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It Doesn't Have To Be Like This
Those are the last words on the screen of the ad I just filmed depicting the very real consequences of the Insurance Industry's mal-practices. I have not done a television commercial in well at least 20 years and the only one I ever booked was a cereal ad in which I thought I was funny and the good folks at Grape Nuts most definitely did not. It's not that I have anything against them. I have wept at McDonald's commercials during the X-mas season and laughed at the raucous pitches that punctuate Super Bowl Sunday. I tried out for them for a while back in my 20's, but never seemed to click with the buyers. I just was never normal enough to be everywoman and not weird enough to be her sidekick. I quit trying, because, I don't have time to pursue something I am not passionate about.
My twin passions for acting and activism have long been competing forces in my life. I am not happy doing one without the other, and I am happiest when the two passions intersect, as they have in a new video I did for my friends at the Courage Campaign. I am appearing in my commercial debut in "Insurance Jive" which addresses one of my deepest concerns as a progressive Democrat.
In the ad which is Inspired by the scene from Airplane (1980!) where Barbara Billingsley translates "jive," I play a nurse who attempts to translate Insurance speak to a couple in my care. I translate it but this is where the comparison ends because I am not funny ... this stuff is not funny at all. The ad is based on the true story about breast cancer patient Pasty Bates who had to forgo her chemotherapy treatments after Health Net, cancelled her policy. The Los Angeles Times reported Ms. Bates' experience earlier this year when an arbitration judge ordered Health Net, one of California's largest for-profit insurers, to pay her $9 million in punitive and other damages.
The role of a nurse who has had enough of this" jive" was not exactly a stretch. All of us have stories about desperately ill friends and family who have faced the cold cruel reality of being denied treatment by an indifferent insurer. We have all had enough of Blue Cross, Assurant, Health Net, Cigna and the many other giant companies canceling coverage just when the patient needs and expects to be, well, insured against catastrophe. The simple truth is that the insurance industry is built on our premium payments, but it profits when it does not have to pay.
And what of those whom these companies refuse to insure from the outset? The following are excerpts from a letter I recently received from a young woman who I work with in my capacity as a mentor to the Young Progressive Majority. Sonia Rasula is a beautiful brilliant 25 year old who has recently been attempting to find health insurance on her own.
To all my people "in the know"... I need help!Dear Miss Rasula:
Thank you for considering Kaiser Permanente for Individuals and Families $1,500 Deductible Plan for your health coverage. Unfortunately, we are unable to offer Sonja Rasula coverage at this time. Kaiser Permanente for Individuals and Families is a cost-effective individual health care coverage program. We maintain its cost-effectiveness by only accepting for membership those individuals who successfully pass the medical underwriting screening process. Based on the information provided on the application for membership, we cannot approve enrollment due to the following:
- History of neurologic condition within the last 5 years.
- Use of medication for your medical condition
After being rejected by Blue Cross and Blue Shield, this morning I was rejected by my last resort, Kaiser. That's 0 for 3! I am one of the healthiest, prevention-savvy people around, except for the damn fact that I have narcolepsy (a disease that one is born with and there's nothing to prevent it). I can't tell you how crappy this is and feels. I'm pretty desperate now and feeling very depressed about the US Healthcare system.. Help a girl out. Is there some weird law out there, allowing me to be covered by my parents plan? Do you know of an action group, or grassroots healthcare provider? Websites, healthcare bills, orgs -- anything you send my way I'll look at.
What we are telling our children is 'You are damned if you do and damned if you don't and double damned if you don't even qualify for consideration in the first place. Sorry Sonia, welcome to America's health un-care system.
What do they do with all the money they save by leaving girls like Sonia to fend for herself? Well, they pay themselves a whole lot of money. For example, the CEO of Health Net that so busily denied benefits to Patsy Bates got about $3.7 million in compensation last year, on top of all of the stock he has been given at low or no price over the years. Patsy's loss was Mr. Gellert gain. When his company screws us out of a procedure that could save a life, he gets another ride on the company jet, another house, another day at the beach. Mr.Gellert gets the good life and somewhere someone dies.
LA's City Attorney, Rocky Delgadillo, has gotten national acclaim for suing insurance companies who deliberately deny benefits to those in need in order to line their pockets. It's sad that he has to use the courts to force these executives to value lives over profits, but we have to use every weapon at our disposal in this fight It will take a huge act of collective will to achieve a fair workable solution. These are not the kind of folks one asks nicely ...we will have to demand a National Healthcare plan.
We must all make our voices heard loudly and clearly and often. Our ad "Insurance Jive" is a way to start fighting back and spreading the word:
Please watch the video and give what you can to help us get it on the air.
The Courage Campaign, the California Nurses Association and Senator Shelia Kuehl have joined forces with Mr. Delgadillo to tackle these Insurance companies head on. In addition to producing our ad, they will be in San Francisco tomorrow taking their case straight to the offenders as they rally outside the National Insurance Convention.
Please show your support by helping us stand up to the greed and apathy of these corporate giants.
. Make a Donation to the Courage Campaign today, because truly...
... It doesn't have to be like this.
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Ms. Broderick, thank you for your article and your ad. Well-stated, succinct, and absolutely on the money.
