Man Arrested For Asking Anthem Blue Cross/Shield About His Rate Increase
It gets more unbelievable by the day, doesn't it?
Joe Szakos leads the Virginia Organizing Project, an almost fifteen year-old community organization that Health Care for America Now works with in Virginia to organize for health care reform. Szakos's organization employs dozens of people, and they get their health care through Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield.
This year, Szakos was informed that Anthem was going to increase the premiums on Virginia Organizing Project's health plan by 14.1%. Around the same time, the Virginia Organizing Project received an email from Anthem:
We strongly support reform that builds a strong, sustainable private-sector health care system - and strongly oppose creating a government-run health plan. We are urging our elected officials in Washington to take bipartisan action that will accomplish that. We are educating policymakers in Washington and working with our trade associations to encourage Congress to build on the current system and not disrupt the quality, affordable coverage on which our members depend....
As our elected officials debate health care, they need to hear directly from you.
Szakos immediately had some questions for Anthem. Chief among them, why is Anthem using its resources to lobby against health care reform with a public health insurance option while at the same time increasing rates by 14.1%?
Szakos, along with three other Virginia Organizing Project board members, went down to Anthem's offices in Richmond, VA to ask. He left in handcuffs.
Szakos, a customer, couldn't get an answer from Anthem. There was no justification for raising rates on one hand, and spending money lobbying against health care reform on the other. And instead of trying to offer Szakos an explanation, they had him arrested.
As Szakos said in the video, this is about greed and force. There is no good explanation for these rate increases, and there is no justification for Anthem to spend money it collects in premiums from customers suffering under its "health care" plans on lobbying against reform that would help these very same people. The only thing motivating Anthem - and all insurance companies - is greed. And they get and keep their money by force.
...I'm sorry I ever said anything bad about you, please don't hurt me. I promise to keep paying my premiums whatever they are AND never to file a claim no matter how sick I get.
Jeez! They've gone from regular capitalist corporation evilness to James Bond-esque Villiany. Are they a front for SPECTRE? The fact that they think they can get away with it and the fact that they are getting away with it, is down right frightening.
It is the Corporate State. You have the right to consume but nothing else.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
You have the right to consume what they decide you may consume.
Of course, they get to tell you how much you will pay, and how they are going to screw you by producing crap - but it's worth it, because at least you won't have to live in some "socialist" country!
Rush Limbaugh is what a smart person thinks a stupid bigot sounds like.
...if they pass a bill that MANDATES private ownership of healthcare, you will have not only the right to consume, but legal obligation to consume.
Entrapping ACORN, OK.
Do NOT challenge the fascists. Their security forces will bust your ass.
The people of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage." J.K. Galbraith
Corporatists. Man I hate those guys, and their blonde female counterparts.
Rush Limbaugh is what a smart person thinks a stupid bigot sounds like.
This is truly disgusting. A citizen comes to question a big corporations practices and they arrest him? And they call Obama a fascist? Will Glen and Rush report on this fascism? They may say it, but I mean it. I WANT MY COUNTRY BACK!!!
is intended to be a factual statement
I'm sorry, but your country no longer exists. It has been replaced by a new enhanced version of freedom and liberty - that is only possible through the "free market."
You WILL report for mandatory reprogramming at the same time you sign-up for mandatory private health insurance under the "Baucus saved our lives" initative. Failure to do so, will result in fines and "enhanced" non-compliance penalties.
We would like to thank you for your support, and hope to continue to have a strong relationship with all of our citizens. You are the reason we can do what we do.
Rush Limbaugh is what a smart person thinks a stupid bigot sounds like.
So you're saying I'm shit out of luck? Up the creek without a paddle. We're fucked aren't we? Just tell me the truth. This once great nation is done because we elected a black president and the south can't handle it.
is intended to be a factual statement
entrenched during the Bush/Cheney administration. And nobody did anything about it. They are reaping what they sowed. What we allowed them to sow. Suck it up, cupcake.
This has nothing to do with the pigment of President Obama's skin. May I remind you that 79% of this country is white but a slight majority elected him. A lot of people reject his ideaologies not his race.
Does our country need health care reform? Yes. Do we have the best health care in the world? Yes. The real question is how to do it without government running it and bankrupting in the process.
Are there greedy corporations? Of course. Are there power hungry politicians that don't represent the people that elected them to office? On both sides of the aisle. The national media has us arguing with each other that we're losing site of the real problem. A government that is too intrusive into our lives and corporate greed driven by stock holders that demand higher profits even if it costs American jobs to overseas companies. Part of that is our fault.
