Amazingly, insurance companies look like they will come out of this

[rurallib]

in fine shape with their public image little changed.
For those who were the base cause of this entire mess, they come out pretty well.
Props to the media for refocusing everything on non-issues and keeping their cash cows healthy.

[valerief]

1. And probably richer with all kinds of sweetheart govt deals. nt

[Rosa Luxemburg]

2. Money talks!

[csziggy]

3. That may change if Jerry Brown can make cases against them in California

HMO claims-rejection rates trigger state investigation

California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown is joining state regulators in scrutinizing the payment practices of seven major health plans in response to complaints from physicians and hospitals. California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown is joining state regulators in scrutinizing how HMOs review and pay insurance claims submitted by doctors, hospitals and other medical providers. His announcement came Thursday as regulators said they had stepped up scrutiny of the payment practices of the state's seven largest health plans in response to complaints from physicians and hospitals.

The increased attention also comes on the heels of a first-of-its-kind report issued this week that said the California health insurers reject 1 in 5 medical claims. Six of the state's largest insurers rejected 45.7 million claims for medical care, or 22% of all claims, from 2002 to June 30, 2009, according to the California Nurses Assn.'s analysis of data submitted to regulators by the companies.


The rejection rates ranged from a high of 39.6% for PacifiCare to 6.5% for Aetna for the first half of 2009. Cigna denied 33%, and Health Net 30%. Anthem Blue Cross, the state's largest for-profit health plan, and Kaiser, the state's largest nonprofit plan, each rejected 28% of claims.

More: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-insure4-2009sep04,0,4503502.story

Consumer group says UnitedHealth, Wellpoint broke Calif. labor code

A Santa Monica group has urged California Attorney General Jerry Brown to probe whether the nation’s two largest health insurers have asked their workers to lobby Congress — during business hours — to weaken health reform. Consumer Watchdog on Wednesday said in a letter to Brown that Minnetonka-based UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE: UNH) and Wellpoint Inc. (NYSE: WLP) of Indianapolis have launched national campaigns to individually “assist” employees in writing and calling members of Congress. The coercion, the Santa Monica group states, is illegal under the California Labor Code.

UnitedHealth described the accusation, and others like it, as "particularly disappointing."

"We have stressed repeatedly that we strongly support bipartisan reform to modernize health care and improve access to quality care on a sustainable basis for all Americans," UnitedHealth said in a statement. The company added that the company gave employees information to voluntarily contact elected officials, and that workers were told to participate as individuals, not on behalf of the company.

Santa Monica-based Consumer Watchdog provided a copy of the letter that UnitedHealthcare sent to 75,000 employees. Media reports state the note was addressed from the company’s executive vice president and chief of medical affairs, Reed Tuckson. The note urges employees to speak to an advocacy group. Anthem’s note asks employees to write or call Congress and encourage them to “pass responsible and sustainable health care reform.”

More: http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/stories/2009/08/31/daily54.html

[CoffeeCat]

4. The media put the focus on the wrong fight...

The media spotlighted the stupid, angry fools at those town-hall meetings. They concocted a fight
between the town hollers and the rest of America that wants reform.

The real fight is between the insurance companies and the American people.

You have to hand it to the Republicans. They don't f(*k around. This was strategically crafted in some
board room. Deflect with a manufactured chaos. This plan used right-wing radio blowhards to whip up
their listeners into an angry lather, attend those meetings and then the cameras would zoom in.

Define and deflect they did.

Has anyone heard one bad thing about any insurance company--and all the murderous decisions they've made throughout the years.
There are millions of those stories. Barely any Congress person mentioned any of that, nor did I hear Obama either.

No one is working for us. No one.

[Cleita]

5. California Nurses came up with a damning study today of

health care denials from the most prominent health care insurers in California including two that I had to deal with before I got Medicare and they did it using their own data. This should tarnish their little brass balls somewhat. http://www.calnurses.org/

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

8. The California Nurses Association is amazing!

God bless them for their front line advocacy and no bs tolerance.

They are fighting our battles and probably putting their jobs and futures on the line. They are the inheritors of the miners who confronted the mine owners and Pinkerton agents. They speak for all of us, whether we recognize it or not.

[DJ13]

6. What a coincedence

Same as the banks after putting us in a new depression.

See a pattern?

[rurallib]

7. We can easily be misled, divided and beaten.

[WeDidIt]

9. Hell, they're about to have the biggest windfall in history

The biggest transfer of wealth from the middle class to a very few rich people is about to be mandated by the fucking Democratic Party.