public option" [like, say, the VA and medicare?] is something you almost have to apologize for before broaching. And single payer? ... view full comment
The way in which Khimm approaches this is typical.
The kumbaya demonstrators and the evil insurance corporations trotting out their anecdotes and their victums to demonize each other.
What gets left out of course is how political and economic power meld to sustain this fiasco they are fighting over.
How were Washington and New York interwined in the creation on a healthcare delivery system that rejected the far more inclusive, progressive approach of all our democratic allies? And how are they still interwined to produce "reform" legislation in which advocating a "public option" [like, say, the VA and medicare?] is something you almost have to apologize for before broaching. And single payer? Pure poison.
Hopefully, Mr. Cohn and the folks at "Health Care Reform: Will It Work?" will begin to turn things around with a brand new collection of inflection points.
george
Angry customers are nothing new for health insurance executives. I think they're likely to be blase about such things. In the early 80s -- long before the current "crisis," and at a time when health insurance profits and executive compensation was nothing like it is today -- I worked on several health insurance accounts as a young advertising copywriter. I'll never forget my first visit to our regional Blue Cross executive offices; the security (armed guards, check points, electronic scanning, sign in sheets, name tags, etc., etc.) was unreal. You would have thought we were visiting Langley. I had never before (or since) encountered that kind of screening, or seen such blatantly displayed se ... view full comment
Angry customers are nothing new for health insurance executives. I think they're likely to be blase about such things. In the early 80s -- long before the current "crisis," and at a time when health insurance profits and executive compensation was nothing like it is today -- I worked on several health insurance accounts as a young advertising copywriter. I'll never forget my first visit to our regional Blue Cross executive offices; the security (armed guards, check points, electronic scanning, sign in sheets, name tags, etc., etc.) was unreal. You would have thought we were visiting Langley. I had never before (or since) encountered that kind of screening, or seen such blatantly displayed security, at any company's headquarters -- including financial institutions and major military contractors. At the time, I presumed that the life and death nature of the business lent itself to threats, at times, from desperate and/or grief stricken policy holders. I would think angry and desperate customers are even more prevalent today.
Seriously, though, how f***ked up is this?:
http://huffpostfund.org/stories/2009/10/rape-victims-choice-risk-aids-or...
Turner had let the men buy her drinks at a bar in Fort Lauderdale. The next thing she knew, she said, she was lying on a roadside with cuts and bruises that indicated she had been raped. She never developed an HIV infection. But months later, when she lost her health insurance and sought new coverage, she ran into a problem.
Turner, 45, who used to be a health insurance underwri ... view full comment
Seriously, though, how f***ked up is this?:
http://huffpostfund.org/stories/2009/10/rape-victims-choice-risk-aids-or...
Turner had let the men buy her drinks at a bar in Fort Lauderdale. The next thing she knew, she said, she was lying on a roadside with cuts and bruises that indicated she had been raped. She never developed an HIV infection. But months later, when she lost her health insurance and sought new coverage, she ran into a problem.
Turner, 45, who used to be a health insurance underwriter herself, said the insurance companies examined her health records. Even after she explained the assault, the insurers would not sell her a policy because the HIV medication raised too many health questions. They told her they might reconsider in three or more years if she could prove that she was still AIDS-free.
...
Turner’s story about HIV drugs is not unusual, said Cindy Holtzman, an insurance agent and expert in medical billing at Medical Refund Service, Inc. of Marietta, Ga. Insurers generally categorize HIV-positive people as having a pre-existing condition and deny them coverage. Holtzman said that health insurance companies also consistently decline coverage for anyone who has taken anti-HIV drugs, even if they test negative for the virus. “It’s basically an automatic no,” she said.
Pisano, of the insurance trade group, said: “If you put down on a form that you are or were taking anti-HIV drugs at any time, they [the insurance companies] are going to understand that you are or were in treatment for HIV, period. That could be a factor in determining whether you get coverage."