NYT's Tearjerker About The Poor Henpecked Insurance Industry
(Disclosure: I'm working with Brave New Films on their Sick For Profit campaign, exposing insurance industry practices. Check us out on Facebook.)
The New York Times published a very nice press release from the desk of Humana, one of the nation's largest health insurance companies. The reporter interviewed a bunch of employees at Humana, all of whom were horrified to see themselves depicted as "villains" in the health care debate. I agree with Yves Smith, this is an absurd angle for a story, an extreme example of selection bias. The people who work at Humana probably have a sense that their employer, um, pays their salary, and thusly, what's good for the employer is probably good for them. Similarly, most people hold a favorable opinion of themselves just as a matter of getting through the day. Not to mention the fact that their understanding of the functioning of Humana is limited to their job description. It is not possible to gain much of a perspective on the health care debate or industry practices by asking a midlevel manager "Do you think you're the worst person alive?"
Since when is it legitimate, much the less newsworthy, to get a company's perception on its embattled status, at least without introducing either some contrary opinion or better yet, facts, to counter the views of people who will inevitably see what they are doing as right? I hate to draw an extreme comparison to make the point, but staff in Nazi concentration camps also thought they were good people. It is well documented that for all save the depressed, people's assessments of their own behavior is biased in their favor.
There is some revelatory stuff in the article, however. David Sirota flags one employee saying that Humana believes in keeping down costs by "controlling utilization":
Now, I know we're supposed to think that private for-profit health care companies don't ration care, while government-run programs like Medicare do - but as the insurance industry admits right here for all to see, that's just not the case. The obvious truth is that the health insurance industry works hard to "control utilization" - that is, it works hard to make sure that when you need a costly medical service, you are "controlled" (read: prevented) from getting it.
Sure, we're all against excessive testing - and there are good ways to deal with those inefficiencies. But that's not what the insurance industry is talking about. It is talking about its practice of rationing care - and now that reality is right there in black and white for all to see.
The truth of the matter is that many of the charges that insurance companies like WellPoint level at the public option and regulatory changes sought in the health reform bill mirror accepted industry practices. WellPoint, which emailed its own customers yesterday attacking the Democratic plan, claimed that health reform will “increase the premiums of those with private coverage.” Yet WellPoint routinely hikes their own premium prices by close to double digits annually, leading to ever-increasing profits. The email stated that millions of Americans would lose their private coverage and be forced onto a government-run option if the Democratic bill passed (nothing could be further from the truth); yet WellPoint routinely uses the practice of rescission to drop their own customers from coverage if they ever try to use it, and they've admitted they would continue doing so unless forced to stop by law.
The email is an example of the astroturf practices from the industry, including, no doubt, pitching to the New York Times a story putting the human face on insurers. Many of these astroturf efforts spring from the same sources as the corporate lobby groups activating the tea party protests at town hall meetings throughout the country this August. They're trying to change the subject, away from facts, like how they're spending less of their premium revenue on medical care over the years, from 90% in the early 1990s to around 80% today. Or how they use rescission and pre-existing condition to make profits off cherry-picking the healthy and denying everyone else care. House and Senate leaders have requested more and more information about insurance company practices; Dennis Kucinich has joined that effort. But the insurance industry, while nominally siding with reform, wants to keep the focus on efforts against it, in service to de-fanging it.
I was boggled to see this in today's NYT, too. Of course they don't see themselves as monsters deciding who lives and dies. They are paper shufflers, human suffering is an abstraction to them, and they are the worker ants who don't see the whole picture of the monstrous enterprise. The way most Americans seem to be trained to accept the current state of affairs with health care, well of course these people won't see the whole picture of what they're doing.
Shame on the NYT for allowing this gigantic puff-piece. Some liberal media.
Aw, those poor billionaires. Here here now. Tell you what, next time I need emergency heart surgery to stay alive, I will deny myself coverage and just die, so that your bonuses will not suffer in any way.
Your such nice guys, you don't deserve these meanies picking on you just because you killed their loved-ones by dumping their coverage.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
They are no different than lower level CIA agents following orders while torturing. I understand needing an income but at what cost to millions of others.
is intended to be a factual statement
They are knowingly and willingly complicit.
The regular employees are, on purpose, meant to not see the 'big picture' - they're meant to only see the one little piece of the pie they work on. Their particular type of reports/paperwork, their particular very narrowly focused area in the office. The system was designed to take in as much money as possible while paying out the least amount possible, where the rubber meets the road that means letting people either die or go broke (often both). The individual cogs in the machine can't be allowed to contemplate that, lest half the office just walk out one day in disgust. The ordinary workers are meant to be blind to the real function. The people who designed the system to work the way it does are monsters.
It works exactly the same way as the Nazi camps.
but the HI employees who send out the denial letters KNOW what they are doing. They may very well be doing what they are told to do, but don't tell me they are unaware of the consequences to the "insured".
