Insurance industry asks and the Baucus Bill delivers - and the industry wants more
Posted on September 22nd, 2009 by Jason Rosenbaum in Profits Before People
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The Chairman's mark from Senator Max Baucus - the "Baucus Bill" - is truly the insurance industry's bill, as Wendell Potter, former insurance industry executive, says. Now, it's time to fight back.
Click here to send a fax to your insurance company and the members of the Senate Finance Committee, who are right now debating the Baucus Bill. Demand the insurance industry stop spending your premiums to lobby against a public health insurance option and affordable health care.
Why is the Baucus Bill the insurance industry bill?
Back in December, AHIP, the insurance industry trade group and head lobbying front, came out with what they called a "health reform plan," [pdf] putting forward the industry's position on the issue. The paper was full of a lot of vague policy recommendations, sugar-coated to seem people-friendly, but it had a few main points:
- Promote High Deductible Plans: The insurance industry makes the most money on so-called "high deductible plans," otherwise known as junk insurance. This is the kind of insurance where customers discover at the hospital that they're not covered for what they thought they were covered for, and owe a large deductible before they can even access their skimpy benefits. The insurance companies wanted to require everyone to purchase at least these high-deductible plans.
- Set their own benefits: Another way the insurance industry makes money is by "flexible benefit design," another way of saying creatively writing insurance policies to cover as little as possible. The insurance companies wanted to make sure health reform still allowed them to design these kinds of plans.
- Government subsidized private insurance and medical bankruptcies: Insurance companies insisted that everyone in America purchase insurance from them, at their prices, with tax dollars flowing directly to their bank accounts to make these expensive plans affordable for people. If people were still bankrupted by these high-deductible plans, the government was supposed to bail them out and pay their debts to the insurance industry.
- No public option to compete, keep costs low, or hold insurance companies accountable: The insurance industry was clear that they wanted to competition from a public health insurance option that would be capable of lowering their prices, eating into their profits, or keeping them honest.
The four points above lay out a government-subsidized monopoly for private insrurance whereby individuals must purchase at least a high-deductible health plan from private insurers (no public option is endorsed), and government foots the bill through tax credits or subsidies.
The Baucus Bill delivered on that framework in spades. The bill has no public option, requires people to buy private insurance or face stiff penalties, endorses high-deductible junk insurance as an "Essential Benefits Plan," and caps expenses at 12% of income - a level that is nowhere near affordable - with government making up the difference with your tax dollars.
Of course, that's not quite enough for the insurance industry. Today, Karen Ignagni, AHIP's chief lobbyist, sent a letter to Senator Baucus [pdf], asking for him to tie up the loose ends in his framework to fully deliver the insurance industry its bill.
What does Ignagni and the insurance companies want to change?
First, they'd like to remove the tax on the insurance industry's most expensive plans, a tax they say they will pass directly along to consumers.
Next, they'd like more flexibility to define their "benefit packages," and they feel the new national benefit standard, the "essential benefits plan," is too generous. In short, they'd like the freedom to screw you over a bit more. As Wendell Potter explains:
Private insurers “want to have ‘benefit design flexibility.’ Those are three very worrisome words,” Potter said at a briefing arranged by the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank. “By being able to have benefit design flexibility, they will be able to design plans that are so limited that more and more people will be in the ranks of the uninsured.”
To add to that, they'd like to increase the fines for the individual mandate, because apparently the current mandate penalty isn't big enough to force everyone to buy their overpriced products.
They also want to keep their subsidies from Medicare Part D and Medicare Advantage, where the government pays an extra 14% to private insurers to provide the same benefits the government can provide for less.
Finally, they object to co-ops, the undersized, non-profit entities Senator Conrad would like to create as a unsatisfactory replacement for a public health insurance option. Insurance companies have themselves admitted that a co-op would provide no competition, and the CBO agrees [pdf]. However, really Ignagni wants to really earn her multi-million dollar lobbyist salary, and so today, AHIP ludicrously objects to co-ops as unfair competition.
Back in December, the insurance industry asked for a health care plan. Last week, the Baucus Bill delivered. That plan would not be affordable to you, would force you to purchase junk insurance from the private companies that have screwed you over all these years, and would in no way keep the insurance industry honest. It's the "Insurance Industry Profit Protection and Enhancement Act."
In short, under the Baucus Bill, the insurance companies would win and you would lose. And the insurance industry is keeping up the pressure, trying to make it worse for you and better for them.
It's time we fought back. Click here to send a fax to your insurance company and the members of the Senate Finance Committee, who are right now debating the Baucus Bill. Demand the insurance industry stop denying care for pre-existing conditions and stop spending your premiums to pay people like Karen Igagni, who lobby against a public health insurance option.
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No Money For Wal-Mart: Until American Workers Are Respected and Responded To. Store #2615
On March 20, 2008, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Terminated a Sporting Goods Department Manager at Store #2615 even though Wall-mart never provided the four-week training required for department managers.
