Remember when the HHS ordered Humana and other private insurance companies to stop sending customers mailers with deceptive information to scare them into joining the opposition's fight against reform? We're experiencing a very strong sense of deja vu with insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina.
BCBS sent out a mass mailing asking recipients to send a pre-paid postcard to Democratic Senator Kay Hagan to pressure her into opposing health care reform, which includes a public option to make insurance companies compete. Ironically, Blue Cross sent out the mailings denouncing health reform - while at the same time notifying its customers of double-digit rate increases.
The cover of the mailing sent by BCBS reads:
Government Cooperatives? Community Plan? Single Payer? No matter what you call it, if the federal government intervenes in the private health insurance market, it's a slippery slope to a single-payer system. Who wants that?
BCBS calls health care reform that includes a public option "unfair competition." You know what the irate recipients of the Blue Cross mailer think is unfair? That the insurance company spent thousands of their insurance premium dollars to fund such a counterproductive campaign. "People want affordability and choice in their health insurance; Blue Cross wants to keep their monopoly," said SEANC Executive Director Dana Cope. (Currently, Blue Cross controls over 70 percent of the market share in North Carolina).
The State Employees Association of North Carolina has launched a new website to fight back against the "non-profit" insurer's efforts to maintain their monopoly and put a lid on their corporate profits at the expense of ordinary working people and businesses: www.stopbcbs.com. SEANC is calling on Blue Cross to stop using health care dollars to fund their political machine and protect their bottom line. "North Carolina already has a single-payer system...We all pay Blue Cross and Blue Shield and they'll stop at nothing to protect their monopoly" reads the tagline above the petition.
A recent Elon University poll shows that a majority of North Carolinians support a public health care option. Help send a message loud and clear that it's time to deliver on health care - sign the petition and urge Senator Kay Hagan to back a public health insurance option.
Check out the mailing SEANC sent out in response to BCBS's anti-reform mailing after the break.
