Medicine
Dear Senator Brownback:
I wrote to you the other day regarding my concerns about including the preservation of for-profit insurance companies as a key piece of health reform.The testimony of Wendell Potter, former head of corporate communications at CIGNA, on June 24, before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee which you sit on enhances this concern.
While I know that you were there, I believe that his statements are very serious and suggest a dangerous activity among insurance companies, possibly including conspiracy. He said, as you remember:
"I know from personal experience that members of Congress and the public have good reason to question the honesty and trustworthiness of the insurance industry. Insurers make promises they have no intention of keeping, they flout regulations designed to protect consumers, and they make it nearly impossible to understand - or even to obtain - information we need. As you hold hearings and discuss legislative proposals over the coming weeks, I encourage you to look very closely at the role for-profit insurance companies play in making our health care system both the most expensive and one of the most dysfunctional in the world. I hope you get a real sense of what life would be like for most of us if the kind of so-called reform the insurers are lobbying for is enacted.
"When I left my job as head of corporate communications for one of the country’s largest insurers, I did not intend to go public as a former insider. However, it recently became abundantly clear to me that the industry’s charm offensive - which is the most visible part of duplicitous and well-financed PR and lobbying campaigns - may well shape reform in a way that benefits Wall Street far more than average Americans."
In a truly competitive marketplace, companies would compete on the quality of their product and the price. In health insurance, they compete to find creative ways to insure only the healthy and avoid having to cover those who are sick. This is not only bizarre, it is intolerable and must not be allowed to continue.
I know that you care deeply about the health of our people, and are aware how damaging this is.Please, please do not let ideology block this one great opportunity for getting meaningful health reform for Kansans and other Americans. Stand against having for-profit insurance companies have a role. At LEAST support a meaningful public option; the opposition of thse companies means that they know that they have a bad product that cannot compete in an open market.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can help in any way.
Thank you
Joshua Freeman, MD
- Insurance Company Greed: To Know Them Is To Not Trust Them
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- The Primary Care Extension Service
. The heath reform bill that will come out of the Senate HELP Committee http://help.senate.gov/BAI09A84_xml.pdf looks to be seriously flawed, although it will include a public option. The New York Times reports that after “The health committee’s blueprint...
- Dear Senator Brownback: A Letter My Kansas Senator
. Dear Senator Brownback: Thank you for the response to my letter urging your support for health reform, and particularly health reform based upon a single-payer mechanism, such as that proposed in the House’s “Improved and Enhanced Medicare for All”...
- Medicare "advantage": Your Gift To The Insurance Industry
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Medicine
Dear Senator Brownback, #2
Dear Senator Brownback:
I wrote to you the other day regarding my concerns about including the preservation of for-profit insurance companies as a key piece of health reform.The testimony of Wendell Potter, former head of corporate communications at CIGNA, on June 24, before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee which you sit on enhances this concern.
While I know that you were there, I believe that his statements are very serious and suggest a dangerous activity among insurance companies, possibly including conspiracy. He said, as you remember:
"I know from personal experience that members of Congress and the public have good reason to question the honesty and trustworthiness of the insurance industry. Insurers make promises they have no intention of keeping, they flout regulations designed to protect consumers, and they make it nearly impossible to understand - or even to obtain - information we need. As you hold hearings and discuss legislative proposals over the coming weeks, I encourage you to look very closely at the role for-profit insurance companies play in making our health care system both the most expensive and one of the most dysfunctional in the world. I hope you get a real sense of what life would be like for most of us if the kind of so-called reform the insurers are lobbying for is enacted.
"When I left my job as head of corporate communications for one of the country’s largest insurers, I did not intend to go public as a former insider. However, it recently became abundantly clear to me that the industry’s charm offensive - which is the most visible part of duplicitous and well-financed PR and lobbying campaigns - may well shape reform in a way that benefits Wall Street far more than average Americans."
In a truly competitive marketplace, companies would compete on the quality of their product and the price. In health insurance, they compete to find creative ways to insure only the healthy and avoid having to cover those who are sick. This is not only bizarre, it is intolerable and must not be allowed to continue.
I know that you care deeply about the health of our people, and are aware how damaging this is.Please, please do not let ideology block this one great opportunity for getting meaningful health reform for Kansans and other Americans. Stand against having for-profit insurance companies have a role. At LEAST support a meaningful public option; the opposition of thse companies means that they know that they have a bad product that cannot compete in an open market.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can help in any way.
Thank you
Joshua Freeman, MD
- Insurance Company Greed: To Know Them Is To Not Trust Them
. Anthem Blue Cross, a subsidiary of WellPoint of Indianapolis, has taken a lot of criticism for its proposed rate increases on its 800,000 individual policies in California (“Anthem Blue Cross dramatically raising rates for Californians with individual...
- Hr 3962 Is Still A Bad Bill, And Stupak-pitts Is A Scandal
. After the House of Representatives passed HR 3962 recently, I celebrated the defeat of the opponents of health reform. I tried to make it clear, and I will emphasize here below, that the bill is not only far from perfect, it is bad. I just think it...
- The Primary Care Extension Service
. The heath reform bill that will come out of the Senate HELP Committee http://help.senate.gov/BAI09A84_xml.pdf looks to be seriously flawed, although it will include a public option. The New York Times reports that after “The health committee’s blueprint...
- Dear Senator Brownback: A Letter My Kansas Senator
. Dear Senator Brownback: Thank you for the response to my letter urging your support for health reform, and particularly health reform based upon a single-payer mechanism, such as that proposed in the House’s “Improved and Enhanced Medicare for All”...
- Medicare "advantage": Your Gift To The Insurance Industry
Medicare “Advantage” plans have come in for some criticism lately. The NY Times, on November 29, 2008, is quite critical of the fact that they cost, on average, 13% more than “regular” Medicare. The Times calls for these plans to be paid only...