They don't care what happens to you as long as they get what they want.
republicanism is a mental illness.
We are the sickest country in the world. Suffering a mental disorder that inflicts 25% of the population.
It shows in the greed and the ruthlessness of the GOP. The greedy old white peoples party!
The party of the insane and the stupid, the mentally derainged, the morally corrupt, Liars, crooks, and idiots.
republicanism is a mental illness!
Are just as bad. My own 2 NJ Democratic Senators are being "Paid by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America" and "Families USA." Families USA is headed by Ron Pollack, a right winger opposed to reform. So my Senators say they "support the public option," while they are being paid not to do so. A glossy mailer sent by Menendez does not mention it, and is manipulative in its language. Even the Democrats are shills!
The Repuke base is always going on about how you can't trust the gov't to run health care but they seem quite willing to trust big corporations not unlike the ones on Wall Street that have caused such damage that we may never fully recover. Don't these people think at all; just a little is all it would take, really.
Humana, a company that advertises on Glenn Beck. No surprise there.
to bad the health care insurance cos. may have a major competitor the "public option". WOW they may have to compete in a real "free market" for a change. instead of the monopoly/too big to fail strategy. they cheer/chant "free market" and competition but they do just the opposite. consequently they raise prices. health care is not elastic for consumers they will pay since they have no choice and it's their health.
why the fuck the dems havent been on the offensive on this is so fucking frustrating
"we dont want the government to get in the way of a doctor and his/her patient"
no....its much better that some millionaire mafioso does that job
and that is exactly what these for profit health care companies are...simple protection rackets
they bleed you dry...then kick you to the curb
that there are millions out there who want to protect them makes me ill
If they're not going to prosecute the war criminals, why not do this instead? All they are lacking is the desire.
They are working on it:
http://www.healthplanlaw.com/?p=548
"Someday somebody related to some of these sufferers, these victims, these collaterally damaged souls, may try to kill you. And I have to tell you, I think you’ll have it coming." - Christopher Cooper
our Attorney General. However, we need this prosecuted on a federal level, ad we should not have to wait until Mr. Cuomo is President.
Agreed. Cuomo is really tilting at windmills. It usually ends up in fines that dwarf what the CEO's make in a year.
"Someday somebody related to some of these sufferers, these victims, these collaterally damaged souls, may try to kill you. And I have to tell you, I think you’ll have it coming." - Christopher Cooper
is limited to NYS. He is a real Blue Blood Democrat. Just like his Dad. I like to think of them as Kennedy Democrats.
that's the real culprit. the insurance mole who's get's between the pt. and dr.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/...
First, what does it mean to say that you are satisfied with your health insurance? Consider homeowner's insurance. Until you need it -- your house burns down -- you have no way of judging its quality. The same goes for health coverage; until you have a serious illness, the kind where your plan's limits and exclusions may kick in, how do you know if your health coverage is any good?
For one thing, as the House Energy and Commerce Committee uncovered, some insurers go out of their way to revoke coverage for people with serious health problems by looking for mistakes on their original applications. For another, you could be underinsured, like 29 percent of all people with health insurance, according to Consumer Reports. It is politically relevant that two-thirds of Americans seem to like their health coverage, but whether they should like it is another question.
The second problem is that the health coverage that most satisfied Americans have -- employer-based coverage -- is less secure than they think. In America today, we have three main health insurance systems. At one end we have Medicare and the Veterans Health Administration, which (although many anti-reform protesters don't realize it) are government-funded and government-run programs, and generally popular ones. At the other end we have the individual market, in which individuals buy insurance policies directly from health insurers. The individual market is completely broken; according to a recent Commonwealth Fund study, 73 percent of people who tried to buy individual coverage in the last three years did not end up buying a plan.
horrified to see themselves depicted as "villains" in the health care debate
Poor babies! Maybe now they'll think twice about working for blood-sucking vampires.
Me, I have no sympathy. None, whatsoever. I spent many years working as a temp, and had a standing order at the agencies I worked for: NEVER call me for insurance jobs of ANY kind, but especially health insurance companies. Those jobs often paid quite well, but I flatly refused to have anything to do with them. And this started many years ago, long before the current health care crisis.
Lie down with the devil, and you'll wake up with your naughty bits burnt to hell. That's just the way it is. Man up and stop whining.
There's always free cheddar in the mousetrap, baby. - Tom Waits
You could do a lot worse than to quote David Sirota, who usually hits the nail on the head. I'm amazed that more of us (myself included) haven't stumbled upon the absurdly obvious truism that gov't-run health care isn't the one that'll be rationed; it's the insurers who are rationing care. And, as Sirota says, they're not even being that artfully deceptive about it. They're coming right out and saying, "We're going to bump you off our list if you dare try to use your coverage and we'll keep right on doing it until the fucking gov't puts a gun to our heads and orders us to stop."
