All this waste - letters, forms, communications, public relations, fights, litigation, secret messages, ill will... for what?  For more profit generated on the backs of the sick?

All waste, all of it.  Both the horrendous additional expense and the rapacious profit.

Single player dispenses with ALL of this.  At a stroke.

See at:

http://pnhp.org/...

WellPoint's Blue Cross of California remains a leader in introducing innovations that reduce expenditures for health care. By limiting spending on health care they have been able to market their insurance products at highly competitive premiums, thereby reaping profits on this large, very healthy sector of our population.

As we have seen before, Blue Cross's very successful business model is often in conflict with the mission of physicians and other professionals to provide the health care that patients need. This letter to physicians has a particularly nefarious intent.

Since Blue Cross is paying these physicians a set amount per patient per month (capitation), the physicians themselves are providing an insurance function of assuming risk. Patients with greater health care needs result in a loss since the expenses required to care for them are greater, sometimes much greater, than the capitation payment made by Blue Cross.

So now we see why a physician might consider "ratting" on his or her own patient even though it would result in a rescission of the patient's insurance policy. Blue Cross does not have to put in print the very strong message of this letter, even though it will jump out between the lines.

"Doctor, your dishonest patient who lied on the insurance application will result in a financial loss for you, not to mention the need to provide additional professional services for which you will not be compensated. Fortunately, you can prevent this loss by notifying us of any medical condition that will allow us to rescind this unfair insurance contract."

To enhance profits, the private insurance industry is destroying the sacred relationship between the patient and his or her health care professional.

And the politicians are campaigning with the message that we can keep the private insurance we have. Who would want to?

sigh, I'm on hold with them now....thank god I was totally forthcoming about my toddlers' minor physical conditions when I signed up.  The denied family coverage for 6 months, only allowing individual coverage with very high deductibles, but if I hadn't mentioned these minor things, I'm convinced they would have cancelled my son's coverage when it was discovered he had allergies, asthma, and needed his tonsils out.

In Michigan, they are non-profit and wonderful.  Most people in this state will take BC/BS over any other insurer.  

this is beyond shameful. Can this day get any worse for us?