Moreover, Wall-Mart refused to answer one question asked of them during a so-called thorough, and final investigation conducted by persons UNKNOWN in a letter without a signature or authority line. Why would they to this?
Questions still NOT answered by Wall-Mart Stores #2615 or President and CEO? It seems that American Shoppers have made Wal-Mart A god beside God, and they answers to NO one?
a. How could a thorough investigation be conducted without one interview from the primary person involved? (ME) Was my side of the story reviewed and investigated? Did Wal-Mart provide valid responses to any of my questions in their Final Investigation letter—a year later?
b. Why no signature or authority line in Wal-Mart Letter? Is this Wal-Mart Stores Inc. way of setting the example for Wal-Mart Store Manager Hal at Wal-Mart Store #2615?
c. Who conducted Wal-Mart’s thorough investigation? Why were their names, department, and or job titles NOT included as to that conducted this alleged final and thorough Wal-Mart Investigation of my wrongful termination?
d. Why didn’t Wal-Mart Final Investigation Letter provide the necessary documents proving that I received the Wal-Mart Department 9, Managers Four Week Training as required?
e. Why did Wal-Mart NOT give the name of my trainer? What date was I entered into the “Four Week Training Program? What date was the training completed? Who signed off on, and verified the documents? Where are these documents today?
f. Does all Wal-Mart Sporting Goods Department Managers receive training in America? If so? Then why was I NOT trained? What are the criteria for being terminated at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. for “Inability to Perform Job?” Who makes this decision?
g. Did Sporting Goods Associates, Former Department Manager Jody, Assistant Manager Frank, Shannon, Trina, Co-Manager Andy or Store Manager Hal give written statements that I was (EVER) trained as Department Manager?
h. Will Wal-Mart Store #2615 simply provide proof that I received the four-week training as required for all “Sporting Goods Department 9, Managers?” Then upon receipt I will IMMEDIATELY STOP all complaints and admit that I have lied “AGAINST WAL-MART”—but this you cannot do… (Store #2615).
i. Does Wal-Mart provide “On the Job Training and Evaluate Workers” once employed? Is proof of training and yearly evaluations documented, dated, signed and filed away in workers personnel file at Store #2615? (Then simply make a copy and refute my accusations).
j. Are Wal-Mart workers terminated for good cause, bad cause or for no cause at all without Wal-Mart having to provide even a courteous response to workers since Georgia is an “At Will Employment State?” Thanks to Georgia politicians that keep this unfair work law in force in the State of Georgia along with a few other remaining states?
k. Did any assistant managers and co-managers receive a written coaching for routinely leaving keys in the Security Room door, Outside Trailers or in the Sporting Goods Department Cash Register following gun sales at Store #2615? As department workers witnessed on many occasions and hand carried keys to managers may times.
l. Does Wal-Mart Stores Inc. approve of double standards for certain privileged workers in the cliques and among the slicks at Store #2615? And why are they treated differently from other workers?
m. Did my asking management to purchase proper filing cabinets to properly secure customer’s private information on completed ATF Forms 4473s justify my wrongful termination under the heading of “Inability to Perform Job?” (Firearms Back Ground Checks)
n. Why was customer’s private information not secured for over two years in an un-lockable filing cabinet practically open to the general public? Did Wal-Mart interview workers and former workers in Sporting Goods Department for verification of this federal violation? (These files (ATF Forms 4473s) were located in the black box on a pole and filed in an unlock-able filing cabinet in the Sporting Goods Department).
o. Did my repeated speaking out and encouraging management to secure Wal-Mart Customers Private DATA information (ATF Forms 4473s) from “Identity Thefts” justifies my wrongful termination under the heading of “Inability to Perform Job?”
p. What is Wal-Mart definition of “Inability to Perform Job?” Are all Wal-Mart Workers treated the same when it comes to being properly trained as a Department Manager? Does ignoring workers complaints improve workers morale, or increases sales for the company?
q. Are all Wal-Mart Workers with Wrongful Terminations complaints treated as I have from Store #2615?
r. Did Wal-Mart investigate to see if my constant requests to get assistant managers and co manager Andy to perform the Daily Audits on completed ATF Forms 4473s that went undone on one occasion for over fifteen day? Was it my repeated attempts to managers to follow store rules and guidelines that contributed to my termination under the heading of “Inability to Perform Job?”
s. Did Wall-Mart think that I would simply bury my head in the sand like the legend concerning the ostrich bird and pretend that wall-mart is a god beside God and answers to no one. Perhaps like hundreds or thousands of other wrongfully terminated Wall-Mart Employees? No way, and this is just the beginning….
GEORGE BOSTON RHYNES
Former Wal-Mart (UNTRAINED)Sporting Goods Department Manager
Retired United States Armed Forces Veteran