Insurance Jive: Do you speak insurance?
(full disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign)
Today, thousands of health insurance executives are gathering in San Francisco for their major industry convention. We thought that we would welcome them to town with a TV ad to go along with a greeting committee of hundreds of protesters.
The ad is called "Insurance Jive" and it features a nurse (actor Beth Broderick of "Lost", see her HuffPo piece on the ad) who – reminiscent of the Barbara Billingsley character in the 1980 movie "Airplane" – translates insurance jargon for a hospital patient and her husband.
"Insurance Jive" is based on the true story of Patsy Bates. Health Net canceled – or "rescinded" – Patsy's health insurance policy after this 52-year-old grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer, forcing Patsy to halt chemotherapy for several months while piling up $129,000 in medical bills.
A judge recently ordered Health Net to pay Patsy a whopping $9 million in mostly punitive damages.
But her victory is a rare blow to an industry that routinely seeks to profit at the expense – and physical well-being – of its customers. For example, according to the Los Angeles Times, Patsy's lawsuit revealed that Health Net had "linked cancellations to employee performance goals," an illegal policy that helped drive
more than $35 million in denied claims between 2003 and 2006.
Fortunately, Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo has initiated a lawsuit and criminal investigation into Health Net's decisions to drop, deny or delay health care.
Rocky Delgadillo is talking to these corporations in a language they can easily understand: "lawsuit". That's why we created "Insurance Jive" to spread the word about the City Attorney's helpful website for consumers where anyone can submit complaints for him to investigate and use for litigation.
The California Nurses Association and State Senator Sheila Kuehl have pledged to match the first $6,000 donated to place this powerful ad on the air in in San Francisco in the next 48 hours – during the health insurance convention.
Can you help us get it up on the air? Contribute here at ActBlue. We are just about to $5,000, even a $10 or $20 contribution would get us closer to meeting their challenge. If we exceed the match, we may be able to get this up on the air in Los Angeles as well.
EXCELLENT!
One of the biggest beneficiaries of donations from insurance companies is House Rep. Pat Tiberi, OH-12. We gotta get this big turd out of office this year - vote David Robinson!
That's a pretty damn effective ad! More of these, please.
That was almost as good as Pinocchio in Shrek 3 using legal jargon to technically not lie to Price Charming, but better because it has an important message.
Lots of SCARY insurance stories floating to the surface of the flood waters in the mid-western states this week.
"We're sorry, this video is no longer available ???
"Her HufPo peice on the add" link above still works. You can view it from there. Or at least as of this minute you can.
Great add... A short and not so sweet message.
miss skeptic @ 2:
see if you can get help from the local DNC or BlueAmerica
http://www.actblue.com/page/netrootscandidates
and
http://www.democrats.org/page/group
And then there is this in MA, which no doubt, is occurring elsewhere.
"The state’s largest insurer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield paid William van Faasen 19.4 million dollars last year. The payment includes just under 3 million in compensation and 16.4 million in a lump sum retirement package. Spokesman Christopher Murphy says the package was based on van Faasen’s 17 years with Blue Cross, 13 as CEO, and was reviewed by two outside consulting firms.
“It is imperative that as a large health insurer in the state MA, we attract and retain the best leadership available in the market.”
Senate President Therese Murray says it will be difficult to control rising health care costs when “non-profits” are compensating executives at this level. " (source Boston's NPR affiliate WBUR)
And from the Boston Globe
"The high salaries at Blue Cross con tinued to generate criticism, because the firm is a public charity."
"The Globe reported in January that Attorney General Martha Coakley is investigating the $16.4 million payment to Van Faasen."
Most bankruptcies are about health costs. Insured or not.
Insurance Jive: Do you speak insurance?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-xHPU6NulM
Insurance is useless if you have a catastrophic medical problem. And the minor ones, most people can pay for. So I don't see the need for insurance except if you like making them rich.
We need to extend medicare to all Americans and let insurance companies cover the deductibles.
christianized medicine is the ONLY way to go
Great ad. We need more like this!!
Samson- @ 13:
Sure! Pray you don't get sick and die!