Folks say they are "afraid"of government run health care - universal coverage by all - Are they scared of a system that can provide health coverage for everyone while allowing for private choices if you so desire?
Are they afraid of sending their children to public schools that allow attendance by children of all ethnicities and racial makeup?
Are they afraid of allowing federal inspectors to examine food prior to its delivery (I guess they are happy with the recent salmonella outbreak)?
Do they fear Medicaid programs for the elderly and wish they had to depend on the kindness of strangers?
Are they afraid of those pesky safety standards the automobile and airline industries have to follow?
Are they afraid of the amazing job the military accomplishes every day?
"Fear" of universal health care is more about being spoiled than a real fear of the government.. We use or depend on functioning government programs every day. But not with health care - as long as we have it, we can feel sorry for those who don't, but certainly don't want to make any kind of "sacrifice" in adjustment to a new system to help cover everyone.
Which country, according to WHO, has the best health care in the world? France, with its universal government run health care.
Yes, but the only experience that exists in America with govt run health care (NOT health INSURANCE, health CARE) is the VA, which does serve hundreds of thousands of American Veterans. However, there are major problems with the system, and that's the problem that people see.
In addition to this, there has been a "dialog" in this country for almost 30 years about how the govt is wrong, the govt is dumb, the govt is inefficient, the govt can't do anything right, and the private sector is much better than the govt at everything. Never mind that raygun and his followers were completely and utterly WRONG. Never mind that raygun's followers have PROVEN that the policies he tried for were wrong, and stupid. People are still going to think that anything the govt tries to do is wrong, and just ignore the parts of govt which perform well (such as Police, Fire, etc....)
Exactly. There is one other universal health care system that works in America - Medicare. It's not perfect but it provides overall good coverage for many elderly Americans. Many folks argue that we could simply expand Medicare to everyone and be done with it.
Beth, thank you for your outstanding article and the powerful video! And it hit me hard when I read the bit with what Sonia went through with Kaiser. We have Kaiser, and have had it for many YEARS and have rarely ever used it. BUT now when we need to use it for one of our 4 year old twin boys, they discriminate against his diagnosis, while trying to sell us on giving our non-aggressive son RITALIN as the solution! What we are finding out now is that some how KAISER is above Oregon's Mandated law that went into effect Jan 1 2008 regarding HB 2918.
We're stuck with Kaiser for now - for us it's another year wasted with THEM. Our hopes now are that we can obtain another insurance company through my husband's employer that abides by Oregon's mandated law come Nov 2008 re-enrollment which won't go into effect until Jan 1 2009.
My grandfather immigrated here to Oregon from Norway in 1928 to the "Land of opportunity" the "Land of hope" and more... I'm so glad he's not around to see how bad it's all become. He died of cancer back in 1995 before all this really got so bad.
Insurance companies pay out 80% of the premiums they take in which means they keep 20% to pay their own expenses like wages plus profits.
So every time you see a medical provider bill on your explanation of benefits, just take 25% of that and remember it goes to the insurance company.
Now ask yourself the following question: what exactly did the insurance company do for that kind of money?
What purpose do they serve? Why are we adding on 25% to our medical bills for a corporation that nobody sees and which adds no value to the system at all?
Our medical care system is a $2 trillion dollar industry. That is $2,000 billion. Why are we paying a corporation 20% of that amount simply to collect money and pay it out? 20% is $400 billion a year. That is a huge amount of money. In fact it is almost twice our annual defence budget under Clinton. We could pay for 2 Iraq Wars at one time with the amount of money that goes to insurance companies, for what?
The numbers are actually anywhere from 15% to 30%. Which doesn't sound too terribly bad, until you compare it to something like Medicare which pays 97% of the dollars it spends on health care, leaving only 3% around to waste......
I'm scared of the thought of government involvement via universal healthcare into everyones personal lives, but the current system is so broken, corrupt and sickening that I'm willing to try the universal approach anyway.
If Canada, Britain, France and many other nations can do so effectively, then so can we. We just have to show the folks in DC that we will not take NO for an answer, which, sadly, will probably take a decade or two to accomplish.
I would like to think that Obama will come down on the side of HR 676 [Medicare for all], but he's still a politician that must work with many other politicians, and that means that nothing is certain, despite his intentions.
I can never understand why anyone would be afraid of universal healthcare. My husband has major heart disease (waiting for a transplant) and I have survived two cancers. We have both received absolutely excellent care from the Canadian public system, and have had to suffer none of the financial nightmares that our American relatives have had to endure because of much less serious medical conditions. What in the world is there to be afraid of?
The problem is that you're confusing universal health insurance with government run health care. In the case of universal health insurance, also known as single payer, also known as Medicare-for-all, there is one basic insurance agency for all Americans. This is known as the US govt. There are also many private insurers, providing extras to those who can afford them.
In the case of government run health care, also known as VA for all, the govt owns the whole apparatus of the health care industry. This would be a disaster!
I gotta say, it's bad enough when they refuse to insure someone due to a pre-existing condition, but to take someone's premiums for all those years, and then when they finally come to you with a problem that will cost them a lot of money, suddenly decide that they're "uninsurable" is just plain wrong. It's immoral, but sadly legal in most states!
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