(Insurance denied because they can’t cherry pick? B-R-O-K-E-N – promoted by blogswarm)

More than a healthcare crisis-this nation has a widespread health insurance crisis.  Just today, the LA Times reports that professional associations are increasingly shut out of the health insurance market because group purchasing doesn’t let insurers cherry pick the healthiest customers.  This comes on the heels of last week’s news that Blue Cross is being fined $1 million for illegally dumping patients off the rolls, a new look at how elderly patients are being fleeced by their mercenary insurers, and complaints from doctors that they spend more time fighting corporate denials of care than tending to their patients.  Given this health insurance crisis that demands a solution, it’s no wonder the Sacramento Bee comes close to endorsing the SinglePayer system, and doing away with these bad actors. 

Brought to you by the National Nurses Organizing Committee as we organize to make 2007 the Year of SinglePayer Healthcare.

The latest canary in the insurance coal mines are the professional associations that offer their members health insurnace.  As Lisa Girion of the LA Times, who has been on a tear lately, writes:

Health plans offered by professional associations were once havens for millions of people who couldn’t get coverage anywhere else. But as medical costs have soared, groups representing professions as varied as law and golf have been forced to stop offering the benefit or been dropped by insurers.

More than 8,000 people with coverage through the California Assn. of Realtors could be next if Blue Shield of California succeeds with its plan to cancel the group’s health coverage.

“It’s a real stab in the heart,” said Marcy Garber, 62, an Encino real estate agent whose history of breast cancer makes her an almost-certain reject if she seeks similar coverage on her own.

Why are the insurance companies leaving this market?  Because they can’t cherrypick customers:

Insurance carriers began pulling out of association markets about 10 years ago amid mandates requiring the groups – like employers – to offer coverage to all members who wanted to buy it, regardless of preexisting conditions. Unlike employers, however, who typically pick up the much of the premiums for employees, most associations do not share in the costs. Instead, they arrange for their members to purchase coverage at group, rather than individual, rates.

Another real estate agent, Hector Aguirre, 39, of Rancho Cucamonga, also thought the group’s coverage was safe. He pays nearly $1,000 a month for coverage for himself and his family. His wife has lupus and a daughter needs daily shots of an expensive growth hormone.

“I always thought it had more control and more pull because it’s such a huge umbrella under the whole California Assn. of Realtors,” Aguirre said.

Realtor Terry Lucoff, 60, of Malibu, who pays a monthly premium of more than $600, fears that if he loses his coverage he will be unable to obtain new coverage that will allow him to continue seeing his regular doctors because he has been diagnosed with a kidney condition.

“If they can do this to the California Realtors association, they can do it to anybody,” he said.

It is truly, grotesquely surreal that the American medical system is organized around and by huge corporations that only want to serve healthy customers, and that make money by denying the healthcare they are chartered to insure.

Is it any wonder everyone hates them?  But look, there’s more from the car-wreck that is our insurance market.

Girion again: 

Blue Cross of California “routinely” violated state law when it canceled individual health insurance coverage after policyholders got pregnant or sick, making no attempt to determine whether they did anything to merit such “harsh” treatment, according to a state investigation of practices that appear to be industrywide….

As a result of its unprecedented investigation, the Department of Managed Health Care on Thursday said that it had fined Blue Cross $1 million – an amount immediately criticized by canceled policyholders and consumer advocates as too small to matter to an insurer whose parent company, WellPoint Inc., earned $3.1 billion in profit last year on revenue of $57 billion.

Stunningly:

Regulators examined 90 randomly selected cases of policy cancellations – out of about 1,000 a year in California – and found violations in each one.

Insurance companies aren’t just abusing sick people; they’re abusing old people, too:

  Interviews by The New York Times and confidential depositions indicate that some long-term-care insurers have developed procedures that make it difficult – if not impossible – for policyholders to get paid. A review of more than 400 of the thousands of grievances and lawsuits filed in recent years shows elderly policyholders confronting unnecessary delays and overwhelming bureaucracies. In California alone, nearly one in every four long-term-care claims was denied in 2005, according to the state.

And now doctors are reporting that all the time they spend with insurance corporation bureaucrats harms their patients.

So, I ask all the politicians who are supporting insurance mandates: do we really want to force the entire nation to sign up with their heartless corporations?  Do want to increase their influence over the delivery of care in our health system?

