Are Insurance Companies Bad Faith Players? Let's Look At North Carolina

Yesterday 17 North Carolina state legislators sent an official letter to Attorney General Roy Cooper and Wayne Goodwin, Commissioner of Insurance, demanding an investigation into the astroturfing by BlueCross BlueShield.

Dear Attorney General Cooper and Commissioner Goodwin:

In an apparent effort to maintain its dominance and control of the state health care market, BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina has spent thousands of dollars paid by policy holders asking them to mail a pre-printed postcard to Senator Kay Hagan urging her to oppose health care reform and has engaged in automatic robo-calls urging policy holders to act on the mailings. This is most troubling to us as lawmakers and North Carolinians. We have heard from a number of constituents who are equally troubled. We have the following specific concerns.

We are concerned that BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina has violated the intent of the Do Not Call Registry by using the exemption requiring a prior business relationship to engage in political advocacy. These robo-calls had nothing to do with providing care to patients, but were instead used to advocate a specific political stance. While we are strongly committed to the first amendment, we do not believe that policy holders intended for their relationship with blue cross to be used in this manner. We also believe BlueCross BlueShield has potentially broken the automatic dialing statute by not providing the contact information of the unsolicited caller in this recorded message. This lack of contact information appears to be in violation of federal guidelines surrounding automated calls as well.

Further, given BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina's status as a not-for-profit with a share of 96.8% in our individual insurance market built on over 60 years of preferred tax exemptions, we are concerned as a matter of public policy and ethical business practices that they have inappropriately engaged in political advocacy. As a corporation that claims to deliver innovative health care products and services to its members, BlueCross BlueShield appears to be engaging in a blatant political campaign utilizing the premiums paid by their customers. Even if there is no apparent violation of existing statutes, we think this is bad public policy that deserves further scrutiny.

We would very much appreciate your respective offices investigating these issues for any potential violation of state laws or regulations.

The letter was signed by Sen. Stan Bingham, Sen. Katie Dorsett, Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, Rep. Alma Adams, Rep. Larry Bell, Rep. Angela Bryant, Rep. Susan Fisher, Rep. Rick Glazier, Rep. Pricey Harrison, Rep. Verla Insko, Rep. Marvin Lucas, Rep. Paul Luebke, Rep. Marian McLawhorn, Rep. Grier Martin, Rep. Garland Pierce, Rep. Ray Rapp, Rep. Deborah Ross, Rep. Alice Underhill, Rep. Edith Warren, and Rep. Larry Womble. All but state Senator Bingham are Democrats. Republicans in general don't seem to care about this kind of thing. What do they care about? I'm glad you asked, because Digby tackled that thorny question yesterday-- at least in regard to healthcare reform. She pointed to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine by Arthur Kellermann and Lawrence Lewin that includes an astute analysis of the political situation around the efforts in Congress to pass health care legislation and an even more astute analysis of what it would mean for American society to maintain the status quo favored by the Insurance corporations and conservatives. They make the obvious case-- obvious for people who think with their brain instead of with whatever organ generates greed and selfishness-- that the cost of not passing legislation, both financially and in human lives, will be increasingly traumatic for the country. Digby:

The conservatives frame this problem in contradictory terms, arguing both that people ARE covered and that it will cost us too much to cover them. They further insist that people shouldn't be allowed to free ride on the system, that there should be no mandate to buy insurance and that any government administered health system is an infringement of their freedom. But these various ideas are just a smokescreen.

It's quite obvious that what they truly believe is that people who don't have insurance should not be allowed to get health care and that if they get sick they should be allowed to die unless they can find some charity or raise the money. There's no other way to reconcile their beliefs.

What I've been doing when I get into arguments with conservative friends about this is recommend they read Mike Lux's brilliant book, The Progressive Revolution, which makes the case that all through American history, from the time of the Declaration of Independence, the Revolutionary War and the adoption of the Bill of Rights, conservative mania for preserving the status quo has sought to hold back progress and that America has thrived most when conservatives were kicked to the curb. Keep in mind, of course, that conservatives are not just Republicans. There are plenty of Democrats nearly as reactionary, self-serving and devoid of humanity.