Health care insurance premiums are rising again, and the health insurance gurus are blaming it on rising health care costs. Well, it’s true. Health care costs in America. It really, really costs.

Regular readers of this blog may remember my wife’s $2,500 sprained, and possibly broken, ankle. That was just the visit to the emergency room and did not include the followup visit to our primary care physician and the $143 boot for her foot.

2009 is behind us now, and I can report to you that our health insurance paid absolutely nothing for our medical care last year. Nothing. Nada. Not one cent. Why? Our deductible was $2,300, and our $2,000 in bills didn’t quite make it. But we got close. This year our deductible is $100 more. And, yes, our premium went up, too. Now, our premium didn’t go up because of our health care costs to the insurance company – they didn’t pay anything last year!

Health insurance costs in California almost made me feel ashamed of complaining about my personal situation. The Los Angeles Times published a story, "Anthem Blue Cross dramatically raising rates for Californians with individual health policies" that told of exhorbitant increases of up to 39%. One couple reported their new premium will be $27,336, up from $20,184. The new amount exceeds the poverty level in California for a family of five.

Now, let’s just assume this family of two earned $4,000 per month, prior to getting laid off. They would qualify for California’s maximum unemployment benefit of $450 per week, or about $1,800 per month. To keep their health insurance would cost $2,278 per month. You don’t even need Jethro Bodine to tell you that you can’t pay $2,278 with $1,800. You could come close if you moved out of your house and ate out of garbage cans.

Is this the health care we want in America?

Health Insurance Profits

The situation with Anthem Blue Cross in California is being investigated to make certain at least 70% of the premium is being paid out in benefits. In other words, 27.3% of that 39% increase must be paid out in benefits. That leaves 11.7% for employee pay raises and profit. And exactly how much do you expect the employees are getting in pay raises? 1%, 2% if they’re good?

But that’s not all. Anthem Blue Cross of California was fined $1 million by the state. Anthem was rejecting 20% of claims and canceling policies of pregnant women and chronically ill patients. Only in California? Not on your life. In Nevada, Anthem was able to negotiate a settlement with the state for about $1 million. In Kentucky, Anthem was ordered to refund $23.7 million to seniors and disabled patients because of inaccurately processed Medicare claims. And Colorado got a $5.7 million refund for its Anthem customers.

Is this what Republicans are trying to protect?

Health care is not okay in America. Health insurance is not okay in America. The ONLY way to fix the problem is with Medicare for All, but we are running from it as hard as we can. Well, at least the politicians are running from it, and those who are blindly following the lies being paid for by the health care and health insurance industry.

Think about it. Get the facts, and tell your friends. America must do something! Oh, and you might want to read about our new American Beer Party.

Sites We Like

Online Little Rock.com is where Uncle Brice got his start. There’s a ton of information on this site about Arkansas, Little Rock, dining, dancing, shopping (and shopping online). It’s also a high-trafficked Civil War information site. You can even find out stuff about all the colleges and universities of Arkansas.

Home Business Opportunities is a site that has never been more in demand. You can find legitimate ways to earn money from home as well as a lot of information about Internet marketing, writing, building traffic for your website, and more.

The owners of Online Little Rock have a mission in life to teach everyone about brain injury. They have two websites that have hundreds of pages of information, including visitor-submitted Brain Injury Stories. The sites are Brain Injury Online and Brain Injury Guide.

Beth’s Brain Injury Blog is a favorite in the brain injury community. She writes about the good, the bad and the ugly of brain injury and how you must maintain a sense of humor to live successfully whether you are the victim or a caregiver.

Previously, Arkansas Republicrat Senator Blanche Lincoln said, "We want to keep what works in the private industry and make it better." That was a conference call on June 18, 2009. Lincoln is a member of the Senate Finance Committee chaired by Senator Max Baucus (see article Single Payer Health Insurance for America).