The Sacramento Bee doesn’t think so–and kind-of/almost endorse SinglePayer healthcare as the way to deal with our sick health insurance market:

Blue Cross denies wrongdoing. That’s fine. There is a larger lesson here: This health insurance market, the one for individuals or families who don’t automatically get covered through their jobs, is sick. Insurers try to avoid covering people who need care. And many Californians avoid getting insurance until it is in their financial interest to do so. It’s a game, and the game must end somehow. That can only happen by blowing up the individual health insurance market that exists today and replacing it with something that makes more sense. And that can only happen with the California Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

There are two basic choices here when it comes to health insurance. One is to get rid of private health insurance altogether and replace it with a program in which the government directly pays doctors and hospitals to provide care. That’s known as single-payer. It is championed by some Democrats, but opposed by the governor. Single-payer isn’t a likely short-term compromise, but the more we look at this mess, single-payer seems to be an increasingly likely long-term solution because of the many ills of the private insurance market.

If you want to join the fight for single-payer healthcare, sign up with SinglePayer.com, a project of the National Nurses Organizing Committee.  You can share your story about surviving the healthcare industry here, and start contacting media here.

(Just 588 days until Janet’s next election, when a Democrat will take back the (non-partisan) seat.- Brian

OK, here’s what everyone else is saying… Ryan Gene has a lot so say about Janet and her new job at Orange Juice. And Total Buzz has more on Janet and the GOPers who may want to be her friends again. Stay tuned for more! : ) – promoted by atdleft)

Today, something happened. What we’ve all been waiting for finally happened. Janet Nguyen was FINALLY sworn in as County Supervisor. THANK GAWD I FINALLY HAVE A SUPERVISOR!! But how long will this last? Will she really be able to follow through on her promise to “unite the district” and “represent everyone”?

Follow me after the flip for more…

After all the counting and recounting…
After all the legal battles…
And after all the campaigning, before AND after the election…
It finally came down to this.

Or, as Janet Nguyen said herself:

“It has been a short election, but a very, very, very long Election Day.”

Bill Steiner, the former County Supervisor who is a longtime mentor of Janet, swore her in today. He praised her as a great student when she first took his political science class, and he commented on her track record as a political staffer, and then as a Garden Grove Councilmember. Oh yes, and he responded to an earlier tirade about Janet “not representing everyone” by talking about how she will work hard to represent everyone in the district.

After the swearing-in, Janet addressed the crowd. She thanked her family, her consultants, and her supporters. She still seemed amazed that “only in America can a 30 year-old Vietnamese-American woman be elected” as an Orange County Supervisor. And yes, she pledged to unite the district and represent everyone in the community.

Lou Correa, the man who once sat where Janet sits now, then addressed the crowd, and talked about the reality of representing such a diverse swing district that is OC’s First Supervisorial District.

“Central Orange County is a marketplace of ideas… Every race has been tight. Every race has been debated. I think that’s a good thing. Neither the Democratic Party or the Republican Party can anoint someone.”

After the ceremony ended, I stepped outside to talk with some friends. And just before he left to return to Sacramento, I spoke with Lou… And with Tammy Tran, the political AND policy genius who now works in his district office. While I was speaking with them, I remembered how they have done such a great job at reaching out to the Vietnamese-American community here, as well as everyone else in the district. I guess this strong outreach and these strong ties to the community here in OC are the true strengths of Lou Correa and his political team. But anyways, as I was thinking about this, it dawned on me… That may be what Janet Nguyen might try to repeat.

One of Janet’s GOP supporters suggested that she hire one of Lou’s old aides to help her with her new job. He also said that he expects Janet to hire additional Latino staffers, and to aggressively win some goodwill in Latino-heavy Santa Ana…
So can this be the key to Janet’s success?

She’s now “part of the county family”, but how much of a mark will she make in this hall? I guess we will have to wait and see.

(Hooray, more video from yesterday! Jubal/Matt Cunningham now has VIDEO of the Judge’s decision, along with VIDEO of Janet Nguyen’s press conference, over at OC Blog. : ) – promoted by atdleft)

Ah, finally! No need to revise the agenda…
Janet Nguyen really will be sworn in today as the newest OC Supervisor. The wait is over… It’s just too bad that the drama may not be over quite yet. (From OC Register)

Janet Nguyen will be sworn in tomorrow at the weekly Board of Supervisors meeting. Trung Nguyen ducked the many reporters at the courthouse, but his lawyer, Michael Schroeder, said he expected to file an appeal of the judge’s decision.

“The judge’s ruling was not a surprise,” Schroeder said. “We have to take a look at the judge’s ruling but I anticipate we will file an appeal.”

Janet Nguyen, 30, now becomes the first Asian-American and the youngest ever to sit on the board. She told reporters she was excited, honored and relieved.