This is what happens when an unregulated or poorly regulated for-profit industry becomes a monopoly. We have "socialized" fire, police and school departments and they work pretty well, but every time somebody mentions socialized medicine the "commie bashers" surface, screaming. 50% of the income of these private Insurance companies is pissed away on "administrative costs" (source AARP) , fat salaries and worthless paperwork. As opposed to that, the Canadian "socialized medicine" system only uses 23% for the same stuff. At present the US is something like 47th in health care, BEHIND those awful Cubans!
Greedy Doctors, overcharging hospitals, and malpractice insurance are also to blame. My wife just spent all of 10 minutes with a doctor, simply discussing her weight, no tests or procedures were done, and the bill was $160.00. This kind of crap has gotta STOP!
{ Deleted, Off Topic. Take it to an open thread. Site Monitor}
capnmike @ 16:
not to mention "socialized" roads, bridges, police depts, military, post office, etc.
instead of playing the rightwing's labeling trick, imo it is better to refer to it as chrisitanized medicine.
Brother can you spare a dime?
Yeah, the real "jive" is that we are insured by private for profit insurance companies. If you study the issue at all it is obvious that insurance companies can't be part of our health at all.
Single payer.
"Now listen here woman, I dug her rap."
"Blood don't want no help, blood don't get no help"
As a Canadian, I'd like to protest the sad state of Canadian Health Care. Why just recently I had to wait more than 10 minutes to get serviced and the bill. What bill?
the movie The Incredibles had some great lines about Insurance Companies only concern being the bottom line and not paying out.
Who did this ad? They need to do MORE! This is one of the most effective political ads I've ever seen.
It's not just the medical insurance corps. When I was permanently injured in the line of duty as a firefighter, the two disability insurance policies that I had were denied on "technicalities"...The Insurance Ombudsman (a retired insurance ecec) for the State of Ohio sided with the corporations... BTW and digress off topic - Pelosi's number is 202 225 0100. She can refuse to bring the FISA scam to a vote, as if that will happen....
Welcome to Boosh/McSame's American - Where you can profit off other peoples misery.
You can contribute on line to getting this ad on tv. See the link above.
Youtube took down the video :(
As someone in the teaching medical field I'm suprised how many folks DO NOT know what they are paying for with their health coverage, as in what is covered what they get etc. Most compnies use their HR people to make sure employees are signed up for ins, and they need to be trained to take the time to go over which type of insurance is which. I have worked at medical offices where they just wanted you to hurry and sign the line and get the process going. When I stated I needed more info I would be told I would get that info ONCE I signed.
Case @ 28:
Its still there on Youtube
The actor playing the insurance man is perfect.
we should have had this story two days BEFORE the protest day, not two days AFTER.
Socialised Medicine:
Well, I work in socialised medicine, in fact I'm doing it right now in a hospital in Australia.
Our system is by no means perfect but for the best part, it works quite well.
Yes, it's true our tax rates are higher but we do get a reasonable service for all its faults. I'm sure most people in the US would be happy to pay higher taxes provided that money is used properly in providing better health care.
After all, if it could be seen by people that the extra tax they pay can be correlated to a decrease in money that comes out of their own pocket (especially if it's a bigger decrease) in paying for basic health services, they'd be all for it for the best part.
Short and to the point - that is what Americans understand. This is a great ad and should be playing often in every state.
"Health Net canceled – or “rescinded” – Patsy’s health insurance policy after this 52-year-old grandmother was diagnosed with breast cancer, forcing Patsy to halt chemotherapy for several months..."
Sounds like attempted murder to me.
Universal Health CARE (not coverage)!!!
But wth tort reform, it would be a worthwhile gamble for the insurance comapnies to do this sort of thing. Get caught denying benefits? Don't worry, penalty is less than you would have paid had you been honest from the start.
Alice xHussein Chomsky Nader @ 19:
Dime bag?
McCain the Liar @ 12:
You are completely wrong! I would have been dead five years ago if I didn't have excellent health insurance. A package every American should be entitled to.
Best part about the single payer health care plan is we would have to let our USA government run the show, putting us right back into getting ripped off, without help.
