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FLAGPOLE.COM JULY 14.2010
STRAIGHT TALK ON HEALTH CARE
To: Jimmy Lee, CLU, FLMI, MHP, VP and GM,
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia
From: David Block
Dear Mr. Lee, I received your letter a month
or so ago teUing me that my health insurance
through Blue Cross Blue Shield will now cost
$633.49 per month for a single man (me) on
a retirement income for 80 percent limited
coverage with a $2600 deductible. I am just
answering now because when my jaw dropped
at the news, it forced its way into my philo
sophical hernia. Since I couldn't afford to see
a doctor, I retrieved the mandible myself. I
can give you my answer now.
Drop dead. But I'll take it. What choice
do I have? What choice does anybody have,
unless you work for BCBS and you write the
damn policies? No... wait... drop sfotoly deed.
In front of us. So we can debate whether we
want to try any lifesaving techniques on you.
That's not "vengeance,* Jimmy. That's just
•good business.* We just don't know if you are
worth the trouble.
"Yes, you can often
choose from other plans
with a number of premium
and benefit options,*
you write. How do I.choose, Jimmy? I asked
the Medical Association of Georgia to help me
choose based on my age, my past history, my
sick sense of humor, my bad attitude. They
couldn't help me (or, wouldn't). And they
write and sell insurance! How do I kndw if I
need to change my deductible or go with a
premium plan? You know, because you have all
those risk tables about my life, but you won't
teU me, will you? You need for me to make the
wrong choice, and drive away in a car I can't
possibly use, while you pocket the difference
between what I think I need and what I'm too
scared or stupid to know I need.
So that's what you call "having a
choice?" That's what you call "placing the
public interest above your own?" (Canon I
from the "Ethical Guidelines for Insurance
Professionals*) and "avoiding conduct that
would cause unjust harm to others* (Canon
III; or, are you causing me "just harm?*) and
"improving public understanding" of insur
ance? (Canon VII) Jimmy, have you been
sniffing your emails from Karen Ignagni, your
main lobbyist at America's Health Insurance
Plans, with her $1.4 million annual salary? Or
from Larry Glasscock, head of Wellpoint and
Anthem BCBS, with his $46.2 million salary?
Hey, who's jealous? Maybe they could afford
$7500 a year for the pleasure of receiving your
disingenuous dribble.
You don't think each of us has an intrin
sically valuable, unique and irreplaceable
life that simply cannot be analyzed by your
underwriters and your economists and your
Excel-ing, PowerPointing MBAs: those boys and
girls you eat iunch with wherever you are (but
won't tell us). You teU us that our "insurance*
is supposed to make us "whole" when we suf
fer a specific, calculable loss as a result of a
particular peril in an equitable fashion where
there is complete information for both parties:
us and you BCBS-ers. (This definition comes
from your websites and your literature, Jimmy).
But then, you won't teU us what you cover and
for exactly how much. You even keep secret
the doctor, hospital and disease codes so none
of us can follow up on you and your reimburse
ment What are you afraid of, son?
You won't tell us that you are a business.
There's nothing wrong with that just be proud
of it! You make money by taking my money
and keeping it instead of
giving it to the doctors
and hospitals that take
care of me. You buy your
children BMWs by deny
ing my doctor's kids. You send your children
to—Oh, God!—Auburn or Vanderbilt so our
kids have to go to Lower Slobovia JC with
what's left. Say it Jimmy! You take. And you
want to take more. You qome with an accus
ing finger, a closed fist a prejudiced mind, an
empty heart Read what you write.
You hide behind your empty degrees..
Why should I think your Masters in Hospital
Physics, that "MHP," or certification from the
m Hnandol Life Management Institute*—your
FLMI—gives you bona fides to say who shall
live, who shall die?
You do not even have the honor, the
decency, to tell us where you sent this thing
from, so I can't complain, or write back, or sit
at your front door and bear witness to your
corporate rectality.
I call you recreant! I name you faithless to
your own ethic I nominate you tire Purveyer
of BS! I mean "Blue Shield," of course.
Regards.
DivU Block
Dr. David Block, M0. PhD, has been a doctor, a teach
er, a consultant and a patient. He is retired and lives
in the Athens area. "Do No Harm' will be a regular
feature in Flagpote
Drop dead. Bat I’ll take it.
What choice do I have?