"Have you no shame?" Anthem to go ahead with rate hikes

[babylonsister]

Anthem Blue Cross Faces First Public Hearing Over Premium Hike
ROBIN HINDERY | 02/23/10 09:44 PM |


SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California lawmakers grilled Anthem Blue Cross executives on Tuesday about their plan to boost individual insurance premiums by as much as 39 percent, only to hear them blame the economy and a broken health care system.

Democratic Assemblyman Dave Jones, of Sacramento, who chairs the Assembly Health Committee, didn't buy the excuses.

"Have you no shame?" he asked Anthem president Leslie Margolin at a special hearing.

Margolin said she was disappointed by the question. She said she understood and regretted the burden that rate increases place on California customers and offered to work with state lawmakers on health care reform.

"I will do anything I can do to take costs out of the system," Margolin said. "My suggestion is we do that through partnership."

Committee members asked what the insurer had done internally to cut costs and how much its top 10 executives received in compensation last year. Anthem executives said they could not provide specific figures.

Laurel Kaufer, a single, working mother from Woodland Hills, said she received a letter from the company last month saying her premium could go up by about 34 percent, from $823 a month to $1,102 a month.

Over the past 10 years, she said, her premium has risen 550 percent.

more...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/23/anthem-blue-cross-faces-f_n_472724.html

[NightWatcher]

1. "shame? they make profits by denying healthcare

[damyank913]

2. The only thing that shames this bunch is a profit margin that isn't obscene.

[Echo In Light]

9. Yes. Shame? Evil

[Stuart G]

10. Shame?...for these profit hungry vultures?...that is all that matters

A vulture just does what it does. At least a vulture provides a service. My apologies to all vultures.

[Epiphany4z]

3. this is my insurance co

I cringe every time someone says they don't want the gov coming in between them and there doc...because my insurance co constantly comes between me and my doc...often denying meds and treatments my doc thinks I need. I hate insurance co's they make me feel so expendable... so not worth it...and yet I have to pay them month after month. I nearly priced out this year and sometime wonder what the point of going to the doc is. I will probably be priced out next Jan. As it is I pay so much for the insurance I don't have enough cash left to afford some meds I should be taking.

[Vinnie From Indy]

4. I guess all the blood money, big houses and yachts ease the pain

of having to look at oneself in the mirror if you are a health insurance executive.

Did no one ask Margolin if she has taken a pay cut?

[hobbit709]

5. Margolin said she was disappointed by the question.

That tells you all you need to know right there.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

6. Ugh. I can just hear her patronizing tone when she said that.

These people are CRIMINALS!

[gratuitous]

8. So, your answer is "no," then Ms. Margolin?

Yep, we have our answer.

[Romulox]

7. These are the same folks the President wants to FORCE us to buy from.

:hi:

[951-Riverside]

11. Is this Leslie Margolin?