8 places behind Morocco, and 36 places behind France. France has the best medical care in the world.
http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthranks.html
Your opinion does not equal fact.
Here's a tune from a good old boy you might want to hum to yourself when you feel the urge to lie about our ranking in the world, vis à vis healthcare (Pardon my French).
We're Number 37
me-oww!
This guy in the beginning of the video saying "officers, do what's necessary". Since when does the police work for Blue Cross/Blue Shield? What right does this man have to tell a police officer what to do. This video shows the truth of what Beck screams about. Only opposite. Average citizens having their rights taken away from corporations.
is intended to be a factual statement
What Beck screams about now.
In 2008, he was ranting against the medical care that he received.
I pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America, and to the republic which it established, one nation from many peoples, promising liberty and justice for all
just like the mgr of McDonalds. Th law protects PROPERTY.
Blue Cross/Blue Shield is a publicly owned company. You and I own it. Chances are, you don't realize this. Check out your 401(k) statement. I bet you you're part owner. Look at your funds then read the prospectus. I'll bet you a bag of chips, baked, that you are part owner of Blue Cross/Blue Shield. This is nothing like McDonalds. McDonalds is a franchise. Franchises work by a different set of rules just like a S-Corp and an LLC. I'll give you the time to dig out your quarterly statement and you can get back to me. You and I are just as guilty of the greed when it comes to the insurance industry. We give them the money to operate. The premium payers give them their profit. I don't care what side of the aisle you sit on, but you are completely wrong.
is intended to be a factual statement
McDonalds is also publicly traded. You seem to equate owning stock, with right out ownership... which is not the case.
but I still know that they can ask for police protection because they are an agent of the property owner. Just like you can get arrested for not leaving 7-11 wheb the clerk ask you too.
,,, so I am NOT completely wrong. Actually your presumptions are.
to defend their property, eh?
money on a rent-a-cop , profits have to be maintained .
every time you throw a little mud , you lose a little ground .
n/t
every time you throw a little mud , you lose a little ground .
... for real.
but I wonder if that little video is going to shown on any of the networks? What does this Anthem company have to say for itself?
Government + the Federal Reserve = organized crime
Keith and Rachel .. probably.
Democracy is too important to be entrusted to politicians.
Rise Up!
Protest!
probably...
makes me rest easy at night , knowing this is the type of freedom we are spreading around the world , at the end of a barrel .
every time you throw a little mud , you lose a little ground .
one devastated city at a time.
Totally, agree, gump! Let's see what Fox *News* has to say about this. As sleazy as insurance companies are, I thought that they would be on their best behavior at least for the time being, all things considered. But the sleaze is just too great, apparently. This is exactly what Pres. Obama is fighting against and trying to help us, the citizens, with. Those witless morons on the right who are throwing their giant hissy-fits over this are the ones who would benefit the most by changing the system. But rather than THINK THIS THROUGH FOR THEMSELVES, the lazy dimwits just soak up whatever Beck and Co. throw at them and parrot it back. They deserve to go bankrupt, but unfortunately, they'd be taking a lot of good folks down with them.
he went to ask questions and was arrested when he refused to leave. They call it trespassing and it works for everyone.
eh?
I mean the title of this article says he was arrested for asking a question. Well that ain't exactly true now is it. He was arrested for not obeying a police order and trespass.
they never allowed him to ask the question he intended to ask! Crabby, how did you feel about the insane preacher (and I use the term very loosely) that was arrested and beat up (allegedly) at a border patrol check point in CA when he refused to obey their orders?
That is the data center for Anthem BC/Wellpoint. The upper management does not work out of that office. Anthem is owned by Wellpoint, a CA company. Wellpoint owns lots of insurance companies around the country. If there were no State boundaries for insurance companies, it would be no different than the banks. A few super large insurance companies and each region would have some regional ones.
Since when is going to a place of business to ask a question considered trespassing? And, if they were so hell-bent on getting rid of him, why not just call Security and have him escorted off the premises? No, they called in the police, handcuffed him and had him arrested. All because he wanted to know why his insurance premiums were being raised (again!) by 14%. Seems like a reasonable request on his part to me. . . . .
they ask you to leave and you dont .
The upside is look at all the free press we get .
every time you throw a little mud , you lose a little ground .
.. and they were not providing the service for which he is paying.