Uncle Brice is pleased to have been joined in exposing Lincoln by the likes of John Amato of Crooks and Liars and Greg Sargent of the Washington Post Plum Line. The Blue America PAC has also weighed in on Arkansas’ bought-and-paid-for senior Senator.

Back in June Lincoln said, "One of our biggest concerns is that it doesn’t need to be a government plan that usurps that ability to compete in the marketplace, which I’m concerned that a totally government-run option would do."

Here comes that ol’ saying: what a difference a few days make. Okay, so that ain’t really what the old saying is. I had to change it a bit because it took Senator Lincoln a little bit longer than a day to figure out she should say something else. And while I ain’t especially happy with what she said, it is a move toward saying what people want to hear, "Health care reform must build upon what works and improve inefficiencies. Individuals should be able to choose from a range of quality health insurance plans. Options should include private plans as well as a quality, affordable public plan or non-profit plan that can accomplish the same goals as those of a public plan."

Blue America PAC Videos for Blanche Lincoln

More About Senator Blanche Lincoln

Sen. Blanche Lincoln Co-sponsors SHOP

Sen. Blanche Lincoln, Arkansas Republican?!

Sen. Blanche Lincoln Opposes Public Option

Monopoly Money: "Our good friend Senator Blanche Lincoln thinks it’s very dangerous for the insurance companies to have to compete with a public plan option: ‘One of our biggest concerns is that it doesn’t need to be a government plan that usurps that ability to compete in the marketplace, which I’m concerned that a totally government-run option would do,’ she said."

For more information about her political contributions, you can visit the Federal Election Commission Blanche Lincoln Page.

"This is precisely why we need a public option," Representative John Dingell (D-MI) said on Tuesday, June 16 at a Congressional hearing with top insurance executives about the health insurance company practice of cancelling policies retroactively to avoid paying claims.

The insurance executives were: Richard A. Collins, chief executive of UnitedHealth’s Golden Rule Insurance Co.; Brian Sassi, president of consumer business for WellPoint Inc., parent of Blue Cross of California; and Don Hamm, chief executive of Assurant Health.

Dingell, however, falls short of pushing for the single payer health insurance program favored by a majority of Americans. In a statement released June 24 Dingell said, "This discussion draft is NOT an attempt to create a single payer system nor is it a first step towards a single payer system."

On June 16, Representatives Bart Stupak (D- MI) and Joe Barton (R-TX) pressed the health insurance officials for more information about cancellation procedures.

Representative Barton said, "I think a company does have a right to make sure there’s no fraudulent information. But if a citizen acts in good faith, we should expect the insurance company that takes their money to act in good faith also."

Stupak, the committee chairman, said, "When times are good, the insurance company is happy to sign you up and take your money in the form of premiums. But when times are bad … some insurance companies use a technicality to justify breaking its promise, at a time when most patients are too weak to fight back."

The Los Angeles Times reported, "An investigation by the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations showed that health insurers WellPoint Inc., UnitedHealth Group and Assurant Inc. canceled the coverage of more than 20,000 people, allowing the companies to avoid paying more than $300 million in medical claims over a five-year period."

A few American citizens who were victims of retroactive cancellation presented the following facts. A lady from Texas lost her health insurance coverage after she was diagnosed with breast cancer. The reason for cancellation was that she had failed to disclose a visit to a dermatologist for acne. Another lady was cancelled for failing to report that she had once taken weight-loss medication and had irregular menstruation.

The executives found themselves on the defensive with a very, very weak defense.

(Continued below)

Would you offer coverage to people to have preexisting conditions?

Health Insurance Employees Rewarded for Cancellations

The committee discovered employee performance documents that showed Blue Cross employees were rewarded for cancelling health insurance policies. One employee received a perfect 5 indicating exceptional performance for cancelling thousands of policies and saving the company over $10,000,000 in claim payments. Unfortunately, this is not new.

