Great catch from the NorthDecoder on how Blue Cross/Blue Shield is trying to get its victims subscribers to do their dirty work for them. They sent out a letter [pdf] to subscribers threatening even bigger rate increases if reform passes:
Your health care costs will rise even faster than they have in the recent past Health care costs have skyrocketed the last several years. With current reform proposals, you'll see it increase even more dramatically because:
- North Dakotans won't have the variety of choices they have today. You'll be forced to buy insurance with richer benefits (i.e. higher price tags) than most of you buy today.
- Not every North Dakotan will be covered because it's too easy to opt out until they get sick. That leaves the rest of insurance consumers paying more.
- Low-income residents get state-subsidized plans at a reasonable cost, but those who don't qualify for subsidies will pay outrageous prices.
- Young North Dakota adults will see insurance costs raised by 60 percent to 100 percent—another reason for them not to stay in North Dakota.
- Private insurance rates will increase by 50 percent to 70 percent for small employers.
Nice use of class warfare there, huh? What they are failing to mention is that there isn't a gun being held to the heads of poor insurance company executives to make them increase costs for their customers. It's blackmail, pure and simple.
Making seem even more like some kind of twisted ransom note, BCBS also includes their lists of demands: mandates, plus subsidies (money in their pockets), plus their ability to charge older people more. Every one of their "reforms" is a way for them to make more money. NorthDecoder translates:
- Eliminate coverage denials for pre-existing conditions, something we've long supported, as long as all North Dakotans are required to have health insurance.
Read: We will only stop denying you coverage when you're forced to buy it from us.
- Require all North Dakotans to have health insurance coverage with sufficient penalties to assure full coverage.
Read: It has to cost you a lot of money if you want to not buy our product. Like, really a lot of money.
- Provide substantial subsidies for low-income North Dakotans and for older North Dakotans.
Read: We want the government to subsidize you as much as possible so that money goes directly to us.
- Pay for subsidies honestly through general tax revenues rather than by taxing the cost of health insurance.
Read: Don't tax us for charging an arm and a leg, tax rich people to pay for subsidies!
- Allow health insurers to continue to offer young adults lower prices.
Read: Allow Health insurers to continue to charge older and sicker people obscenely high prices
- Establish state-regulated insurance exchanges that negotiate with health plans and allow shopping across a broad range of benefit levels.
Read: Make sure the buying power is split up fifty ways so that it is as small as possible.
- Require benefit levels that are comparable—not higher than what North Dakotans purchase today.
Read: Don't make us pay for better care. Quality of care should never improve and thus cost us more money
- Standardize Medicare payments except for geographic adjustment factors that represent real, measurable differences in the cost of running hospitals and medical clinics.
Read: Medicare's rates should be more expensive. They're too efficient!
- Pay higher Medicare rates for those who deliver higher-than-average quality of care.
Read: Medicare should have to pay more so we don't have to.
This letter was even outrageous enough to get Kent Conrad to call BCBS "irresponsible."
"Considering that a health reform bill in the Senate has not yet been unveiled, let alone analyzed, the letter sent by BlueCross BlueShield to thousands of North Dakotans appears to be completely premature, if not irresponsible. I would hope BlueCross would reserve judgment until there is a final bill.
"Regardless of the considerable efforts by special interests from both sides of the debate, I am committed to fighting for real reform that lowers cost, expands coverage, and improves health care outcomes for all North Dakotans."
Here's just a little context on the state of healthcare in North Dakota [pdf] that BCBS probably doesn't want its subscribers to know about:
- Noridian Mutual Insurance Co., doing business as Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota, holds 69 percent of the state's accident and health market, with Humana Inc. a distant second.
- Health insurance premiums for North Dakota working families have skyrocketed, increasing 74 percent from 2000 to 2007.
- For family health coverage in North Dakota during this period, the average annual combined premium for employers and employees rose from $6,124 to $10,674.
- For family health coverage in North Dakota from 2000 to 2007, the average employer's portion of annual premiums rose 70 percent, while the average worker's share grew by 86 percent.
- From 2000 to 2007, the median earnings of North Dakota workers increased 26 percent, from $19,196 to $24,255. During that time health insurance premiums for North Dakota working families rose 2.8 times faster than median earnings.
And here's the potential benefits to North Dakotans:
America's Affordable Health Choices Act would provide significant benefits in North Dakota: up to 18,500 small businesses could receive tax credits to provide coverage to their employees; 13,800 seniors would avoid the donut hole in Medicare Part D; 570 families could escape bankruptcy each year due to unaffordable health care costs; and 58,000 uninsured individuals would gain access to high-quality, affordable health insurance.
This is just the tip of the iceberg in the industry's attempts to kill healthcare reform, and you can expect to see a lot more of it. Nonetheless, it's pretty damned shameless, trying to get the people they've been ripping off all these years worked up against reform by threatening to rip them off even more. As if the rate increases weren't going to happen in any case.
You can read more in Adam Blomeke's diary here.
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