There's a huge battle unfolding in California which will culminate in a vote on Wednesday about whether Dave Jones the newly elected Insurance Commission can regulate health insurer price gouging.
Currently the California Insurance Commissioner is empowered to regulate myriad insurance products sold in the state, including car, home, business, but not health insurance.
The battle of AB 52 is extremely important--for all of us. It would give state regulators the power to limit health insurance premium increases. I should add that in New York State, we repealed what was called 'file and use', which gave the predators insurance industry the right to raise premiums without any oversight.
Since the repeal in New York State, my anecdotal experience is that premiums are continuing to rise at an unaffordable and alarming rate. Hopefully, there will be way better oversight in California if AB 52 passes, and Commissioner Jones will really crack down on this despicable industry.
Insurance premiums in California across the country are out of control. Not a damn thing has improved on insurer price gouging despite the passage of the Affordable Care Act. The gouging is as bad, if not worse than ever. Starting September 1st, HHS will have the authority to monitor and review premium increase over 10%, but the ACA does not give it any authority to actually prohibit such increases.
At Netroots nation, Wendell Potter, who was on the health policy panel was asked about AB 52, the bill in California which would regulate this predatory industry. Specifically, he was asked about the Blue Shield announcement that it would voluntarily cap profits.
He responded to this self-serving editorialin the San Francisco Chronicle (which I understand is known as the San Francisco Comical) 'written' by the PR department of Blue Shield Bruce Bodaken the CEO of Blue Shield explaining why the company will voluntarily cap its profits.
Wendell's response: It's a PR ploy and 'bullshit'!
Of course it is, coming on the heels of the AB 52 vote. As Wendell says, Blue Shield wants to deflect attention.
[Thank you to DirigoBlue for the videos of the Netroots Nation Health Policy Panel]
How you can help with the battle for AB 52:
Please call these Democrats on the Senate Health Committee and demand that AB 52 go to the floor for an up or down vote. Just like marriage Equality in New York State came before the New York State Senate for an up or down vote.
It is a vote in the Senate Health Committee to pass the bill out of committee so that it can be voted on by the entire Senate.
Senator Ed Hernandez (Chair) -- 916-651-4024
Senator Elaine Alquist --- 916-651-4013
Senator Kevin de Leon -- 916-651-4022
Senator Mark DeSaulnier (AB 52 co-author) -- 916-651-4007
Senator Michael Rubio -- 916-651-4016
Senator Lois Wolk (AB 52 co-author) -- 916-651-4005
If you live in California, here is a link where you can find the telephone number of your state representative, please call them on Tuesday and make sure they know they must support AB 52.
Wendell is 1000% correct, it's all a PR ploy, designed to deflect attention from what matters to Bruce Bodaken, number one priority, his salary which was $4.6 million in 2010! And Bodaken's Number 2 priority, the defeat of AB 52.
In its report to the state, Blue Shield said that its 10 highest-paid executives earned more than $14 million total last year. The insurer identified the executives only by number, saying each earned $749,643 to $4,601,226. The top earner was listed as "chief executive officer," Bodaken's title.
"It's a totally out-of-proportion salary for a not-for-profit company," Jamie Court, president of the Santa Monica group Consumer Watchdog, said of Bodaken's salary. "This is a salary that would quench the thirst of one of the Fortune 500 companies on Wall Street."
Keep in mind, that only a few months ago, Blue Shield was asking for rate hikes of up to 59%, how is it possible that in a few short months, it needed hikes of 59%, but now it can possibly even offer rebates? This is the nature of price gouging.
Price gouging usually happens after a major natural disaster, like an earthquake or hurricane. We have a situation in the United States of rampant health insurer price gouging as a result of the abject failure of our political system--this is a politician made disaster. It doesn't have to be this way, but it is.
It is because of these parasitic salaries, waste, and our fragmented system, that we in the United States pay way, way more than the rest of the industrialized world and get way, way less.
I want to end by returning for a moment to the uninsured. There will be a free health clinic in New Orleans on August 29th. I'm hoping to attend, to once again video our national catastrophe. We're hoping to compile all the videos I've taken over the years of attending and documenting this national tragedy into a short film.
If you want to make a contribution to this project, that would be very helpful.
The funds donated to the Progressive Congress Action Fund, a 501(C)4 not for profit, will be used to advocate on behalf of the progressive agenda, to advance progressive legislation, and may include payments to individuals engaged in fund raising.
