You would think that bringing onstage yet another health insurance company exec whose attitudes toward the poor and the sick would shame Genghis Khan might make our so-called representatives think twice about who they're getting in bed with.
Take Angela Braly, the CEO of Wellpoint, and her testimony in front of the House Energy and Commerce Committee about that outrageous Anthem Blue Cross rate hike. She had no choice, she said. The doctors made her do it.
Anthem Blue Cross, a unit of WellPoint, recently informed subscribers in California that premiums for individual insurance policies would rise an average of 25 percent, with some rates going up as much as 39 percent.
"Raising our premiums was not something we wanted to do," Ms. Braly said. "But we believe this was the most prudent choice, given the rising cost of care and the problems caused by many younger and healthier policyholders dropping or reducing their coverage during tough economic times. By law, premiums must be reasonable in relationship to benefits provided, which means they need to reflect the known and anticipated costs they will cover."
The increases in premiums are driven by prices charged by doctors, hospitals, drug companies and other suppliers, and by increases in the use of health care by an aging population, Ms. Braly said.
"For 2010," Ms. Braly said, "we expect hospital inpatient and outpatient costs in California to grow by over 10 percent, driven primarily by hospital reimbursement rates. Additionally, we expect pharmacy costs in California to grow by over 13 percent."
(emphasis added)
This is what Consumer Watchdog calls "evasion".
When Wellpoint CEO Angela Braly doesn't like a question, she's a regular Houdini of evasion and blame-shifting. Her testimony in front of Congress today managed to turn denial of health care into "efficiency" and put the blame for 39% yearly premium increases onto Blue Cross policyholders who dared to get sick.
Braly described the public outrage over the unaffordable premium increases as "a triumph of soundbites over substance," even after sitting through the testimony of three customers whose economic lives are being ruined by their health insurance premiums. When Rep. Peter Welch of Vermont challenged the profit-above-all demands of Blue Cross, and called it an "insustainable business model," Braly simply claimed that "We are on customers' side" and blamed the anger on "so much misunderstanding" about rate increases. She called the wave of anger against her company a "triumph of sound bites over substance."
What planet is this CEO living on? Oh, never mind. I know the answer. It's Planet Public Relations, where you never answer the question you've been asked. You just answer the one you wanted to be asked.
Braly also told the House subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations that her No. 1 suggestion for reducing health care costs was "malpractice reform." No, that doesn't mean reducing medical malpractice. It just means barring patients' right to hold bad doctors and insurance companies accountable in court--even though such lawsuits account for less than 1% of medical costs, far less than insurance company profits. To see what Braly's idea of malpractice reform would mean, check out the story of Steven Olsen, left blind and severely, permanently brain-damaged by an insurers' refusal of emergency care when he was 2.
Yes, why don't we do that very thing.
At 20 years old, Steven Olsen is blind and brain damaged. He will never live a "normal" or independent life because, as a jury ruled, he was a victim of medical negligence when he was two. Steven was hiking in the woods with his family and fell hard on a stick, which punctured his sinus. Under the family's HMO plan, the emergency room doctor pumped Steven up with steroids and sent him away, although his parents had repeatedly asked for a CAT scan because they knew Steven was not well. Steven returned to the hospital hours later comatose.
At trial, medical experts testified that had he received the $800 CAT scan, which would have detected a growing brain mass, Steven would have his sight and be healthy today. The jury awarded $7.1 million in "non-economic" damages for Steven's avoidable life of darkness and suffering. The jury, however, was not told of a two decade old restriction on non-economic damages in the state.
The judge was forced to reduce the amount to $250,000. It's this one-size-fits-all damages cap, unchanged for inflation after 35 years, that Republicans are recommending for America now.
And that our Change President is perfectly willing to accept. No change. Status quo ante. Which is Latin for same old-same old. House Democrats, even anti-woman Bart S (no, not Simpson, though the similarities between them are eerie), is having a much harder time with that, but not so hard they won't vote for the Senate's pro-industry bill if Obama tells them to.
Braly is defending (and wants to expand) the very "efficiency" that made Steven blind and brain-damaged for life. She is actually justifying such results on the basis of having saved her investors $800. So this...Molochian Monster is who the Blue Dog Dems in the Senate have decided to align themselves with just because she's willing to give them $tens of thousands$ for their campaign chests that should have gone to Steven? How special.
Meanwhile, back at the healthcare kabuki summit, Obama is arguing with Republicans over the shape of the table they'll sit around.
The tussle over the staging of Thursday's meeting suggests the extent to which each side is trying to use it to make overtures not to each other, but to the viewing public. The talks grew especially intense over the seating arrangements, Republican officials said, when the White House at first proposed a U-shaped table with President Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. in the center and Congressional leaders around the sides.
But the table would not have been big enough to accommodate all the lawmakers, pushing some into the chairs reserved for staff members. Republicans balked, and the White House agreed to close the U, so the lawmakers will now be seated around a hollow O-shaped table. Republicans, remembering well how Mr. Obama addressed them from a lectern at the Baltimore event, said it was important for them to have a level playing field.
So now the Pubs are the North Vietnamese in Paris?
Can I move to Canada now? It may be cold but at least I won't die because an insurance company denies me an $800 CAT scan.
UPDATE: (12pm) Think Progress notes that Wellpoint's rate hike covers California and 10 other states. Greed isn't limited by location, I guess. (Via Norwegianity)
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