In 2007, HealthNet was fined $9,000,000 for such practices. At the time, it was discovered that HealthNet had avoided paying $35,000,000 in claims by retroactively cancelling health insurance policies. At the time, Blue Cross stated they did not tie employee performance to policy recission, a fact turned on its ear with the 2003 employee evaluations that showed Blue Cross had lied.

This is the system Congress thinks it can fix with a bandaid approach? No, this is the system that demands a government sponsored single payer health insurance option is the only option to true health insurance reform.

More About Health Insurance Reform

Sen. Blanche Lincoln Co-sponsors SHOP

Sen. Blanche Lincoln Opposes Public Option

Single Payer Health Insurance for America

Public Insurance Option is Not Optional

Medical Bankruptcy Shows Broken Health Care

Single Payer Health Insurance in Trouble

Single Payer Health Insurance Ignored

What others are saying about Single Payer Health Insurance

Last Left Turn Before Hooterville: Single-Payer Health Care – Can … – Single-payer health care is a term used in the United States to describe the payment of doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers from a single fund. It differs from typical private health insurance where, through pricing and …

The Indypendent » Fighting to Cure a Sick System – Single-payer healthcare advocates argue that only by having the federal government provide business-and taxpayer-funded health insurance can everyone receive guaranteed healthcare access. This system would also save money by eliminating …

See How Well That Healthcare Reform Worked Out? Mass. Health Plan … – Single payer off the table? Most countries use a social health insurance model (i.e., we’re all in, nobody out) model based upon Germany’s system. Read this about Germany and then tell me this isn’t what we should be working for: …

"We want to keep what works in the private industry and make it better," Senator Blanche Lincoln said in a conference call on June 18, 2009. Lincoln is a member of the Senate Finance Committee chaired by Senator Max Baucus (see article Single Payer Health Insurance for America).

Senator Lincoln continues to support the Republican party by opposing the will of the American people who overwhelmingly favor a public option for America’s health care system.

"One of our biggest concerns is that it doesn’t need to be a government plan that usurps that ability to compete in the marketplace, which I’m concerned that a totally government-run option would do," she said. Lincoln prefers private insurance cooperatives who, out of the goodness of their hearts, would cut costs for the American people.

She was right about one thing. "We can’t sustain spending the amount of money we do on health care right now."

Ed Schultz of MSNBC is a big supporter of a Single Payer Public Option, and so are many of his blog supporters. Mary Farber of Illinois said, "We all need to keep the pressure on the 10 senators who are in bed with the insurance companies. Here are the 10 Democrats that are reluctant to embrace the public plan option:

Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) Senator Tom Carper (D-DE), Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL), Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC), Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND),
Senator Max Baucus (D-MT)

They make me sick. Without people like Big Eddie S. we would have zero chance. President Obama better not cave in. We all need to get involved and take to the streets—whatever it takes, do not let that gang of 40 keep us from public insurance option. The bottom line, we want true health care reform." (Source: Ed Says Blog)

More About Senator Blanche Lincoln

Sen. Blanche Lincoln Co-sponsors SHOP

Sen. Blanche Lincoln, Arkansas Republican?!

Blue America’s new Campaign For Health Care Choice: Targeting Blanche Lincoln on the Public Option: "We are going to target Blanche Lincoln first with TV ads, with the help of Robert Greenwald’s Brave New Films, and expose her actions to her constituents in Arkansas. This will be the first play because she is up for re-election in 2010 and has already received the second most money from the HIC of any Senator."

Monopoly Money: "Our good friend Senator Blanche Lincoln thinks it’s very dangerous for the insurance companies to have to compete with a public plan option: ‘One of our biggest concerns is that it doesn’t need to be a government plan that usurps that ability to compete in the marketplace, which I’m concerned that a totally government-run option would do,’ she said."

For more information about her political contributions, you can visit the Federal Election Commission Blanche Lincoln Page.

Single payer health insurance is being ignored – or not even considered- by many in Congress who show little respect for the wishes of the American people.

