To protect its virtual monopoly on North Carolina's health insurance industry, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina spent untold thousands of our insurance premium dollars mailing postcards to hardworking citizens to pressure Senator Kay Hagan into opposing health care reform which would create competition and reduce your health insurance costs.
The "non-profit" Blue Cross and Blue Shield virtual monopoly earned $186 million in profits for 2008 - and paid their CEO nearly $4 million.
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BCBS controls over 70% of our state's health insurance market. Their profits have driven up health care costs and alarmed North Carolina's citizens and lawmakers. Big health insurance monopolies like BCBS bitterly oppose a public option needed to increase competition and put a lid on their corporate profits at the expense of ordinary working people and businesses.
On the same day BCBS urged North Carolinians to oppose ending their stranglehold on our state's health insurance industry, they sent another mailer notifying customers that their rates were increasing yet again.
North Carolina already has a single-payer system...We all pay Blue Cross and Blue Shield and they'll stop at nothing to protect their monopoly.
Stand strong and support competition and a public option in America's health care reform debate.
Sincerely,
Health Care Reform could mean:
For Seniors:
Improved benefits: better primary care, free preventive care, reduction and elimination of Medicare Part D 'donut hole,' improved payments for primary care providers helping to ensure better access
For Young North Carolinians:
Continued coverage on your parents' insurance to age 27 and/or more affordable and quality insurance plans for those who must buy their own. Reduces costs for dependent coverage. Free preventive care means you can prevent illness or treat conditions early - you'll no longer have to wait until you need the services of an emergency room.
For Women:
Ends 'gender rating,' eliminates noncoverage for 'pre-existing conditions' including pregnancy, c-sections and domestic violence.
For Small Business Owners:
Access to affordable, large group rates. Reduces health insurance costs approximately 20 percent. Creates a tax credit to pay up to 50 percent of health insurance costs. Exempts small businesses with payrolls of $500,000 or less.