Health reform proponents rally at Cigna
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
By: Tom MacDonald
tmacdonald@whyy.org
Advocates are continuing their fight for a public insurance plan as part of health-care reform. Tuesday's rally that was staged on the front steps of one of the nation's major health insurance companies that is headquartered in Philadelphia.
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A delegation from a City Hall rally walked the two blocks to Cigna's national headquarters to deliver their demands, including that insurance companies call off their lobbyists. They say those lobbyists are trying to twist the health-care reform bill to benefit insurance companies.
Jeff Blum is Co-Chair of Healthcare for America Now. He says publicly-financed health care works in other countries.
Blum: every other industrialized country in the world spends less on healthcare has longer lives.
Cigna officials greeted the delegation. Christopher Curran is a spokesman for Cigna. He says the insurance industry wants health-care reform.
Curran: I think we share a lot of the same missions, we just don't feel there's a need for a public option.
Both sides continue to stand their ground on the issue.
The rest of the untold Godfrey story Reply
By Jo Joshua Godfrey Sep 22nd 2009 at 6:30 pm EDT (Updated Sep 22nd 2009 at 6:30 pm EDT)
My name is Jo Joshua Godfrey, and you may see my story on Sick for profit the Cigna Video. On this video I have been able to give a very brief overview of my personal story and suffering at the hands of Cigna.
What people do not know yet, is after my experience I demanded the records for my then 14 year old daughter. I had been taking her to Cigna for years, with pains in her head she was crying all the time. Like me they said there was nothing wrong with her, it was all in her head.
When I took these medical records to an outside doctor my Daughter had diseased bone in her head that was being pushed towards the orbit of the eye, and she would have lost her eyesight. My daughter had her surgery at Cedars Sinai one month after mine, and although today she has to wear glasses her eyesight was saved.
After this, I demanded the records for my whole family, they refused for two weeks to turn over my husbands records.
Let me introduce my husband to you, he was in the United States Air Force for ten years, has a purple heart, a wounded in Combat Veteran who spent 4 years in Vietnam.
In his Civilian life he was the Chief of police at the Department of Veterans Affairs in Sepulveda California, as well as a detective at West L.A.,Assistant chief in Palo Alto/ Menlo Park and finally Chief of police in Las Vegas Nevada.
In my husbands job he needed a physical every year. In 1992/3 physical the doctor suggested he take the X Ray to his private health Insurer and have this checked, as he said he saw a spot on his lung.
Upon Arrival at Cigna, the Doctor took the VA x ray, he said we have no interest in VA x rays we do our own and refused to look at it or use it as a comparison.. Cigna took an X Ray, said it was very dark, but commented we are allowed to do only one XRAY. He told him he was fine, nothing wrong with him. In fact in late 1993 he went for a complete physical to Cigna again, and they gave him a clean bill of health.
The real truth was my husband had a Tumor on his lung, by this time my husband was quite ill. The Doctor who treated him said it needed to be Cat Scanned every 60 days.
I am sure by now it is quite clear to you, Cigna is committing crimes against the people of this Nation. I am please calling on you to Launch an immediate investigation into the practices of Cigna. Please protect families from ever suffering like mine again, as this is what we hope to achieve.
I would also like to point out now three generations of my family have been affected by these monsters. Please see My daughter Joanna, and my Grandson Dylan in the sick for Profit video about United Health care. America deserves better. Please visit our web site at unitedpatientsofamerica.org
I think the comment that insurance companies' original purpose was to collect premiums as a way of spreading risk over a larger population is a good observation. Sharing risk is a good model for all sorts of social endeavors, and after all, the health of the nation is a social endeavor. Tax collections work in a similar way. At the same time, it is difficult for insurers to defend the exhorbitant salaries paid to executives while denying care to selected individuals, as we know happens thanks to the reports of industry insiders. After all, if a CEO compensation package of $12 million is cut in half, that's another $6 million that could have provided treatment for those paying the premiums. The "spread the risk" model starts to fall apart when corporate interests enter the picture. One estimate is that administrative costs use 1 of every 3 dollars collected in premiums, so that executive salaries, and advertising to compete with other insurers, reduces what is paid out in benefits. The need to maximize profits (and executive salaries) means that the interests of the shareholders becomes part of the "risk", so that decisions begin to be made based on profitability rather than medical appropriateness. I don't think anyone is claiming that insurers don't have the right to remain viable; only that the original purpose of sharing risk in the interest of those who pay the premiums has become secondary to the focus on profitability, even if such high salaries for the industry leaders have not produced high profitability. If their profitability is so poor, the insurers would seem to have motivation to prevent the train wreck that is looming on the horizon. Instead, they appear to be acting as obstructionists more than they are offering solutions.
People are forgetting the purpose of a health insurance company: Collect premiums to pay claims in order to spread the risk of a peril throughout a group of individuals. People have this misconception that health insurance companies have found a way to grow money trees, and have just gotten too greedy.
Health insurance companies pay an average of 80-90% of what they collect in premiums. After paying all of their administrative costs, that leaves some insurance companies with less than a percent profit. I really wish an independent researcher could step into the media with a bit of insight.
A public option is crucial because the insurance industry has shown no willingness for years to embrace real reform. To assume they will now somehow become civic minded, rather than profit driven, is foolish. A public option has the potential to "keep them honest". Exaggerated fears about "socialism" and government "takeover" have panicked some people into ingoring what is in their own best interest.