More and more people everyday are facing life without health insurance due to costs and job loss. Some are keeping their jobs but taking pay cuts. How can you make health care more affordable for millions of Americans without money to pay for it? There must be a single payer public option health care program and it must be supported by taxes.

Senator Claire McCaskill says there will be no public option.

So Where’s Obama?

More About Health Insurance Reform

Sen. Blanche Lincoln Co-sponsors SHOP

Single Payer Health Insurance for America

Public Insurance Option is Not Optional

Medical Bankruptcy Shows Broken Health Care

Single Payer Health Insurance in Trouble

Single payer health insurance is in trouble in Congress. It becomes more and more evident everyday that many Senators and Representatives have sold themselves to the health insurance industry and that meaningful health insurance reform may be a fleeting dream.

It’s like the American people are driving a convertible behind a truck driven by Congress that is carrying a load of &*@$ – under an overpass – and the truck is not going to make it. The people are oblivious to what is about to happen, and they will soon find the load dumped right on them…and wonder what happened.

A Gallup Poll conducted September 24 – 27, 2007 showed "Establishing a national healthcare system funded by the government, similar to the ones in Canada and Europe (54% in favor)." On March 5, 2009, CNN reported, "Seventy-two percent of those questioned in recent CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey say they favor increasing the federal government’s influence over the country’s health care system in an attempt to lower costs and provide health care coverage to more Americans, with 27 percent opposing such a move. Other recent polls show six in 10 think the government should provide health insurance or take responsibility for providing health care to all Americans."

whorunsGov reported, "A new poll by a nonpartisan, D.C.-based research group finds truly overwhelming support for the public option. The kicker: The poll was bankrolled partly by previous opponents of health care reform, including one of the nation’s best-known insurance companies. The poll — which was just released by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, a D.C. policy think tank — finds that a majority (53%) strongly back the availability of a public plan, while another 30% “somewhat” support it. That’s a total of 83% in favor of a public plan — a staggeringly large majority."

Then there’s the Washington Post/ABC News Poll taken June 18 – 21, 2009. Question 21 was this: "Would you support or oppose having the government create a new health insurance plan to compete with private health insurance plans?" 62% said yes. (continued below)

So What’s the Problem?

The folks in Washington have not provided details for the American public to consider. Americans overwhelmingly favor a single payer health insurance program similar to Medicare (how about expanding Medicare?) but the anything-but-statesmen working in the Beltway are pretty much refusing to consider it.

On May 21, 2009, "Twenty-eight U.S. Senators today introduced a resolution calling for the inclusion of federally-backed health insurance option in health care reform. The Senators resolution says that any reform of our nation’s health care system should give consumers a choice of an affordable, federally-backed option to introduce competition in the health insurance market and contain health care costs." Folks, twenty-eight ain’t enough.

Those twenty-eight are Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA), Chris Dodd (D-CT), Charles E. Schumer (D-NY), Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Barbara A. Mikulski (D-MD), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Jack Reed (D-RI), Carl Levin (D-MI), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Bob Casey (D-PA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Tom Udall (D-NM), Daniel K. Inouye (D-HI), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Ted Kaufman (D-DE), Roland W. Burris (D-IL), Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), and Benjamin Cardin (D-MD).

When America has needed a major change, people across America have stood up. Think of the suffrage movement of the early 20th Century that got women the right to vote. Think of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s that moved America forward to a degree. Think back to 1776 and the people’s wish to change government entirely.

We haven’t yet stood up…but we need to.

