Turning up the heat on Anthem in Maine - no to "guaranteed profit"
Posted on October 9th, 2009 by Jason Rosenbaum in Profits Before People
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Protesters were out in force in Maine, rallying against Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield's lawsuit for a guaranteed profit:
Demonstrators on Wednesday backed Maine's insurance superintendent for rejecting a request from the state's largest private health insurer seeking an 18 percent rate hike for its individual insurance plans.
Mila Koffman last spring denied Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield's proposed rate increase as being excessive. She approved a revised request for a 10.9 percent increase, which provided for a zero percent profit margin.
In response, Anthem filed a complaint in Kennebec County Superior Court in August appealing the denial of the higher rate increase. Anthem said a regulatory decision allowing for no profit was unprecedented, inadequate and fundamentally unfair.
No guaranteed profit? Forced to cut costs and actually spend money on health care? When faced with those questions, insurance companies sue.
The people of Maine and the state's Attorney General aren't taking this sitting down. Anthem controls 78% of the market in Maine [pdf], so their 18% rate hike would affect nearly everyone in the state. Protesters were out in the rain this week, declaring the insurance company's practices criminal and opposing this monopoly:
Attorney General Janet Mills said:
"They want a guaranteed profit of a certain minimal amount on the backs of ratepayers who are carrying these health insurance plans, mainly small business owners, sole proprietors, restaurant owners, loggers, farmers - the backbone of our economy."
It's us or them. Our businesses and livelihoods or their profits. There is no middle ground.
This is why we need health care reform, particularly a public health insurance option. Yesterday, Health Care for America Now is going up on the air with this ad in Maine, featuring a dozen real Mainers asking their Senators for a public health insurance option:
The public health insurance option is popular in Maine. That's because Mainers, like most of the country, understand that it's the only way we're going to keep the industry honest and break their monopoly. Otherwise, their insurer will keep suing their state for guaranteed profits that come out of their pockets.
Absolutely. What some Senators might not experience is what happens to a person who gets sick or injured without insurance. Those of us that have been through it have a responsibility to tell them. I blogged about an experience I had here:
http://publicoption.blogspot.com/2009/10/face_09.html
Why are we out in the streets yelling at office buildings? Because something has to change.
Congratulations Mainiacs! "Apply and we'll deny!" is their motto anyway….if you have that little "My Insurance Manager dot com" as part of your insurance process to find out what and where your medical needs are, (i.e. medications, medical devices, treatment, etc) then, by all means check out Blue Cross's TERMS AND CONDITIONS to even use their online "status" (My Insurance Manager) of your needs. You will be appalled with the wording, their requirements in their TERMS AND CONDITIONS and their apparent ownership of you, your every detail and what you can imagine they do with ALL this information !
It's definitely worthy of a strong "look see" by the ACLU, in my book. My advice…don't use their online "My Insurance Manager" EVER! Who do these people think they are?