Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina has become one of the main movers in the anti-health care reform movement (if something that is corporately financed and staged can be called a movement). Yesterday, Barbara Morales Burke, Blue Cross vice president for health policy, told WRAL-TV in Raleigh that the company is strongly opposed to a government insurance option, claiming that more than two dozen health care insurers already serve North Carolina, so, "I'm not sure what one more choice would do."
Well, let me explain, Ms. Burke. The public option, the one more choice youre referring to, would be the choice made by most of the 2 million uninsured people in North Carolina. You remember them, right, Ms. Burke? Theyre the people who were told by your lovely industry that they couldnt have health insurance or not at a price thats affordable by anyone poorer than Rockefeller because of pre-existing conditions. Or maybe theyre the folks whose policies your beneficent, public-minded industry canceled because you had to spend too much money on their pesky illnesses.
Opposition to real health care reform has come down to fighting against the public option, and its no wonder. Those who are leading the opposition are insurers who dont want to see a government-run plan attract the suckers right out of the companies grasp. Heres the news, though: this big national debate isnt about health insurance companies profits; its about the American peoples health and their access to reasonably priced health care. If the health insurance companies profits suffer because people are attracted to a better deal in the form of a robust public option, all Ill say is that these sources of morally repugnant policies and practices had it coming.
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