BAHAAAAAhahaaa
YEA SURE @ 40:
The payments are managed by the government, the health care is not. Biiiiiig difference.
Doctors get to still practice medicine, it is just that some people don't get to make obscene profits off people's illnesses.
HMOs must be there with weapon manufacturers, child molesters, and psychopaths in the scale of people who deserve their own ring of hell.
Don't forget. You don't get to see a doctor until you pay your co-pay or pay before service. WHAT A BUNCH OF BS
Do we really have health ins./health care?
BaScOmBe against Bitter Elitist Appeasement Bullshit @ 15:
Too funny...
Everybody focuses on the cost of insurance, but what about the cost of healthcare istself?
Enough crap about doctors "suffering" to get their degrees as if that justifies million dollar salaries. I have done enough work for hospitals to see that everyone up and down the food chain gouges since they know they can overcharge from everything from tissues medical equipment. I have seen it first hand.
It must be a two part approach, controlling insurance companies and controlling the medical industry as a whole as to where every dollar goes. Then healthcare willcome in line as to what the remainder of the world pays for the same service.
We are exploited at every level.
I saw this commercial last evening... Man, that was one hell of a damning statement on the state of for profit health insurance and the whole model for our health care in general... I was perversely pleased to see what I thought was some real truth about this whole health care charade as it's being manipulated these days. I won't even go into the sort of disappointing health care I have been on the receiving end of other than to say... After the last ten years? My relationship with my personal physician IS eroded.... It's not so much that I dislike him, no. I think he's an fine doctor but it all feels like an impersonal assembly line when I go there anymore.... And it feels like my concerns or personal perspective on what I'd like to get checked out doesn't even enter into the equation if the bean counter somewhere already determined that this this and that won't be covered under this this and that conditions... I don't think he wants to be that way but he's caught up in this existing system same as the rest of us. Its a perversion of the hypocratic oath forced on all of us by some suit with a econ degree who doesn't know dick about heatlhcare or doctoring perse.
"your dead"...... What a fini to the message.. Potent, very potent in getting the reality of what we face out there. Whether or not it or another like it will make a difference??.... Well, that's a whole nother matter altogether... I hope so, but I suspect its going to take a lot more in your face commercials just like that, a whole lot more harranging political representatives, a whole lot more picket lines outside major insurance home offices and a whole lot more debunking that tired old socialized medicine boogie man bullshit... before we get to what is honestly needed, what is the only humane way to equitibly deal with this issue....single payer supported by taxes....
Yes folks, sorry, but I had to use the 'T' word... If we're going to be serious and real about all this, we have to address just how a single payer system would actually function... IF it ain't going to be a for profit model, which I think stinks for all the obvious reasons tied up in greed, infighting among the players and beaurocracy and callous administration of this model.. Then the only altrernative is 'us'... All of us chipping in to fund a system of single payer health insurance across the board for every man woman and child from cradle to grave... That's actually what we want isn't it? And IF that's what we want and we are willing to pay for it, then why the hell can't we have it?? Ideology??? Bullshit! There is nothing greedy or selfish about wanting to stay healthy and wanting a health care system geared towards that instead of profit.. There is nothing inherently evil about a socialized health model.
A non-profit via taxes health care model or for profit health care model, that is pretty much the only two options we got to work with.... The only method I know of to support a 'all chip in' approach is called taxation... IF someone has a better idea for single payer, I'm all ears.... Otherwise, that's the reality of where we are at..... Personally I subscribe to the 'takes a village' approach. I've seen how the for profit model works since Hillary's original single payer idea was blackballed way back in 93 and folks... The model we have been coorced into accepting and putting up with is killing people......... It's one thing to die in a hospital with everyone trying to save you but failing.. That is a tragedy... But to allow people to die by withholding the care they need to survive or even just have an fighting chance at survival??? That is death thru neglect, and that neglect is codified and sanctioned by an insurance industry who use charts and graphs to determine just who is the more deserving??? and the primary criteria is not the health of the individual, but rather who has the most money to siphon off in payment for this privatized model... People, I submit, that's as much of a fucking crime against humanity as is any of George Frikking Bush's wars for oil hegemony............JD
Thanks guys. YouTube is being funky the past day or so.
