"Free" health care!

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-01-2003
"Free" health care!
250
Thu, 07-22-2004 - 7:15pm
I wonder how many of you have had to live without health insurance? You say that health care is not a right? NO WONDER! You have always had a place for the bills to go other then your mailbox! How many of you have ever asked what the actual cost of your prescriptions are? Do the math! Do you have any idea what it is like to call around from doctor to doctor trying to find one who would see you WITHOUT insurance? Have you ever stood at your doctor office and humbly asked for samples instead of a prescription because u know that your $360 check wont stretch enough to cover your $280 med bill AND the doctor appt. Don't even mention medicaid! If you make enough money to buy food and scrape by...you do not qualify.

Go ahead and be technical but if you ever run into some bad luck you will see things in an entirely different light!

Pages

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-30-2004
Fri, 07-30-2004 - 1:51pm
I'm not sure if anyone has followed this story, but the top executive were to receive 600 million on this buyout/merger

http://www.venturacountystar.com/vcs/co_valley/article/0,1375,VCS_166_3061587,00.html

Anthem, WellPoint merger is rejected

State insurance chief's move delays $16.4 billion transaction

By Jim Wasserman, The Associated Press

July 24, 2004

State Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi rejected a proposed $16.4 billion merger Friday between healthcare giants Anthem Inc. and WellPoint Health Networks Inc., causing a drop in stock prices and stalling the deal.

His announcement came just hours after a state agency signed off on the proposed merger that would create the nation's largest health insurer.


Garamendi said the deal would pull millions of dollars out of California, lower healthcare quality for consumers and give too much severance pay to executives while 6 million state residents lack health insurance.

"I cannot in good conscience approve this transaction," he said during a San Francisco news conference. "I do not believe it is in the best interests of California policyholders."

Garamendi said it was an extraordinary deal for executives, a reasonable one for stockholders, but lousy for the state.

Anthem Chief Executive Officer Larry Glasscock said Garamendi's disapproval creates an uncertain timetable to absorb WellPoint and insure a combined 28 million people. During an Indianapolis news conference, he said there's no plan to give up on the deal.

"I believe that this transaction is going to happen," he said.

Trading suspended

Prices of both company stocks fell Friday before trading was suspended at the request of the two firms. Indianapolis-based Anthem shares fell 1.3 percent while Thousand Oaks-based WellPoint shares dropped 1.7 percent. Garamendi's announcement was timed after the close of the New York Stock Exchange, but Anthem spread the word early that he had phoned the company with his decision.

Glasscock also said he was considering suing Garamendi, and executives at both companies accused the insurance commissioner of playing politics for personal gain.

"We find it unbelievable that an elected official who claims to protect consumer interests would put his own political ambition over the welfare of the people he is sworn to serve," WellPoint Chief Financial Officer David Colby said in a statement.

Without Garamendi's approval, the companies might need to shed some California businesses, investors said.

"It would be a pretty big negative," said Steven Hill, who helps manage $3.5 billion at First Investors and holds Anthem shares.

"In theory, you could put the merger through and carve out California, but I don't know that you would want to."

No plan to renegotiate

WellPoint Chief Executive Officer Leonard Schaeffer said the companies do not plan to renegotiate the merger agreement.

"I think (Garamendi) is wrong on the facts and overstepped his authority," Schaeffer told the Ventura County Star. "The legal standard is not his personal opinion."

The California Department of Managed Health Care's approval earlier Friday removed one of two significant roadblocks remaining to merge Anthem and WellPoint, the parent of Blue Cross of California.

Anthem plans to move WellPoint operations to its Indianapolis headquarters but has repeatedly maintained it will leave Blue Cross operations largely intact in California.

Garamendi has been one of the merger's leading critics, demanding the companies contribute $600 million to California's uninsured population as a condition of his approval.

Friday, he charged that the deal would pull $400 million a year out of California for three years and an unlimited amount afterward to help Anthem finance the WellPoint takeover. He also criticized a $76 million payout to Schaeffer, who would lose his job but stay on as chairman of the combined companies.

Schwarzenegger approval

Garamendi said that amount could provide a year's worth of insurance coverage for 47,000 children.

The U.S. Department of Justice and nine other affected states and Puerto Rico, where the companies operate,already have approved the merger.

Cindy Ehnes, director of the California Department of Managed Health Care, announced the Schwarzenegger administration's support for the deal.

"We have negotiated a pact that is a good deal for consumers and sends a strong message that California is a state with a competitive and healthy marketplace where business is welcome," she said.

Ehnes said WellPoint and Anthem agreed to numerous concessions for the change in ownership of Blue Cross of California, which insures 7 million Californians.

Among them, Blue Cross would invest $17 million in mental health and child obesity programs, up to $100 million over 20 years for healthcare in rural and underserved communities, and $5 million over three years to increase enrollment in the state's Healthy Families Program.

