Insurance companies (& Romney brother), open banks to push junk insurance

Health insurers see big bucks in the Consumer Directed High Deductible business and the Health Savings Accounts (HSA) often attached to this junk insurance.

G. Scott Romney, the brother of Mitt Romney is on the Board of the newly chartered Blue Cross Bank.  What in the world is Blue Cross doing chartering banks?  Making money from selling junk insurance to desperate Americans.

Keep in mind healthcare in the United States is about one thing only, moving money. As I've explained in previous diaries, the goal is to take money out of our pockets and put it into the swelling coffers of the for-profit insurance industry.  Indeed the banking industry sees the collapse of our healthcare system as a vehicle to huge profits in the form of fees, heart-stopping late payment and interest charges and other financial sleigh-of hand.

And everything you'll read here is legal. It's legal in the United States to have 48 million uninsured citizens. It's legal to spend more on healthcare than any other industrialized nation and have inferior healthcare outcomes. It's legal to sell desperate people junk insurance.

Now it's even legal to require American citizens to buy junk insurance!

You can read the diary I wrote about this sad state of affairs here:

Collapse of U.S. health system generates huge fees for Citibank and others

http://www.dailykos.com/...

For profit health insurers are not going to allow  this lucrative business and money go to the banking industry, so they too are opening banking to fund the junk insurance they sell.

UnitedHealth knew five years ago that High Deductible would be the Republican solution to our national shame and joined the racket by forming a bank called Exante.

Exante Financial Services, a division of UnitedHealth Group, was established in January 2002 to enhance the health and well-being industry by integrating proven platforms of the financial services sector. Our mission is to bring innovation, reliability and security to benefits delivery, health care administration and transactional processes.

Exante Financial Services includes Exante Bank, a Utah-state chartered industrial bank corporation located in Salt Lake City. Together we form a leading end-to-end, integrated, financial institution solely devoted to the health care industry.

http://www.exantefinancialservices.c...

Exante, the UnitedHealth outfit, remarkably recognizes right on its own web site the tragedies inherent in junk insurance. That patients defer and delay healthcare because of the unaffordability factor.  But this is America, and as we know all too well, whether it's Iraq, Katrina or the collapse of our healthcare system, one person's tragedy is big money for the connected and corrupt Bushco insiders.

Seeming without shame, Exante acknowledges this grotesque situation and coaches doctors on how to respond when their patients must consider foregoing expensive treatment recommendation because of prohibitive costs and the intrusion of financial realities.

This change creates new opportunities for physicians and other health care professionals to offer information, advice, and coaching to your patients concerning the pros and cons of various courses of treatment. Such assistance is especially critical when your patients decide to forego treatment for financial reasons. According to a recent article in Physician’s Practice, providers may find patients who:

Avoid making an appointment when mildly ill, which may increase the risk of a more complex illness;

• Make the decision not to make appointments for prescribed tests;
• Make the decision not to fill prescriptions;
• Make the decision not to see a specialist as recommended by their primary care physician;
• Make the decision not to return for a follow-up visit or for routine visits (such as for patients with high blood pressure whom the physician wants to see semi annually)."

By preparing a well-informed and persuasive response ahead of time, practitioners can implement a decisive, effective and consistent method for handling your patients’ misunderstandings and resistance under these and similar circumstances.

http://www.exantefinancialservices.c...

Moving along, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association announced in a February 13, 2007 press release that it had just received a charter to offer banking services in all 50 states. Nice, huh.

Blue Healthcare Bank Receives Federal Regulatory Approval
Bank Is Financial Centerpiece of Blue Cross and Blue Shield Companies’ Commitment to Growing Consumer-Directed Market

The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) announced today approval by the Office of Thrift Supervision of its application for a Federal Savings Bank charter for the Blue Healthcare Bank.  The charter allows the Blue Healthcare Bank to provide healthcare-related banking services in all 50 states.  The bank is located in Sandy, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City.