I once worked with a guy whose kidneys failed. When his doctors told his employer-provided insurer (I won't say who it but their initials are F.A.L.L.O.N.) that he'd need dialysis three times a week, they actually had the gall to go back and ask him, "Can't you send him just twice a week?"
I swear to Christ, true story.
JP
http://giveusthisdayourdailtydread.blogspot.com
instead of Pre Existing Condition?
Amazing
Just change the name from Capital One to Humana and you have exactly what these whining brats do for a living:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlkGkKxF020&fe...
"Someday somebody related to some of these sufferers, these victims, these collaterally damaged souls, may try to kill you. And I have to tell you, I think you’ll have it coming." - Christopher Cooper
...to paint all employees of a company with the same brush is just ridiculous. I guess when the right says all lefties are pussies and hate America, it's true, right? Believe me, there are PLENTY of people at Humana that are on your side. I read the NYT story and did find it pretty one-sided. But, reading comparisons of Humana employees to Nazis, etc., is just ridiculous. I've rarely been ashamed of any post on C&L, but this is certainly one of those times.
I know I'm going to get flamed and called names, etc. I don't care. There ARE a lot of great people at Humana and, seriously, screw anyone that tries to say they're Nazis or any other seriously hateful (and stupid) remark they might make. I've always found the right WAY worse than the left with the name-calling and hate, but sometimes the left is just as bad. Pitiful.
I'd tell them to get a REAL job but there aren't any left.
"Someday somebody related to some of these sufferers, these victims, these collaterally damaged souls, may try to kill you. And I have to tell you, I think you’ll have it coming." - Christopher Cooper
So, they can all get a job with the government's health program
Except the CEO's and their obscene sense of entitlement.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Once the government health care system is in place, all those folks who toil for the ghouls can get jobs that will actually help people. Plus, government jobs tend to be far more secure than private sector jobs, so it'll be a plus for them.
There's always free cheddar in the mousetrap, baby. - Tom Waits
Totally agree. I meant that they can't give their two week notice just now. But they should be supporting a single payer plan. It benefits everyone except the greedy few.
"Someday somebody related to some of these sufferers, these victims, these collaterally damaged souls, may try to kill you. And I have to tell you, I think you’ll have it coming." - Christopher Cooper
At work they changed our dental health plan to Humana
humana...humana...humana...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
STOP IT!!
"Someday somebody related to some of these sufferers, these victims, these collaterally damaged souls, may try to kill you. And I have to tell you, I think you’ll have it coming." - Christopher Cooper
Five Steps To Tyranny
Well worth watching. If you don't have the time to watch the whole thing now, bookmark it for later. Pass it on to somebody you care about.
Liberal media my ass.
The NYT is somewhere to the right of right of center. Took them five years - FIVE YEARS - to come out against the Iraq War. And they still back-peddle on it.
Randi Rhodes airs on green960 and gives a full breakdown of the kinds of profits each of the 7 health insurance companies make, CEO salaries as well as discusses their practices used to ensure the kinds of profits they make.
If you listen to her 7/29 podcasts, you will find them informative and eye opening. Go to this website, right click on the listen buttons and choose save as to your computer. *no cost and you don't have to sign up for anything
http://www.green960.com/cc-common/podcast/sin...
Listen to FREE Podcasts
Randi Rhodes 07/29/09 H1
Randi Rhodes 07/29/09 H2
Randi Rhodes 07/29/09 H3
Gee, I guess it's okay to make money off the illnesses, injuries and deaths of others.
But don't think for one minute that these faceless, bureaucratic products of conception who actually work at these insurance companies give one hoot in hell what happens to you...as long as they get your money, everything's fine...it reminds me of the "never pay policy" described on Monty Python so many years ago...no claim you file will be paid....THE WHOLE THING IS ABOUT MONEY...
How many politicians get money from these arrogant corporate slugs?
What a silly question...
If they don't want to be henpecked, then they should quit acting like chicken shits.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jng4TnKqy6A
It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it.
Upton Sinclair
US novelist & socialist politician (1878 - 1968)
---
George Washington University, Health Insurance Industry fraud here (for some reason it opens to the second page).
United Health Care is right up there, again and again.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
I'm certain that the worker bees at Humana are humans. That's a red herring. We all think of ourselves as just plain folk doing the best we can. Still, it's the healthcare as business mindset. Re-read this:
"I believe we’re getting the pushback because we are standing up for what we believe in,” said Cheryl Tidwell, 45, Humana’s director of commercial sales training. “We believe there’s a better way to control costs by controlling utilization ..."
Ms. Tidwell probably would recoil in shock, shock, shock at the thought, but "controlling utilization" means "rationing."
What would be the reaction if a Federal bureaucrat rather than a free-market bureaucrat said that?
