Commissioners Vote to Send Letter Opposing Blue Cross Blue Shield NC Mailing (Pitt County)

Source: The Daily Reflector

Commissioners vote to send letter opposing BCBSNC mailing

By Josh Humphries
The Daily Reflector

Tuesday, November 03, 2009
The Pitt County Board of Commissioners voted to send a letter to Blue Cross/Blue Shield of North Carolina stating disapproval of a recent mailing from the state's largest insurance provider. Commissioner Tom Johnson requested a discussion at Monday's meeting on a recent mailing from BCBSNC that states the company's opposition to a government option for health insurance.

The mailing included a postage-paid card addressed to U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., for the recipient to fill out indicating his or her opposition to government-run health insurance. There was nothing sent to U.S. Sen. Richard Burr or any member of the U.S. Congress from North Carolina. “I was concerned in receiving the mailing that the tear-off card was only addressed to Kay Hagan,” Johnson said. “There was no card to send to Burr.”

Johnson said that Pitt County purchases insurance coverage from BCBSNC, and the company should not use taxpayer money from Pitt County to send a partisan mailing. Commissioners Kenneth Ross, Eugene James and Jimmy Garris voted against sending the letter.

“I think we need to stay out of national politics, especially health care,” James said. “I think the less we say about it, the better off we are.”
Commissioner Beth Ward agreed with Johnson. “If this kind of mailing is going to go to one of them, it should go to all of them,” Ward said.

Read more: http://www.reflector.com/news/commissioners-vote-to-send-letter-opposing-bcbsnc-mailing-933687.html

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Background Threads:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/10/26/797142/-Subvert-Your-Blue-Cross-NC-Anti-HC-Reform-Postcard-To-Sen.-HaganI-Crossed-Out...

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/10/29/798377/-UPDATE-Protest-Over-BlueCross-NC-Anti-HCR-Postcard-Goes-Viral

"Spokesman Lew Borman says Blue Cross will not release how much it spent on the mailings or how many of the postcards it send out."

:popcorn:

Did you get it? I can't believe this. After your "ALERT" here and over at KOS ...and all of us doing an ACTION ALERT to "red marker our concerns to Sen. Hagan on BCBS's Dime...that they are AT IT AGAIN?

Did you get the latest?

Headline of the latest "postcard we are to send to Hagan" had BIGGER GRAPHICS...A LARGER PRINT SIZE and the TITLE IS:

"WE CAN'T TAX..our WAY TO AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE...." and then goes on to say..."Complete this card, detach it an ddrop in the mail to Snator Hagen. ...etc"



This latest from BCBS goes on to add:

There's no question that our health care system needs change. Too many people can't get insurance when they need it most..and we all pay more when people without coverage end up in the emergency room for conditions that could be prevented with better access to routine care.

BUT SOME OF THE PROPOSALS IN WASHINGTON...would levy hefty new taxes that could make the situation wrse: a 40 PERCENT EXCISE TAX on so-called CADILLAC PLANS; 13 BILLION in NEW FEES on INSURERS, DRUG COMPANIES AND MEDICAL EQUIPMENT COMPANIES.

Inevitable, these new costs will be tacked on to what consumers pay for health care. and since cost is the primary problem in health care how can higher takes be the answer?

The Mailer goes on to say:

HEAVY FEES AND A VAST EXPANSION IN THE GOVERNMENT'S ROLE IN HEALTH CARE ARE THE WRONG WAY TO GO

and then is says:

tELL sENATOR kAY hAGAN THAT YOU WANT REFORM THAT GETS EVERYONE COVERAGE BY BUILDING ON THE STRENGTHS OF A SYSTEM THAT ALERADY SERVES 160 MILLION AMERICANS. TELL HER YOUR WANT REFORM THAT WORKS!"

And SO...BCBS doesn't LISTEN to US!

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HISSY...did you and other NC'linians get this LATEST TRASH from BCBS? :shrug: :banghead:

Will check my mail today.

and figured it was because we own our own business and have to get BCBS as private from the NC Pool. So I thought (from comments on KOS site) that was why I hadn't gotten the card in your alert yet. But a couple days later after I replied to your original post we got the damned thing and did the "red marker" scrawl to send back to her that we were for "Robust Public Option...Medicare +5."

So..even after the "Raleigh News and Observer" did their tepid Editorial and had even done an article on what BCBS had done to get the rath of folks...they (BCBS) have the AUDACITY to send another EVEN LARGER MAILING?

How can this be? Look for it... I got the first one after you...so maybe you will get this second POS after me by a couple of day.

THE AUDACITY!

You can still convert it, no?

Which is curious, b/c I got a mailing and my wife got none. There was only one for "The Alcibiades Family." My wife and I have different last names, and both are registered to vote at this address, but my wife is a policyholder.

How on earth did they figure out they only needed to send one without improperly using their database? :shrug:

if one remembers McCarthy Era.. Not Good. I figured because I have BCBS that they got my name...but what you say is true. It came to our house as a Voter Reg.

but spammers can?
I don't know if that is true, btw. I was only responding to the OP posted last week.

But in North Carolina, anybody can get voter data--BCBS, you, me, anybody.

There's quite a good nationwide comparative report on voter privacy issues available from some folks in Davis. The page you're looking for is here:

http://www.calvoter.org/issues/votprivacy/pub/voterprivacy/findings.html

"Every state allows its voter registration data to be used for political purposes, which typically include sending campaign mail, precinct-walking and phone banking. Political campaigns and parties are the most common secondary users of voter registration data. Campaigns typically obtain voter data by either purchasing it directly from their state or local elections offices, acquiring it from their political party, or buying it from political data vendors. Political data vendors profit from voter registration data and thus could be defined as commercial users; however they have been widely classified as political users because the campaigns to which they sell the data are using it for political purposes."

If you are having problems, probably the best folks to talk to are the local Democratic Party. If they have their shit together at all, they have this data. I know I do.

I have done formal public document requests and have a lawyer trying. I was just making the point that transparency to the public, vis a vis voter information no, spam yes.