The hole handcuffing was completely out of line IMHO.
of customer vs non-customer , paying or otherwise , when asked to leave doing so would seem prudent , unless making a statement is the goal . If the latter was the case , it was sweet , air time .
The cuffs were tuff , but I've beat up by 5 yr olds worse than that .
every time you throw a little mud , you lose a little ground .
... because technically he can sue for civil damages.
I believe policy consultation and clarification is part of the contractual obligation of the HMO, they did not provide the service... then there could be a possible breach of contract.
But I agree with you, if this person did it as a publicity stunt. More power to him, it seem to have worked.
Makes 'em skeered. They'd much prefer that you write a strongly worded letter, or maybe even call you on the phone. That way, they can just "lose" your letter in the trash, or "accidentally" get disconnected on the phone call.
Face-to-face conversations are, for some strange reason, much less conducive to pulling that kind of nonsense. Alas, the only remaining answer is handcuffs.
I guess the fascists in suits are too lazy to install one of those lever activated drop floors so popular with merchant bankers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUhb0XII93I&fe...
but reasonably confident we won't do it...
Imagine showing up en mass...they'd shit themselves.
.
Typical that the police protect the Corporation and NOT the People.
.
Starve the WAR Beast...
... Feed Americans.
The senate and congress help these people make a living killing you!
republicanism is a mental illness!
And I'm starting to have my doubts about the Dems, if they can't pass real health reform then it's because they never intended to.
We need a single payer option plan and at this point I would be amazed if I saw a real public option in the final bill.
You know, the bill the repugs won't vote for no matter what!
Unless... I know, we'll offer a free gun to every American, then the repugs would have to vote for it. No Matter What!!!
A free gun, AND a bible!
You know what? It is way too late to start worrying about all this. We should keep trying, of course, but if this has become a country that can legally offer up a "bill" that would force every citizen to buy costly private insurance or be fined every year the amount their insurance would have cost had they complied, then it's like over, kids, a long time ago. What happened to Szakos finally proves it.
(Yawn, I get dark and cranky at around this time every night.)
Hey, don't forget to Talk Like a Pirate tomorrow!
from Treasure Island ,
Wallace Berry ( one of my hero's ) ask Jackie Cooper ,
are you aiming to blow the other leg off sonny .
every time you throw a little mud , you lose a little ground .
Remember the protests of the 60's? We forced our way in and chained and padlocked ourselves in various government and university offices. That's what we need to start doing now. We might also take a tip from the teabaggers and show up at those offices armed in states where it is legal to do so.
I would.
I will! Anybody?
It's good to get arrested for something you believe in. Far as I'm concerned, it's good to DIE for something you believe in, if it does any good.
There are many issues in the air today that I'd lay my life on the line for. I'd die to end the wars even a month sooner.
(But then, it's easier for me. Easy to say DIE when your "day" was in 1969.)
But this is important. Outspoken threats from the Moonpie brigade are clear: to show up with guns next time, and to water their version of the Tree of Liberty with the BLOOD of their opinion of what makes a traitor.
They keep reminding us with smirks that they are the believers in gun rights, and therefore the ones who are armed, while our side is busy putting "This is a gun-free house!" signs in our yards in order to be good libtards, wearing our 2nd ammendment-hating haloes.
We really need to be listening, brothers and sisters. Stop laughing. It could get really, really unfunny before long.
One thing, though: a great many Democrats/ liberals/ progressives ARE armed, hobby gun-collectors, hunters by tradition, home-protection enthusiasts, or inner-city people who simply can't survive unarmed.
Okay, that's out of my system, LOL.
Avast, ye libs. Don't forget we be Talking Like Pirates once a year on September 19, especially if the date be fallin' on a weekend. That's today!
Looks like Republican Health Care to me.
Wow, you can take a gun with you to a democratic presidents' speech but if you ask a polite question of one of our corporate theives you get arrested??? Huh???
At Obama's next press conference, some "plant" will ask him to comment on the incident and he'll say the cops acted stupidly. The next day the talking heads will declare " Obama calls white cops 'stupid' " .
"The only thing motivating Anthem - and all insurance companies - is greed." ...
and a Federal Government for sale to the highest bidder.
And you fools keep paying the premiums.
Insurance is gambling and you're surprised the odds favor the 'house'. Quit playing.