If a company charges exorbitant (sp?) prices for materiel during time of war, they are labeled "war profiteers" and publicly ridiculed & scorned. If you charge what the market will bear during an emergency or natural disaster (say, charging $5 a bottle for a pint of water after Katrina) you are considered vermin, and there are actually laws against it.
But a health insurance provider can make life-and-death decisions based on their bottom line and not the health of their customers, and that's just "capitalism".
Just like freedom of speech is not absolute, neither is capitalism. You can't sell body parts for transplant, GM can't sell cocaine instead of cars. Companies can't (or at least aren't supposed to) collude to drive up prices. The health of a country's citizens should not be the business of for-profit companies!!!
conservatives didn't invent the idea of tying insurance to employers, which lead to losing insurance when changing jobs, and dealing with the preexisting condition madness, while giving employers control over changing your insurance company.
Conservatives didn't invent the hmo which rations care.
The only legitimately American philosophy is one which increases Liberty of the individual. It is the reason America exists. All else is just the same power-elite model used everywhere in the world since before history began. That is why slavery was wrong for America. It is why allowing businesses to have government power is wrong for America. It is why fighting wars for business interests is wrong for America. It is why Government cotrol over your health is wrong for America.
As much as the posters revile those who start businesses, there is a major difference between a business and the government. Businesses get away with only so much, or they go under.
The government has guns and jails and makes laws to protect itself. once it has power over an issue, you will accept what the government wants for as long as they want it.
the corporations which control the govt. For profit. They are the ones that drive the system like there is no tomorrow. For profit. Government isn't inherently bad, but once it's grabbed up and controlled by the big money men (For profit), you have the embodiment text book fascism, and that is what this country has been tearing toward since Reagan really cut loose the regulation that was in force that brought us to where we are today.
It is the people who have been convincing gullible people like you that govt is bad, so they can have it their way.
If we'd had National health/universal healthcare/single payer plans, along with the rest of the world, insurance would not have had to have been tied to employment. And HMOs would have been unneeded.
So here's what your clever argument boils down to, Dr Einstein. Progressives have been trying to get healthcare for everyone, even stupid ingrates like you, for decades (since FDR proposed it, at least). Conservatives have always bullied the country out of it, by lying. Conservatives have blocked legislation over and over.
Since progressives have had to find workarounds due to conservative blocking legislation, they (The progressives who have been simultaneously working on healthcare for all and finding workarounds for as many as possible) are the bad guys, not the conservatives, who are the authors of and created the situation in which workarounds are needed. Gotcha.
You are right, Conservatives have only been there to block basic human rights all along, no matter which country, no matter what issue.
The right of people to not be barred from establishments or voting based on race, hard fought by conservatives.
The right of black military personnel to be treated as equals, fought hard by conservatives. The right of people to enter into mixed race marriages, fought by your BFFs. The right of women to vote? End slavery? End prohibition? Oh you assholes in conservativeville just can't fight the support of human rights and individual rights, consenting adult rights hard enough.
Wanker.
Nice job, dupe. And when you're at the next Meeting for Capitalist Tools, tell them we'll have them any time they want to be saved from the greed of the rich and powerful. Why are they powerful? Because they are rich. Why are they rich? Because they are powerful.
me-oww!
Since when is it a "basic human right" to have your health care paid for by everyone else? I don't see that anywhere in the Constitution. While I agree that most of our legislators are in the pocket of big pharma and mega-insurance companies, I don't see how gov't-controlled health insurance is going to help anything. I see a nightmare consisting of new HOARDS of government-employed regulators and bureaucrats who have power to make decisions regarding MY health care choices. I am a biophysicist who has been in the research game and I don't see big pharma, hospitals, or the medical establishment as helping anything. Doctors are great if you have an emergency or a broken arm, but are clueless regarding many of the more subtle, systemic diseases. We have spent a lot of money getting my wife well from an autoimmune disorder that NO conventional medical care could help with and no insurance would cover. If you want to protect your health, it's up to you, people! And more money going into gov't-backed health care means LESS money that we can use as we choose to find our own ways to health. Not to mention that it will bankrupt the country --- look at Britain, Canada, and ... yes, Massachusetts. And people STILL think that the gov't can fix anything? Mind-boggling.
why do you insist on changing the topic? And we aren't speaking of Constitutional rights, we are speaking of basic human rights, agreed upon as such by most of the civilised countries in the world. You idiots and "It's not in the constitution!" bullshit. So the fuck what?
When you figure out what the issue is, and what the distinction is between human rights, and rights granted by the US Government, come back and attempt an informed, intelligent discussion. Until you do that, you are arguing about lies and deception fed you by the private sector which is running the govt right now, sunshine. It's the textbook definition of Fascism, and you support it. No wonder your mind is boggled.
Report to your overlord for treats.
me-oww!
Comments are closed on this entry