For years now, I have fielded emails from people who read Daily Kos and think I can help them get the healthcare they desperately need. I can't. I can barely pay for my own healthcare.
I've told these brave human beings that help will arrive--truly thinking this was a dream. I just wanted to give a scared fellow citizen one day of hope.
As I write this is am close to tears, and I ask you to forgive any lapses in grammer or judgement but I've just received another plea.
Another uninsured American. Here's a piece of what she wrote:
I feel a mixture of joy and fear. I know Senator Obama will deliver us from this evil because he speeks so beautifully about his mother who died while battling the insurance company. He is really one of us.
I fear that if he doesn't win, I and many others will die.
So, I did what I've been doing for years. Sometimes I suggest people contact the American Cancer Society for free screenings, other times I tell someone to go to the closest emergency room, and do what millions of our fellow citizens do.
Today, I ended, as usual with, "be strong, help is on the way, please dear friend, please vote."
And today, I believe it. I believe what I wrote, it's not a dream, it's for real.
The other day, I was in Philadelphia with the California Nurses Association, protesting at the headquarters of CIGNA.
We were there with the parents of the late Nataline Sarkisyan.
When I returned to New York, I realized it was earnings season and we'd start to have access to the transcripts of the conference calls the large American corporations conduct with Wall Street analysts.
I decided to see whether CIGNA had posted yet.
There's a huge amount to read in the CIGNA conference call. Here's the take home message from the CEO, Edward Hanway whose five year income (as reported by Forbes), totals $78.31 mil:
As you read this, please remember, you and I are costs. Our premiums dollars are revenue. Every last denial the for-profit insurance industry issues against one of us goes directly to their bottom line.
"Take these costs out."
Ed Hanway
Yes, the only thing I would add, Mike, is just to reiterate that given the competitive environment we see, given the outlook for membership that we see, and given the mix of that membership particularly, we are very, very committed to working hard on the expense piece to drive the expense and the infrastructure down, to have a more appropriate per member expense level.
As David noted, we've got flat spending built in here while we continue to invest. However, that gives us with the membership decline an increase in per member expenses. That's clearly unacceptable. And to Mike's point, we have work underway to identify exactly where and how we take those costs out.
I just think it's a little early for us to be more definitive relative to how much of that benefit is in '09. It's clearly our intention to have a difference in the '09 expense picture vis-à-vis what we have built into our forecast.
http://seekingalpha.com/...
During this conference call it was also announced that CIGNA profits had dropped 53%.
Be strong dear friends, hold on just a little longer, help is really on the way.
Amen.