This ad was done internally by us, the Courage Campaign, from concept to production. You can see all of our earlier ads on our YouTube page. And an extra big thank you to those who are donating to get it on the air.
Wow. That's a hard core ad. =) I love it!
I wish I could get into the insurance business. Selling a service you don't actually have to perform. I just get the feeling if I tried it though, I'd end up in jail.
I have been waiting for my settlement from an auto accident and have $9,000 and I went to find a dentist and they all turn me down because I don't have insurance. Do I have to wait another 3 month for a root canal and crown? The policy that I heard was that we are not accepting any client without insurance. The hunt continue.......
The old Sinclair Lewis, military/industrial sweat shop manual labor exploitation model of the USA is such old news.
Behold, the NEW American 'fuck the poor' Economic Base:
the insurance industry
hedge fund mortgages
k-street lobbyists
village punditocracy
American universities should be proud of their graduates 'accomplishments.'
Isn't it abundantly clear that the billions of dollars paid to insurance companies would be better spent on healthcare itself?
CBC Radio has an interesting series, hosted by a doctor, called White Coat, Black Art. The March 31 episode talks about doctors and money.
Great ad. Glad that the California Nurses and Sen. Sheila Kuehl are supporting it.
Sen. Kuehl has a bill in the CA legislature RIGHT NOW that could brink single-payer insurance to CA. The hurdle is the "governator" who has vetoed it once and will again. The legislature passed is easily once and can again. We need a governor will sign it and/or a veto proof majority in the legislature.
Learn more about the bill (SB-840) at www.healthcareforall.org.
Single-payer is the only solution that will cover everyone AND makes economic sense.
Sorry state of affairs. I say we try to prosecute these heartless criminals to the fullest extent of the law....right after we get done with the torture trials.
Enjoy.
Sorry this is late...
$9 million is "whopping" only to the plaintiff, NOT to HealthNet. Just a cost of doing business to them.
Cheers,
You hit the nail on the head for me Shan
When there is an easy majority of folks in this country, if not practically everyone (as far as I can tell), who have no doubt that our government could at the very least do a little better job in managing, distributing, regulating and paying for our "Health Care" system than the current clusterf--- of insurance companies, HMO's, and super-specialized for-(major)-profit hospitals, I don't see why the insurance companies even bother to try to justify their position. I mean, c'mon - OUR government? Who can barely, it seems, efficiently run a small railroad like Amtrak even with their legal powers to flat lay down the law and dictate the most minute operating procedure, knowing there is no board or shareholders or ANYONE that they REALLY have to answer to?? And they STILL can't do it without friggin' subsidies?? Yet, the HMO's and insurance co's. are right there, after every exposure of corruption and every congressional investigation (read that - daily, anymore) telling us with a STRAIGHT FACE (my God) "We didn't anything wrong" and/or "It's not our fault, they signed the paper" and/or (my personal favorite) "If it wasn't for us, 3/4 of our fellow Americans (insert flag salute here) wouldn't be able pay for a tooth extraction without incurring a major debt." Their raw chutzpah truly and literally kinda turns my stomach!
But they've done their work well, and we're all pretty much sheeple now, with little chance of changing how things are now back to how it should be (and WAS, for the first several decades of "America", for the most part at least) - not with talk and compromise anyway. We've gone so far beyond being a nation where the norm was a sense of honor and not a sense of Gimme! When it was understood that occasionally it might well be necessary to inconvenience the many to truly treat the few (maybe even, the one, in extreme cases) with the equality and fairness that we proudly claimed to offer to all. And when sacrifices WERE called for by our leaders - meaning government - it was NEVER, NEVER a blatant try by that same government to convince us to give up and constitutional, god-given rights (or as it has come to now, no convincing needed, it's done, suck it up and move on) for the sole STATED purpose of putting MORE money into the pockets of the miserable rip-off soul-less SOB who's been robbing us blind for years so he can have another gallon of whipped cream on his goddam French Puff that he can't cram down his piehole because he's already eaten 4 dozen of the goddam things!! C'mon people, DAMN! Wow, sorry about the rant ...
