Mr. Potter has a right to a change of heart and to live his life the way he sees fit. You say:
"...they kick down the ladder and demand "reform" that, conveniently, destroys others but leaves them unscathed..."
Just what "others" do you think that he is destroying? Your post is very odd, but your bitterness and rage are evident. It sounds like you yourself are clawing your way up the corporate ladder at an insurance company, perhaps denying claims and purging policyholders, and you worry that your own ambitions might fall victim to reform. That's the conclusion I drew from your vituperation..
Cigna destroyed my life and cost me my home. I am a +25 year survivor of HIV and my employer Apple eventually suggested that I stop working and apply for disability when my health deteriorated to the point that my job performance began to suffer. A variety of doctors and organizations acknowledged the reality of my health problems but Cigna declared that there was nothing wrong with me. I lost my supply of antivirals which fight HIV and I lost my home due to a lack of income......Cigna had contracted with Apple to provided Long Term Disability benefits to disabled Apple employees. I had a lot of health issues but Cigna declared there was nothing wrong with we. Then, a year later, Cigna lost a laptop computer with my name, address, SSN, medical information, and birthdate to theft. They informed that they had reason to believe the laptop was not encrypted when it was lost. If I could, I would hurt Cigna executives in any way possible. They are scum and I hope they all die painful deaths. Their children should be taken from them before they twist the kids' minds with their warped values and persistent greed and dishonesty. If there is a god and a heaven and a hell the executives of Cigna will spend their afterlives in hell suffering horribly. Good thing none of them live in my city or I would have taken action against them and picketed outside Cigna's offices to no end....and when that failed I would have killed a few. I hope they all die slow painful deaths.
He was constantly checking "to see whether some of the health insurer's members are visiting emergency rooms too much for nonemergency reasons, such as for the flu or a sprained ankle" ?
I am upset. My health care provider kept _sending_ me to the emergency room! Go to the doctor with a sprained ankle? They'd say, "we need an X-ray, but we can't do that here, send him to our ER." I had an infection that needed lancing? "You'll have to have that lanced, down in the ER, we don't do that here."
I was not going to the ER, my doctor/hospital was sending me!
We can't have that kind of Big Brother monitoring, who knows what false conclusions they'll draw from that kind of data?
Let me tell you and your readers about a private life and health insurance company located in Senator Charles Grassley's home state of Iowa. Back in 1972-1973, that company would not "touch me with a ten-foot colonoscope" with respect to selling me any health insurance product, but would sell me life insurance at grossly inflated rates. That same company would issue my wife a limited benefit health insurance product, but with her kidney condition weaseled out even no company would underwrite her for life insurance because of her polycystic kidney disease. That company was American Republic Insurance Company, headquarters in Des Moine Iowa. In my opinion, that company deserves to be "crowded out" of existence, Senator Chuck Grassley not withstanding.
One year later when the policy was to be replaced, the company agent, in exasperation, told me of an article that appeared in one of their company publications in which the underwriters were chortling over how "cute and clever" they were in that it would issue health insurance for a skydiver but not life insurance! Remember those videos from the Michael Moore movie, "The Smartest Guy in the Room" in which ENRON energy traders were giggling with glee over how they enjoyed robbing their grandmothers?
If the f-word Republicans succeed in blocking any public insurance option, then, at the very least, a Federal Emergency Review and Adjudication Board be setup that could provide expedited reviews and reversals of all claims request and post claims underwriting actions. This would help effectively shut down the "death boards"!
BTW, there is one problem with the name AFLAC. It rhymes with Ex-lax, which some people feel aptly describes their products!
Thank you, thank you, thank you for exposing the unconscionable actions of the hypocritical health industry Bureaucrats. I worked for Aetna for over 25 years and as my career progressed I saw more and more behavior that was not only unethical, but worse - immoral. The number crunchers meet every month to review medical costs in every state, regions of the state, and cities. They use the information to re-work coverage limits, often resulting in a previously covered condition being "phased out" for the coming year. They sure know how to play "The Street" through private, non-public meetings with investors and analysts (can you say RICO?????). Actual projections of medical costs and medical trends are hidden by actuarial games. The finance officers are expert at hiding true results. If a detailed, thorough, independent federal investigation of these bastards isn't conducted - and not just Aetna but the WellPoint’s, Cigna's, Humana's, et al - the American people will still get the same old song and dance year after year. If anything, medical coverage has gotten worse over the past 10 years as the ability of these people to manipulate more and more sophisticated databases leads to more negative changes in what people think they are getting for their benefits. They’re already gearing up for an all out assault on the proposals for national health coverage….. just wait and see what they do. If you think they were bad when the Clinton’s were in office, you’ll be amazed at the soft spoken but vicious attacks that are already “in the can” and ready to be released. Watch out America!
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