Ehnes said the merger received the highest level of scrutiny.

The department, initially reluctant to schedule a public hearing on the merger, held a July 9 hearing, where most testimony was sharply critical of the deal.

Schaeffer said the concessions Anthem made with the California Department of Managed Health Care were nearly identical to those offered Garamendi.

"On the big issues, the things John Garamendi wanted, he got," said Schaeffer, adding that "all the things we agreed to didn't matter" to the commissioner.

Leading Democratic officials, including Garamendi and state Treasurer Phil Angelides, called the executive compensation package obscene, though both companies maintained the package follows industry standards.

-- Other wire services and Star staff writer Deborah Crowe contributed to this story.

On the Net: California Department of Managed Health Care: http://www.hmohelp.ca.gov

Anthem, Inc.: http://www.anthem.com

WellPoint Health Networks, Inc.: http://www.WellPoint.com

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-24-2004
Fri, 07-30-2004 - 2:00pm
Ok so you know you different military personnel from different countries, that is wonderful. But does the military define the country? How can you honestly say you know what the citizens of a certain country are like or what they want if you do not know them. You are basing your comments to the military not to the people. There is a big difference.
Avatar for schifferle
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Fri, 07-30-2004 - 3:36pm
My comments had to do with the US military around the world, not civilians of the US or any other country. The mention of knowing foreign military was only an aside. My initial comments had to do with Liberals & Republicans in the US military and my reaction, for better or worse, to missmaryjennifer's post.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Fri, 07-30-2004 - 5:26pm
I was being sarcastic.


Elaine

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-16-2004
Sun, 08-01-2004 - 8:35am
Inflamatory? I don't think so!

I think I've now enabled my e-mail feature, but yet don't see it yet in my profile, so maybe there's a delay, or everyone but me can see it...

Feel free to e-mail me!

Cheers

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Sun, 08-01-2004 - 11:44am
I'm only an occasional lurker here (I'm Australian) but I've read this entire thread with great interest. Seems the 'health care debate' is a universal one in many 1st world countries. After reading all your posts back and forth, pro and con, comparing and debating the US and Canadian models of health care delivery, all I can say is: thank God we have the system we do in Australia - while it certainly has its problems, it still beats either of those models hands down.

But do know what two things struck me most of all? Firstly, it made me realise how lucky we all are - we all have access to the best and finest of world leading quality health care and it almost seems like a luxury to be debating it's delivery/accessibility when so many peoples of the world die daily for the want of simple treatments and medicines. Secondly, for those who regard universal medical coverage as some evil form of 'socialism', the measure of a civilised society is how it looks after it's most vulnerable. What does it profit you individually, as a community, or as a country if your neighbours suffer or die because of a financial inability to access adequate medical treatment?

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-24-2004
Sun, 08-01-2004 - 11:46am


These are excellent points!

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-24-2004
Sun, 08-01-2004 - 12:13pm
I found this article and I think it is truly heaven-sent. How many people out there do you know that would be this unselfish and be this kind? Many on this board however will find something wrong with this considering they are against everyone being treated under healthcare, or they may not agree with hospitals seeing patients without insurance or money....


http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2712452

McKinney pharmacy sells prescriptions to unsinsured at no profit

Associated Press

McKINNEY -- One of Texas' oldest drugstores is selling prescriptions at no profit to uninsured and underinsured customers, a move some industry experts called unprecedented.

"It's really not fair to the customers to take advantage of them," said Kaylei Mosier, who owns Smith Drug Co. in McKinney, about 30 miles north of Dallas.

The Texas Pharmacy Association and the American Pharmacists Association said they haven't heard of another pharmacy with a similar program.

"This is the first experience I've heard of somebody willing to sell at cost," Texas Pharmacy Association spokesman David Gonzales said in Saturday's editions of The Dallas Morning News.

Carla Chandler's insurance covers three of her five medications. For one of the others, she called every nearby pharmacy and said she was quoted about $240 at one store. Smith Drug charged her $16.68.

"My mouth dropped open. I said, 'Excuse me, that can't be right,'" said Chandler, 42. "If it wasn't for them, it would mean we would have to go without paying one of our major bills."

Avatar for schifferle
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Sun, 08-01-2004 - 12:38pm
<< How many people out there do you know that would be this unselfish and be this kind? >> I believe that there are kind, wonderful, caring people everywhere with acts of kindness given in small or big ways 'round the world. It just mostly goes unreported. And note: it was one of Texas' oldest drugstores selling prescriptions at no profit to uninsured and underinsured customers. I would have thought this "evil" big business couldn't possibly care about others. To think it was done without gov't influence.
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-18-2004
Sun, 08-01-2004 - 1:12pm

Hey symphony6!


Welcome to the board!

Miffy - Co-CL For The Politics Today Board

Pages