Make no mistake.  One of the central issues in this election is reforming a healthcare system that is designed to generate large profits for the insurance and pharmaceutical companies.  Blue Cross just provided more ammunition for why the parasitic insurance industry must be dismantled and destroyed, not given a seat at the table.

Blue Cross of California is asking physicians to violate confidentiality and report pre-existing conditions that new members may have omitted so their insurance coverage can be cancelled.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Citing an effort to hold down costs, health insurance giant Blue Cross wants doctors in California to report conditions it could use to cancel new patients' medical coverage, it was reported Tuesday.

The state's largest for-profit health insurer is sending physicians copies of health insurance applications filled out by new patients, along with a letter advising them that the company has a right to drop members who fail to disclose "material medical history," the Los Angeles Times reported on its Web site.

- Source

I was just over at HuffPo and saw this defense of Senator Obama on health care.

I read it and shook my head.

What it fails to take into account is the shocking fact of MURDER.

Yesterday I wrote a blog about a young man with a serious brain injury who is slowly recovering at Palomar Medical Center.
Blue Cross California wanted to terminate his treatment and shunt him off to a nursing home, or send him home.

That diary sank without a trace, buried in a flood of opinion pieces about candidates, and that is sad. I was hoping that enough people would read it to make a noise that would cause Blue Cross to reverse its decision.

Well, so much for the power of the internet. Apparently Hillary and Obama are just so much more of a vital topic that everyone and their brother had to chip in their two cents.

Hardly anyone read it, and that is too bad, because this case pretty much outlines what we have to look forward to if certain pols get elected. Medicine by bureaucrats flying a desk, determining what course to take. I am disgusted, both by the lack of attention Scott Eveland's story got, and the treatment he's getting from Blue Cross California.

Original diary here:
http://www.dailykos.com/...

The Atlanta Journal–Constitution / ajc.com       @issue      Friday, December 21, 2007/ A19
             
Private health insurance offers us sickly benefits

I wrote this opinion piece to share my experience with others who might advocate private health insurance as a solution for America's health care crisis.

This is the lead story on the LA Times today.  I am not calling it a present but a blessing.  It is nothing that has been given but a recognition of what is only fair.  What is only fair today is a blessing.

The court backs rights of the insured.

The unanimous decision by the 4th District Court of Appeal to Santa Ana is the latest blow to California insurance companies and the way they handle policy cancellations after patients get sick and amass major medical claims.

No this isn't an anti-war diary, not tonight.  I am writing about my own circumstances with healthcare insurance and the medical industry.  I know, I know, it has been diaried to death, but I have to type something about my utter disbelief and frustration regarding private medical insurance.  I have insurance and quite honestly I am very lucky many of you would say.  But, please bear with me.

Just when you though Blue Cross/Blue Shield could not get more thoroughly evil, they go out and prove you wrong. As Markos tries to get those murderers to cover a basic CT scan, a Kansas City woman has a bigger problem: Blue Cross/Blue Shield is refusing to pay for her miscarriage claim, saying that in fact she had an "elective abortion."

As some you have been reading NYEVE's diaries on the total abuse by Blue Cross towards it's policy holders, you'll have seen my comments once or twice & maybe even 1 of my diaries as well.
My journey began on October 31st, 2005 when Blue Cross cancelled my policy while I was in the hospital for emergency surgery to repair a strangulated hernia. Yes, Blue Cross cancelled my policy retro-actively.
I was never late with a payment & I used a low income clinic when seeking medical services, such as control for my high blood pressure & hypertension.
I had also used the Blue Cross dental plan on two different occasions.
While reading the Health Section from the Los Angeles Times, I ran across an advertisement from an attorney, who is starting to file cases against Blue Cross for cancelled policies without cause.

Profit-hungry health insurance companies are not just screwing their policyholders, they're also screwing health care providers.

Aside from the tremendous administrative costs that most doctors have to incur to make insurance companies live up to their contracts, doctors also have to deal with ever-shrinking reimbursements for services.

A group of specialist doctors in Ventura County, Calif., have had enough, and are telling Blue Cross, the largest insurance company they have to deal with (about 30 percent of the market), to go pound sand.

That is, they are dropping out of the Blue Cross network because of a new reimbursement schedule that is, for some, even less than Medicare's.

Details below.

The answer:  Maybe not.

In 2005 the California Medical Association (CMA) conducted a survey (www.cmanet.org/upload/medicare_survey_2005.pdf) of California physicians.  23,000 CMA members received the survey and 490 responded.  So why am I reporting old news?  Because this past January Medicare again reduced the disbursement rate to physicians and Blue Cross just notified doctors that they are doing the same.  

