Most observers are familiar with the corporate mantra that unions shouldn’t be allowed to collect member’s dues via payroll check-offs, a transparent stab at unions’ financial viability. But what about corporate masters who send in-house letters to masses of their workers appealing for “contributions” to support the corporation’s political action committees? Isn’t that akin to extortion in the cause of partisan politics by people who hold power over their employees’ jobs?
Yes, it clearly is. And that’s why BlueCross BlueShield needs to be reminded — hopefully by employees’ bold refusals to bend to that implied coercion — that it has no business using its clout over its employees, not to mention its profits from its customers’ insurance premiums, to finance political lobbying against health care reform and the Obama administration.
That is transparently the purpose of the new BluePAC that BlueCross BlueShield has created to lobby at the federal level. The new PAC comes in addition to the company’s existing state TPAC, which donates to friendly lawmakers and lobbies for state legislation and that advances the insurer’s interest. It’s also in addition to its corporate contributions to the national federal PAC supported by other BlueCross BlueShield companies. The company already solicits donations from select employees to those PACs.
The new BluePAC fundraising letter sent by BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, the state’s largest health insurer, to 2,500 of 5,300 employees statewide specifically cited the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act, which the company’s CEO Vicky Gregg has publicly opposed.
“As you are well aware, with the passage of the Affordable Care Act, we are in a new political environment of opportunities and challenges for our company and industry,” Gregg said in the letter. “Your support of our PAC is important in giving us an opportunity to help determine who will govern us and who will set the business climate in which we operate.” (Emphasis ours.)