More About Health Insurance Reform

Sen. Blanche Lincoln Co-sponsors SHOP

Single Payer Health Insurance for America

Public Insurance Option is Not Optional

Medical Bankruptcy Shows Broken Health Care

What others are saying about Single Payer Health Insurance

Progressive Democrats of America Blog » HEALTH CARE REFORM – Health Care Reform will ideally be fully funded by the Health Services Department and scrupulously avoid involvement of the Insurance Companies, which have only grossly inflated the costs of Healthcare for their own profit including …

How Many Republicans Does Bipartisan Health Care Reform Need … – Republicans emerged from their weekly caucus lunch blasting the possibility of a public health insurance plan and saying that polls which show support for a government-run option are flawed. The Note, authored by ABC News’ Rick Klein, …

health_care_reform – This weekend I was talking about health care reform with an older man that I know. Before he was old enough for Medicare coverage, he didn’t have any health insurance. Because he had no health insurance, he lived in terrible pain every …

America’s cry for Single Payer Health Insurance as a public option falls on more and more deaf ears, a clear signal that the health care reform wanted by citizens is NOT the health care reform being considered in Washington.

There is a little town in Manitoba, Canada called Kelwood. It’s so small I could not find it on any maps. So, the best I can tell you is that it’s close to Riding Mountain National Park and the town of McCreary in southern Manitoba about 200 miles from North Dakota.

Kelwood is the home of Alana Levandoski, a singer-songwriter best known for a concert she held in Winnipeg in honor of a group of survivors from the war in the Sudan who moved to Canada. But there is another connection between Kelwood and Winnipeg that relates to the need for public option insurance in the United States.

On July 29, 2008 two young boys were visiting their grandparent’s farm just outside Kelwood. They decided to pass the time shooting targets. Twelve-year old Sam hurriedly raised his rifle to shoot at a bird, hitting himself in the head with the scope. The pain from the impact caused him to drop the gun. It fired…and put a bullet in the right side of Sam’s brain.

Sam was rushed to the hospital in Neepawa for medical treatment. From there he was transported to the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg where he underwent a four-hour surgery that began a 12-day stay at HSC. Having lost peripheral vision in his left eye in addition to the left side of his body being paralysed, numerous therapies were begun. During those twelve days, his vision returned and the paralysis went away.

Sam is now re-learning parts of his life affected by brain injury. I contacted Sam’s mother, Jodi, and asked a simple question: "What sort of financial costs did you have with Sam’s incident?" Remember, this is Canada. Yet, I thought that everything provided to Sam couldn’t be free like we’ve been told about the Canadian public health care system. There was the hospital in Neepawa, then the hospital in Winnipeg. There was the brain surgery. There were the numerous therapies.

Jodi responded, "Here in Canada we pay for medicare thru our taxes so there hasn’t been any financial issues for us since the accident."

Can you imagine how much that would cost in the United States? Can you imagine how much the deductible and co-pay would be if you had insurance? And that doesn’t count the monthly health insurance premiums paid for the coverage? Even the single payer health insurance option wanted by most Americans would not be totally paid for by taxes and, yet, our national leaders seem to have forsaken those positions to become followers of the health insurance industry and its lobbyists.

Shame on them. (continued below)

Others Speak About Public Option Health Insurance

Single Payer Health Care Plan On The Table – Talk Radio News Service – Single payer health care supporters held a hearing yesterday at the Committee of Education and Labor to testify on the need for health care reform. Those who testified to the committee was U.S. Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Geri Jenkins …

Frances Anderton: Don't Diss Single Payer Health Care If You Haven … – I feel pity for a person who does not know what it is like to go to a doctor and have the first question be, “what’s wrong?” instead of, “who’s your insurance carrier?”

Single payer health care: big breakthroughs, interview with Rep … – Less than a month after 13 single payer advocates were arrested protesting the exclusion of single payer, it is at the table in both Houses, making progress while the multi-payer pro-insurance reform is faltering.

Related Articles on Uncle Brice’s Blog

Single Payer Health Insurance for America

Medical Bankruptcy Shows Broken Health Care

Sen. Blanche Lincoln Co-sponsors SHOP

Single payer health insurance is not new to American politics. When Teddy Roosevelt ran for President of the United States under the Bullmoose Party (after having served two terms as a Republican) his party platform stated, "The supreme duty of the Nation is the conservation of human resources through an enlightened measure of social and industrial justice. We pledge ourselves to work unceasingly in State and Nation for … the protection of home life against the hazards of sickness, irregular employment and old age through the adoption of a system of social insurance adapted to American use." That was 1912.

