UPDATE: Health Care for America NOW released a report yesterday showing that insurance company profits have risen 51 percent since 2008. Now, back to your regularly scheduled premium increases below.
Remember how big-profit California insurer Anthem Blue Cross tried to raise rates 39 percent last year?! Remember how their attempt to do so energized the health reform debate right at the point that it was dying post-Scott Brown election?
Well, the greedy bastards at WellPoint -- home of super rich, breast cancer-patient-hating CEO Angela "I'm as Cold as Ice" Braly -- want more California blood to suck.
You thought 39 percent was bad?! How about 40 percent now, baby?! Angela Braly's getting a new pair of shoes! The San Francisco Chronicle reports:
A year after California's Anthem Blue Cross -- owned by mega-corporation WellPoint -- created a public uproar by proposing rate hikes as high as 39 percent, the health insurer is at it again.
Many Anthem policyholders who buy their coverage as individuals say the company has notified them to prepare for another rate increase effective May 1. This would create a cumulative rise in rates in excess of 40 percent for some consumers in less than a year.
San Francisco resident Alison Heath and her husband will have to pay 26 percent more beginning in May, along with higher co-payments and deductibles. That's on top of a 16 percent increase last year. Heath figures she and her husband will be paying about $17,700 a year for health insurance.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/...
OH MY FUCKING GOD?! There are people in America paying $17,700 for the privilege of not going even more broke if they get cancer. This is an -- say it with me Bernie Sanders -- outrage!
Sorry, kids, we can't have Christmas presents this year because Angela Braly needs new shoes.
Sorry, kids, we can't eat tonight because Angela Braly needs a new BMV.
Sorry, kids, we can't buy you a calculator for algebra class because Angela Braly needs to earn tens of millions more per year than the President of the United States -- you know, the guy responsible for the entire 310 million people in America, not just shuffling around some money, which is all worthless, evil, immoral, unethical, un-fucking-necessary big-profit insurance companies do all day long.
The mega-profit health insurance companies are extorting the American people plain and simple. Pretty soon, all of our disposable income will go to health insurance premiums. This really is a crime:
"I almost feel like I'm a victim of a crime," said Heath, 55, who doubts she could find alternative coverage because of minor pre-existing conditions. "It's like I have a gun to my head. I have to pay because I'm not willing to live without insurance."
Of course, the health insurers like to LIE about medical costs rising too quickly, but how can insurance premiums rise by double digits several times a year, when medical costs are only rising by low-single-digits once a year? Angela Braly is a greedy schmuck.
And, if you have Aetna in California, rest assured that your rates will be going up, too:
Individual policy holders with Blue Shield and Aetna will also face higher premiums on May 1st.
Wondering why? Well, let's just say the new CEO of Aetna, Mark "I Raise Rates to Increase Profits and Drop Policyholders" Bertolini, likes his wine served in a mountainside hot tub. The Hartford Courant shares:
My predecessor in the insurance beat, Diane Levick, wrote a profile of Mark Bertolini who will take over when Ron Williams retires. Here is Diane's story which appeared on the Courant's front page Aug. 26, 2007:
Mark Bertolini and his wife, Susan, just back from Italy in 2001, were sipping Vernaccia di San Gimignano wine in the hot tub of their spacious Avon Mountain home and reveling in their good fortune.
They marveled at their rise from humble beginnings, their two smart and healthy kids, and ``that the world was at peace,'' recalls Mark, a CIGNA executive at the time.
Sorry, kids, you can't have new shoes this year because your insurance company CEO needs to be able to drink the finest wine in the hot tub outside his mansion.
In every other country on the face of the Earth it is illegal to profit off of basic health insurance. We need single-payer, we need a public option, we need non-profit private plans nationwide -- we need something other than the status quo. California One Care, a single-payer proposal for our biggest state, is a good start.
Don't stop fighting! There is no reason on the face of this Earth that Mark and Angela deserve a cent more of our money for leading cruel, inhumane companies that do nothing more than run protection rackets disguised as health "insurance."