Audio clip
Dr. Matt Hine
Doctors spend more than a decade studying health care, but someone employed by an insurance company will determine whether or not a person receives a medical procedure, state Rep. JoAnne Favors said.
“The insurance companies have too much control,” she said Tuesday.
Rep. Favors, D-Chattanooga, a registered nurse, was one of more than two dozen local residents and doctors who faced noontime drivers at Market Street and M.L. King Boulevard on Tuesday to promote a single-payer national health insurance model. It would operate much like Medicare but include more people.
Wade Swicord held a sign that said “We Can’t Wait Any Longer. Health Care Now! Reform,” and another participant carried a sign stating “22,000 Americans die each year from lack of health care.”
Drivers occasionally blew their horns as they passed.
Local physician Dr. Taj Madiwale spoke about the need for better health care.
“A large number of families in our community have no insurance, which means they end up in the emergency room for non-emergency conditions like colds and the flu, which tie up our resources unnecessarily. Many people come to the emergency room because they have nowhere else to go,” he said.
Dr. Matt Hine, one of the event’s main speakers, said health insurance companies do not exist to produce health.
“Their job is a financial model, and they do it very, very well, serving the needs of their investors and their stockholders,” he said.
Scott Wilson, spokesman for BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, the state’s largest health insurer, said Dr. Hine’s opinion of insurance companies does not reflect business at BlueCross BlueShield.
“We absolutely spend all day thinking about providing high-quality care for members,” Mr. Wilson said.
He said the insurance company processes millions of claims a week, so it needs to make a profit to maintain modern technology. However, BlueCross BlueShield is a nonprofit organization and doesn’t answer to stockholders, Mr. Wilson said.
UnitedHealth Group, a for-profit health insurance agency, said in a written statement Tuesday that it is also a proponent of sustainable health care reform and that it wants to ensure access to quality health care for all Americans.
Yolanda Putman has been a reporter at the Times Free Press for 11 years. She covers housing and previously covered education and crime. Yolanda is a Chattanooga native who has a master’s degree in communication from the University of Tennessee and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Alabama State University. She previously worked at the Lima (Ohio) News. She enjoys running, reading and writing and is the mother of one son, Tyreese. She has also ...
---“We absolutely spend all day thinking about providing high-quality care for members,” Mr. Wilson said.
He said the insurance company processes millions of claims a week, so it needs to make a profit to maintain modern technology. However, BlueCross BlueShield is a nonprofit organization and doesn’t answer to stockholders, Mr. Wilson said."---
So, Mr. Wilson, BCBS is a non-profit that needs to make a profit .... hhhhmmmm.... Let's see, that technology you so need a profit for - could it include the data mining you pay for? Gathering all kinds of personal information and shopping habits of your clients in order to find ways to further reject their valid claims? Yes, we do know for a fact that BCBS does data mining .... Stop too long at a convenience store for gas? BCBS assumes you have gone inside to buy junk food. And, how about this recent article - from this very newspaper:
"Investment losses bled $29 million from Tennessee’s biggest health insurer in 2008, cutting the profits for BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee to the lowest level since 2001.
But according to company filings with state insurance regulators, BlueCross’ top brass took home bigger paychecks in 2008.
Last year’s bonuses and pay raises reflect the near-record year for profits at BlueCross in 2007. After boosting BlueCross statutory reserves above $1.2 billion at the end of 2007 — $443 million above the state-required minimum — the pay for BlueCross CEO Vicky Gregg rose nearly 40 percent last year to more than $2.1 million.
Other BlueCross executives got smaller, double-digit increases in pay, according to filings with the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance."
Compare that to the CEO pay for a true non-profit, Medicaid .... $150,.000 per year.
How dare you claim that BCBS acts like a real non-profit. Stop with the BS corporate spin, please!
Ms. Putman wrote: "Doctors spend more than a decade studying health care, but someone employed by an insurance company will determine whether or not a person receives a medical procedure, state Rep. JoAnne Favors said."
Substitue the word "politicians & bureaucrats" for "someone employed by an insurance company" and that's exactly what the public option will create. That's certainly not a step in the right direction.
Healthcare reform we need. Government takeover of the entire system we don't.
Or login with:
New Account