Opinion
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Health-plan opposition
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Published: May 29, 2009
Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina has unfairly jumped the gun on President Barack Obama by preparing a public-relations campaign to oppose his still unannounced health care-reform package.
The Washington Post recently broke the story that the insurer has contracted with a Raleigh public-relations firm to oppose reform. A series of videos is being designed to scare voters into thinking that inefficient socialized medicine is just around the corner.
North Carolinians should keep in mind the insurer's motives. Blue Cross Blue Shield is a very profitable business that pays its corporate leaders very handsomely. The company does this even though it is legally a nonprofit.
President Obama has been reaching out, encouraging all players in the health-care industry to work for a solution to today's health-care problems. It was only a few weeks ago that Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina publicly announced, with other insurers, that it was willing to work with the president. At the same time, the insurer was preparing an opposition campaign against a program that has not been formulated yet.
North Carolinians will see through this video campaign. They see how fast their health-care insurance premiums are rising and how high their medical bills are even when they have insurance. They see that their doctors must often argue with insurance-company bureaucrats for approval for necessary medical care.
North Carolinians also see that the current system is extremely wasteful and expensive. They see that their friends, neighbors and family members often cannot afford insurance, if they can even obtain it at all. And they see that their employers are being crushed by the increasing cost of a system in which they provide coverage for their employees. The cost of that coverage goes into the cost of American goods and services, thus making companies less competitive on the world market.
There is an amusing contradiction to BCBSNC's opposition to one of Obama's likely proposals. A company spokesman says the company opposes an "unchecked, government-run plan." But BCBSNC's history is full of preferential tax treatment provided by state government that allows it to survive as a nonprofit with the best interests of North Carolinians at heart.
This week the company said it had been contacted by the White House and that the focus of the message in the videos had changed. We can only hope that it will change its attitude and begin to work with the president and leaders of Congress on this most important issue.
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