Fast forward to March 2009 and President Barack Obama, "The problems we face today are a direct consequence of actions that we failed to take yesterday. Since Teddy Roosevelt first called for reform nearly a century ago, we have talked and we have tinkered. We have tried and fallen short, we’ve stalled for time, and again we have failed to act because of Washington politics or industry lobbying."

The United States is in danger of falling short again. Montana Senator Max Backward, I mean, Baucus, is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee holding hearings on health care reform. Kevin Zeese, Executive Director of the Campaign for Fresh Air and Clean Politics, wrote, "Baucus has held two hearings so far and has refused to allow advocates for the most popular reform – a single payer national health policy – to even testify. Single payer, improved Medicare for all, is favored by more than 60% of Americans as well as majorities of doctors, nurses and economists. It is the most cost-effective and efficient way to provide health care to all Americans from cradle to grave."

Zeese points out that Senator Backward, I mean, Baucus, received the following campaign contributions in 2008:

Americans Need to Unite

Even though recent polls show 60% of Americans favor a single payer system, there is still resistance that is very similar to the naysayers who opposed mortgage bailouts. "I don’t think I should have to pay my taxes because my neighbor bought a house he couldn’t afford." I’m sure you’ve heard that time and again.

Let me ask you a question or three. Do you pay taxes to provide Fire Department coverage for your neighbor who left a space heater too close to a set of drapes? Do you pay taxes to provide free public education to every child in America? Do you pay taxes to provide Police Department protection for those folks across town living next to a crack house? Sure you do! Everyone deserves fire protection, police protection and a free public education. Like Teddy Roosevelt said, we all deserve "protection of home life against the hazards of sickness."

Physicians for a National Health Program answer questions on their website like, "Is national health insurance ‘socialized medicine’?" They answer, "No. Socialized medicine is a system in which doctors and hospitals work for and draw salaries from the government. Doctors in the Veterans Administration and the Armed Services are paid this way. The health systems in Great Britain and Spain are other examples. But in most European countries, Canada, Australia and Japan they have socialized health insurance, not socialized medicine. The government pays for care that is delivered in the private (mostly not-for-profit) sector. This is similar to how Medicare works in this country. Doctors are in private practice and are paid on a fee-for-service basis from government funds. The government does not own or manage medical practices or hospitals."

I already pointed out how Senator Blanche Lincoln from Arkansas is probably in the pocket of insurance and pharmaceutical companies. You might want to read this article about her (Sen. Blanche Lincoln Co-sponsors SHOP)and then check out your own members of Congress. Let’s do something right this time. We’ve been talking about it for nearly 100 years. It’s time to get out of the outhouse and solve this health care mess once and for all.

What others are saying about Single Payer Health Insurance

Green Party Joins Single Payer Health Care National Day of Action – Green Party leaders stressed that the ‘options’ plans favored by many Democrats are designed to sustain for-profit insurance companies through massive taxpayer-funded subsidies or mandates, and said that Single-Payer removes the private …

Get Out In the Streets And FIGHT for Universal, Single Payer … – Yes, single payer universal health care is socialized medicine. It is not socialism. It is just like we do for police, fire-departments, roads, schools.. and it is a huge, despicable lie when right wingers try to frame it as something akin … a desperate lie which serves only the giant health care corporations. When someone says single payer universal health insurance is socialism, simply reply “only to morons and right wing traitors who put corporations before country.” …

Make It the Baucus 13 « Single Payer Action – On their backs, they wore signs that said “Nurses Say: Stop AHIP. Pass Single Payer.” (AHIP stands for America’s Health Insurance Plans – the health insurance industry lobby.) After the 30 nurses were led out of the room, …