Medicare has been cutting payments to doctors for many years. In 2002 New York Times reported a 4.4% cut in payments.

Go here for live webchat.

BlueCross Secret Memo Re: 'Sicko' ... "You would have to be dead to be unaffected by Moore's movie..."

I looked and don't see that anybody has diaried this yet, if I missed it I apologize.  I subscribe to Michael Moore's listserve and this came on my email this morning.

An excerpt from the email:

An employee who works at Capital BlueCross has sent us a confidential memo written and circulated by its Vice President of Corporate Communications, Barclay Fitzpatrick. His job, it seems, was to go and watch "Sicko," observe the audience's reaction, and then suggest a plan of action for how to deal with the movie.

The memo, which I am releasing publicly in this email, is a fascinating look at how one health care company views "Sicko" -- and what it fears its larger impact will be on the public. The industry's only hope, the memo seems to indicate, is if the movie "flops."

Follow me after the fold.

(this post is a combination of two published on the Working Californians blog)

California is in the midst of a big push for health care reform this year.  There are three proposals on the table.  None of them are perfect, but would help cover millions of those currently uninsured and bring some desperately needed reforms to how these insurance companies operate.

We are so stupid. And so shortsighted. And, in the end, our stupidity will be our undoing.

How's this for stupid?

Medical tourism, that is, the phenomenon of uninsured and underinsured Americans traveling overseas for healthcare is being institutionalized.

This is a bad development.  This means that as a society we have decided that health care is not a basic human right.  Even worse, we have decided that health care in America is available only if you can pay for it.  

We have decided that if you're an American citizen who works hard and plays by the rules you are not entitled to the same healthcare as Members of Congress.

Could someone give me the name of one Member of Congress who's gone to Thailand or India for a surgical procedure?

These grotesque decisions are all about a total breakdown and failure of leadership. Even our Presidential candidates won't commit to making affordable and guaranteed health care a basic American right for every one of us.

Tomorrow is a historic day.  Just as we read of another life ruined by insurance...see below...nurses and patients are mobilizing for what will be the largest rally in American history for guaranteed healthcare.  A historic day, and, finally, hope to an end of Murder by Blue Shield and all the other insurance corporations.

Brought to you by the National Nurses Organizing Committee as we organize to make 2007 the Year of GUARANTEED Healthcare.

(cross-posted from Working Californians)

We have an emerging villain in the health care debate in California and that is the behemoth Blue Cross.  They are the only major insurer who is opposing Arnold's health care plan.  Blue Cross is making bank on the current system and opposes any change that might hurt their huge profits.  It isn't just their opposition to reform that puts then in the big bad category.  How they conduct their business is reason enough.

Last week Californian physicians and hospitals joined a lawsuit against Blue Cross, accusing the company of failing to pay countless millions for medical care for their customers.  See, they have this nice little habit of canceling people's policies when they get sick and not paying what they owe.  This only happens for individual policy holders.  Then the patients are stuck with the bill.  

This is a tale of two bad California Blues.

One is called Blue Shield.

The other is known as Blue Cross.

We'll just call them The Big Bad Blues.

The Big Bad Blues hate you and they hate me, but they love takin' your $$$$$.

The coming health battle royale in California reminds us what we should have remembered from 1993: insurance corporations will kick, claw, and deceive to stop any healthcare reforms.  This time, it’s Blue Cross out to sink Arnold’s healthcare plan—which is ironic, because it's a huge gift to insurers, with the tiny caveat that their profits would be capped at 15%.  But why have a 15% profit margin, when you can have a 27%?  That's un-American!

Meanwhile, guaranteed healthcare, with "Medicare for All" or single-payer financing, gets re-introduced in the Golden State, a Brooklyn hospital is suing the insurance companies for conspiracy, the "employer mandate" to provide insurance is dead, and FINALLY the business press is starting to notice the economic catastrophe that is our healthcare sector.  That’s your updates from the fight for guaranteed healthcare—details below the fold...

Brought to you by the National Nurses Organizing Committee as we organize to make 2007 the Year of GUARANTEED Healthcare

Every single one.

Blue Cross in California has been routinely cancelling the coverage of women who (horrors!) become pregnant, or people who (heaven forfend!) get sick and need medical care.

Kudos to NCEve and others who have been diarying steadily and conscientiously about the health care scadal that is our current insurance system.  The yo-yo (You're on your own) policies of our government, not limited to republican or democratic leaders, alas, is that if you get sick you are screwed.

More below the appendectomy...