I'm damned if I'll do it. My health care plan is, I quit smoking in 2005 to spite the insurance companies, I exercise 2 miles a day (and pushing), eat good stuff, sleep good hours, pray, laugh, love, and build up my savings for old age, if I get to old age, that is. I don't intend to take life-prolonging steps unless they make a huge amount of sense, and probably NO STEPS after I'm 79, or once my quality of life slips to the point where I need a keeper of ANY kind. I saw one Moonpie demonstrator snarl that she's against "Obamacare" because it's apt to cut into the $1200 per week tube feedings her mother receives from Medicare. What damned piggery. I promise not to do THAT to future generations, or the young.
What happens to a person my age (not old yet) who needs a $1200 per week procedure, who might actually recover thanks to the procedure? I would probably die.
If the Republican/Blue Dog bill passes (a.k.a. the Baucus bill), my savings will have to go to buying absurdly-priced insurance every year, when I swear, I am so healthy it's laughable, I won't use it, but if I get cancer, it won't be there for me, probably, or the deductable will eat me alive, and if I don't buy insurance, my savings will be syphoned off in yearly fines for refusal to comply.
I used to be insured, back when I was married we were all well-covered, but health insurance is no longer viable, the doctor-patient paradigm no longer what it was, so I stopped, and started a savings account that I would "kill" to protect from "enemies."
This is where we are. "Divided" is getting to be a mild word for it.
Yet a wingnut can show up where the president is with a "water the tree of liberty with the blood of patriots and tyrants" sign and a gun strapped to his back and no arrests whatsoever. Go figure.
Unlike a commie public commons area, you can step on a business' private property and say just anything you want. Oh, wait...you _can't_.
Then raise holy hell at their shareholders' meetings. They can't bar a shareholder owner from attending a shareholders' meeting.
There's lots of ways of arresting someone. Why are the Police so quick to handcuff someone when they could just as easily be escorted to the sidewalk? There's many times that Police are the one's escalating the tension, when they can be better served by just talking things through. Police are much quicker to Tazer or Pepper Spray political protest than just to have competing parties talk, or at least for the Police to talk to Citizens that are practicing the First Amendment rights. Also, you would think that the Police would want to be Part of the Community than just Stone-faced Enforcers beyond the Community. There are a lot good Cops out there, but the Police in the US are becoming more and more the local Para-Military than being the Neighborhood's beat-Sheriff.
like this. It's to pay the cost of $1.5M/day to lobby Congress to maintain the status quo.
I'd love to read a C&L piece on -- let alone see the MSM cover -- how the same thing happened with the failed '93 healthcare reform. Within a few years, insurance premiums increased significantly, part of which you can be certain was so the ins. cos. could recoup their anti-reform costs.
The insurance industry's -- actually the entire HIC's -- cajones are amazing: let's screw the people over and then send them the bill for screwing them.
Our government is owned by the corporations. Were that not so, a citizens right to address grievances (question this corporation for instance) would not be stifled so quickly and gleefully by the police who obviously do the bidding of the corporate masters and simply do not care to PROTECT AND SERVE THE PUBLIC!
Single payer would save the country 400 billion dollars a year and cover every US citizen. We pay 2.4 trillion dollars for health care. Single payer would cost less than half that and cover everyone, vision, dental, cancer, lose your job, move out of state, go to any doctor/hospital, it's all covered. Payroll tax of 3.5% pays for it. No other plan or public option covers everyone and reduces costs except single payer. Plus it kills private insurance and takes their money and puts it back into the system to pay for care for Americans.
It's HR 676 single payer medicare for all (30 pages long). At the state level California has it's single payer bill (SB810) set to go in 2010. CA. passed single payer twice 2006, 2008 and both times it was vetoed by the governor. AG Jerry Brown is running for governor and is ahead in the polls had said he will sign SB810 into law. CA. will save 7.6 billion dollars a year and cover everyone (US citizens) in the state.
California will be the first single payer state, this is how Canada got started to national universal care.
Good teams win games, Great teams cover the spread!
No one is so hopelessly enslaved as he/she who blindly accepts the State's assurances that he/she is free and that the police exist to protect the people. Can you even dream of a police officer arresting an abusive corporation on the word of an abused citizen? Have you not heard of one of our ubiquitous, overarmed, super-macho SWAT teams - having been called in to help an overwrought, armed suicidal citizen - rushing in and KILLING the very citizen whom they were supposed to be helping . . . rescuing? It happens regularly all over the country and a minute fraction - if any - of the shooters and their supervisors are ever held accountable.
My conclusion is that Corporations elect and own the politicians and those politicians own the law & its enforcement infrastructure. We, Beloved, are nameless, faceless, numbered revenue-sources. Forget this fact at your own peril.
Comments are closed on this entry