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More Blue Cross corrections

Post on August 4, 2009 by 5 Comments »

We’ve noted before that Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina is trying to mislead the public with its health reform website. The insurer was planning a series of web ads designed to demonize the government, but that scheme blew up when the plot was leaked.

Blue Cross also includes needless lies on the site. For example, I agree with the insurer that employer-sponsored insurance is a decent way to provide coverage, especially since most people already get insurance through work and are happy with their health plan. But I don’t pretend that employer-sponsored insurance is not on the decline.

As Barbara Morales Burke wrote, before she began working for Blue Cross:

Despite the fact that fewer people are covered under an employer health plan than have been in the past, employer-based insurance is and likely will remain the cornerstone of our health insurance system for the foreseeable future.

Agreed. But Blue Cross says it’s a “myth” that employer-based health coverage is on the decline. Might want to tell that to your Vice President of Health Policy.

Blue Cross also likes to pretend that someone in Washington is proposing a single-payer system, which is another needless lie. That’s why they like to link to stories about the UK and Canada. In one post they describe the plight of a Canadian woman who had to seek care at the Mayo Clinic for her, in the words of Blue Cross, “potentially fatal condition.”

What you won’t see on the Blue Cross website is this story from the Ottawa Citizen giving us some background on Shona Holmes, who did not have a life-threatening illness.

No wonder only 4 percent of Americans trust insurance companies.

Possibly related posts:

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  2. New Survey: Parents of kids on Medicaid much more satisfied than parents of kids with private health insurance
  3. Feds extend deadline for states applying for health exchange $$
  4. Health care questions? Where to turn.
  5. Despite gains, poverty weighs down Child Health Report Card (video)

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Comments (Closed):5

  1. Kimberly
    August 4, 2009 at 4:09 pm

    The woman they used from Canada has to be making money from someone to spout her lies. I wish it was just a matter of waiting even a few months for guaranteed free health care here. Every day approximately 49.3 (18k divided by 365 according to the stats from 2006) people die per day due to lack of access to affordable health care here in the U.S. and those stats have increased to 60.3 (22k divided by 365 according to the stats from 2007-2008 according to the Urban Institute) people die per day due to lack of access to affordable health care when they need it to save their lives. If I knew that I only had to wait a few short months to obtain health care for any condition that was not critical then it would be no big deal. I have been waiting a year and a half to find affordable health care for a condition that is slowly killing me. I have not had a second without pain in a year and a half and my husband and I have had discussions on giving up our citizenship here in the U.S. and how we can try to save money to move to any country that has a better health care system. We love our country, we love living in NC, but if it comes down to it and Health Care Reform with a National Public Health Plan that we can afford and qualify for is not passed then we would have to find a way to move just to obtain health care. We are counted in statistical rolls for families with children with special health care needs, families that have almost lost their home because of medical expenses, families with chronic conditions such as CF and B.I., and more and we will not allow ourselves or our children to be counted on the statistical rolls of individuals that have died due to lack of access to affordable health care. We should never consider moving for that reason, but without Health Care Reform, it becomes a matter of living or dying.

  2. Health Care Now!
    August 4, 2009 at 5:32 pm

    Dr. John Geyman’s book; “Do Not Resuscitate: Why The Health Insurance Industry is DYING, And How We Must Replace It” tells all. Check It Out!

    Even Obama’s doctor of 22 years is for single payer….LOL

  3. Health Care Now!
    August 4, 2009 at 5:35 pm

    then there is the centrist alternative on healthcarebeing discussed in DC: Cooperatives.

    Blue Cross tried a staff model HMO in the 80s: HMO NC, and it bombed.

  4. Health Care Now!
    August 5, 2009 at 6:18 am

    Groups that back single-payer are gearing up for August activism.

    Keep track of the most important advocacy on the health care issue by following the work of Physicians for a Natonal Health Program at http://www.pnhp.org, the California Nurses Association at http://www.pdamerica.org.

    Activist David Swanson is suggesting that this should be “Single-Payer Summer.”

  5. Alex
    August 5, 2009 at 8:14 pm

    The health insurance industry is losing consumers as fast as the auto industry lost consumers in America. Soon it will have a product very few can afford. It will be expensive and limited. To make insurance work you need as many people as you can in the pool.

    Arguments I hear every day against health care reform.

    1. I don’t want the government telling me which Doctor to see.

    I have to pay one Doctor cash because he is not in network with BCBSNC and he is the only one who can help me.

    2. I do not want to get an o.k. from the government to have a procedure.

    Every test and procedure has to be o.k.ed by BCBSNC in advance.

    3. I do not want my health care rationed.

    I have put off several really important surgeries for many years because I can’t afford them under my current plan. I decide which medications to fill because I can’t afford all the co pays. Specialists are out of the question with a high co pay.

    4. I don’t want to pay for any one elses’ health care.

    We all do when people have to use the ER as primary care.

    5. The government will compel me to suicide if I get a chronic illness.

    I for one have thought fleetingly about not treating my MS and taking matters into my own hands when I become disabled rather than bankrupting my family. My BCBSNC plan does not cover the costs now.

    6. The government can’t run a health care program.

    I went to military hospitals and had champus until I was out of
    college. I went to public health hospitals when they had them and had good care. My family were treated for many things well under the system. My brother is a federal employee and has government health care.

    7. Government Health Care is Socialism.

    Only if all the Doctors and Hospitals are run by the government. My tax dollars pay for public education, police, fire, and garbage collection. Those are all socialism

    8. People need to take personal responsibility for there health.

    I agree that is why I don’t drink, smoke, use drugs, I eat well, exercise an hour a day, and have yearly exam.

    That was why I was shocked to have Multiple Sclerosis show up on one of those exams. Over night 50% of our income now goes to health care every month. No I can’t get disability. Nor do I want it. I just want to be able to afford health care.