"More and more Americans are taking greater control of their healthcare choices by enrolling in consumer-directed health plans (CDHPs), such as health savings accounts (HSAs).  As this trend continues, consumers will be in greater need of reliable financial services," said Scott P. Serota, BCBSA president and CEO.  "The Blue Healthcare Bank responds by providing consumers with access to a trusted and secure financial resource to help them efficiently manage their healthcare dollars."  

http://www.bcbs.com/...

The leadership and Board of Directors of the Blue Cross Bank is a rogues gallery of Republican special interests, what is politely called crony capitalism.

President and Chief Executive Officer of Blue Healthcare Bank is Robert C. Gross. Gross was at one time, Chief of staff to then Utah Governor Michael Leavitt (now Bush HHS sectretary), then Gross moved to failure in Iraq.

Bob was later appointed in 1996, by then Utah Governor Michael O. Leavitt, to oversee the formation of Utah's Department of Workforce Services (DWS) as its founding Executive Director. Under his leadership, Utah's DWS became widely recognized as one of the leading and most progressive state agencies in the United States.   During his tenure with the State of Utah, Bob served additionally as Governor Leavitt's Chief of Staff and was also elected by his colleagues from the states and territories as the President of the National Association of State Workforce Agencies.

After he left state government in 2002, Bob formed Strategic Impact LLC, a full service government affairs and management consulting firm based in Salt Lake City and Washington DC, representing organizations interacting with local, state, and the federal government policy makers and elected officials.  In late 2003, Bob took a leave of absence, at the request of the White House, to serve as the Senior Advisor to the Iraqi Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and work directly with Coalition Provisional Authority Administrator Ambassador L. Paul Bremer. In that assignment, he worked and lived continuously in Baghdad's Green Zone from January until the transition of sovereignty in June, 2004, when he returned to the United States.

http://www.bcbs.com/...

It includes G. Scott Romney, the brother of Republican presidential candidiate and the father of junk insurance in Massachusetts, Mitt Romney. Anyone smell some shit in the air?

You can check out G. Scott Romney here:  http://www.honigman.com/...

And where is Blue Cross Bank chartered? Utah. Courtesy of crony capitalism. Remember Gross worked for Leavitt, Leavitt was governor of Utah.  That stench is getting worse by the second.

CHICAGO — The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) announced today approval by the Office of Thrift Supervision of its application for a Federal Savings Bank charter for the Blue Healthcare Bank.  The charter allows the Blue Healthcare Bank to provide healthcare-related banking services in all 50 states.  The bank is located in Sandy, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City.

http://www.bcbs.com/...

SANDY, UTAH –

Gov. Jon M. Huntsman, Jr., joined other state, local and business officials in celebrating the opening of the Blue Healthcare Bank, a leader in financial healthcare services established by participating Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies.  The bank, located in Sandy, Utah, will provide banking services in all 50 states.

"Utah's strong economy and business-friendly environment attracts world-class organizations like the Blue Healthcare Bank," said Gov. Huntsman.  "We are proud to be associated with this endeavor of the participating Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies and to also support business efforts that empower consumers."

Blue Healthcare Bank's Sandy office opens with 24 professional-level employees, with plans to expand to more than 50 full-time employees in the next three years.  The bank received regulatory approval as a Federal Savings Bank by the Office of Thrift Supervision in December 2006.

"We are excited to be part of Utah's dynamic business environment.  The Blue Healthcare Bank will bring leadership and energy to the consumer healthcare financial services market," said Scott P. Serota, Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association president and CEO, in remarks at the ribbon cutting ceremony.

http://www.bcbs.com/...

This is revolting and heartbreaking--there are no other words to describe what's going on here. This is a legal scam of the American people orchestrated at the highest levels of our government. As you can see, Consumer Directed Health Care is an ill-disguised racket to move money into the pockets of the for-profit insurance industry.

Follow the money, this has nothing to do with healthcare or providing affordable insurance. It's about feeding the for-profit healthcare beast and other powerful special interests.

This racket has evolved into a sophisticated network which includes heavily connected officials primarily within the Republican party, banks and other financial institutions.

This is a massive, grotesque and on-going fraud against the American people.

Make no mistake, the fight for single-payer is a ferocious take no prisioners battle. There's too much money at stake.