Ok, deep breath ... what really scares me more than even that kind of BS, which IS happening today, uh, like, right frigging now (even Mr Super Neo-con can't deny it because Bush has plainly admitted it. Hell, he's friggin' wallowing in it! About the only thing he hasn't done is stick out his tongue and go Nyah, Nyah Nyah!)
Having a hard time with that? Can't quite believe it? Fine - case in point (and one of many that jump out at me) - Bush knowingly lying to Congress (and I don't mean little white slap-your-pee-pee lies here) to get The Patriot Act shoved through, which effectively ended Habeus Corpus (sic?) as it has been known and applied as a basic cornerstone right of the people in every 'free' country in the world since the friggin' Magna Carta!
You'd think that when it's that obvious, it would obvious enough and easy enough do what has to be done to correct the situation. I mean is there even need for debate? So, why hasn't it happened? C'mon ... Democrats has been in power in both House and Senate since Nov., 2006 (admittedly by the slimmest of margins, but still...) Absolutely nothing. Damn'em, Speaker Pelosi, from damn near the day she became Speaker, started vowing that under no terms or circumstances would we (the democratic majority under her leadership, that is) even bother discussing impeaching George Bush. Because it would be bad for the country. Like it was good for the country when the Republicans impeached Clinton for lying about getting a blow job in the Oval Office. Repubs had the numbers by far - Democrats really couldn't do a damn thing about it except whine. Well, Dems have the power now and got that power by saying they would do what is right and try to fix some of the mess that Bush has been able to foist on us all. Even if it would be all for nought if just one Democrat voted the other way, by God, they promised to at least try, it is their OATH-SWORN duty to defend the Constitution against ALL threats, even from our own government if needed!
What did we get? In a nutshell, bupkus. Zip, zero, nada, for almost 2 friggin' years, not a damn thing.
But, I digress. What scares me more than even all of that? The fact that almost half of the people in this country, knowing that they've been BLATANTLY lied to by Bush, et.al., and openly saying they have a hard time time giving Bush, like, even a 20% aproval rating, and swearing up and down that Bush has put this country in the friggin' toilet, almost half have been so bamboozled that in their very next breath they'll say (paraphrasing of course, but I've heard almost these exact words come out of more than one person's mouth!) And, [brackets] are MY comments ...
"But then again, the Democrats didn't really try to do anything about 9-11 [duh, think being outnumbered in House AND Senate by what - 2 to 1 had anything to do with it???], and Bush DID do something [yeah, he may well have been friggin' complicit to it at worst, aware it was going to happen at best, and utterly unable to prove it either way cause HE ordered all the evidence removed and melted down (in blatant disregard of the law), and spinning whatever was left until if you didn't believe that black was really white, you probably WERE mentally ill!] and while I may not approve of it 100%, he's still MY president and if he says that I should gladly make that little sacrifice and let the gov't 'suspend' Habeus Corpus [which, in actuality, not only removed that right from you basically from now forward, but gave 'the president' (i.e. himself and 'his assignees') the sole, unchallengeable legal authority to decide who it would be applied to and why!! Sweet Mother Mary, I'm not joking OR exagerating!] so as to save us all from the 'terrists', then Bush, at the end of the day, has probably done the right thing!! And I'm a TRUE American patriot cause I got no problem at all with giving up my most basic rights if my presnit says I should, cuz the terrists will win if'en I don't and make us all eat bugs and pray 5 times a day to some stinky dude with a goddam dirty rag tied on his head! And, I know I'm right, cuz by God, we aint had no terrist bombs here since I gave those rights up!!! So there, CASE friggin' CLOSED."
Almost half of this country thinks kinda like that. Let's say that at best, they most likely would NOT STRONGLY DISAGREE with the overall gist of the above quote/paragraph/rant. And, THAT scares the livin' bejebus outta me!
And how the hell did that get me into a rant?? Geez.
I'm not a particularly religious type of person, but ... quite literally ...
May God Help Us All.
Ok, I'm done, thanx fr reading, and ... later days! (Hopefully)
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