“I’m ready – I’ve been ready – to represent the people of the First District,” she said.

Trung Nguyen refused to concede the election and didn’t congratulate Janet Nguyen, who left the courthouse and promptly walked over to the county Hall of Administration. There, she was congratulated by Supervisors John Moorlach, Chris Norby and Pat Bates.

“She’ll be voting tomorrow,” Norby said.

Ah, if only Darth Schroeder, Lord Van Tran, and their loyal lackey Trung can just GIVE IT UP, and LET JANET SERVE FOR GAWD SAKE!! But whatever, they’ll likely lose again with the appeal. I’m just relieved that this whole damn thing is coming to a close, whether they like it or not.

…um, what are you waiting for?

Unless you read the Hollywood trade magazines or frequent local L.A. blogs, you’ve probably missed the latest drama over at the Times, the so-called Grazergate, and for that you should feel lucky. It’s a pretty localized story that merges big media and big Hollywood and I wouldn’t have even bothered you with it if it hadn’t have been for the latest wrinkle that’s reportedly been thrown into the mix, name of Donald Rumsfeld.

Join me over the flip…

The L.A. Times has certainly not been free from controversy over the past few months. It was only October that The Tribune Company, which owns The Times, replaced publisher Jeffrey Johnson with David D. Hiller when Johnson openly defied mandated cuts from corporate bosses (as did popular editor Dean Baquet who was similarly forced out just a month later.) Since taking over as publisher, it would seem Hiller is not exactly making new friends at the paper. He had an idea: bring on selected guest editors of the Sunday editorial page, called Sunday Current. Sunday’s edition was to be guest-edited by Hollywood producer Brian Grazer (A Beautiful Mind, The Grinch…)

Yeah well, that didn’t happen. Why’s that you ask? Here’s a little rundown:

[L.A. Times Editorial page editor, Andres] Martinez resigned in pique after The Times publisher, David D. Hiller, told him  he couldn't go forward with a Current section that was being guest-edited by  Hollywood producer Brian Grazer. Hiller intervened when it was learned that  Martinez has been dating a Hollywood publicist whose firm represents the  producer. In fact, the agency obtained Grazer's business after Martinez's  girlfriend's boss facilitated the arrangement between the producer and The  Times.

Martinez denies any wrongdoing and even Hiller concedes that his dropping Grazer was to avoid the "perception" of any conflict of interest. As you might expect, Martinez is pissed. So what does he do? Spout off to local blog L.A Observed, of course. His latest revelation, which could make Grazergate look like small potatoes indeed, is that Donald Rumsfeld may be tapped as the next Current guest editor. At the very least, it’s clear that Hiller asked Rumsfeld to come on by and guest edit the section, because, well, they’re old pals, you see.

Nikki Finke has the scoop over at HuffPo:

I'm told that Donald Rumsfeld was asked to guest-edit the newspaper's "Current" opinion section which appears on Sundays. The ex-Defense Secretary is a long-time personal and professional friend of LA Times publisher David Hiller, who supervises the paper's editorial, Op-Ed and opinion pages. Rumsfeld also has strong ties to the LA Times' parent company since he was a member of Tribune Co.'s board of directors for years. Sources tell me that Rumsfeld's selection was suggested and approved by Hiller.

As I was composing this post, I found this report that in fact, wisely, the Current guest-editor experiment of 2007 has been quashed. At least something good came out of Grazergate.

But seriously, does it even matter? Apparently at some point in time the publisher of The LA Times thought it would be a good idea for the former Defense Secretary to guest-edit an editorial page that one has every right to expect would address the war policies put in place by said Defense Secretary and which might very well weigh in on his former boss’s administration, whose reputation it’s completely in said Defense Secretary’s interest (and apparently, power) to redeem via said editorial page. Seriously, are you kiddin’ me?

Now about that subscription…

(originally at surf putah – promoted by Brian Leubitz)

One of the upsides to the unusually dry winter and spring that we’ve had this past year in California is that it gives us a bit of much-needed breathing room to try and figure out how we’re going to avoid becoming Katrina West the next time the floodwaters get high enough. My fears back in the fall about the levees not being repaired by the time the rain started falling in earnest thankfully proved wrong. That being said, water control is always an issue in this state, and the scale and complexity of the problems we face pretty much guarantee that it’s always on the table for discussion, somewhere or another. In recent water-related news:

West Sacramento’s levees have seepage problems of the same sort that threaten the houses sitting behind the Natomas levees, and thus might not be as stable as previously assumed. The good news is that those problems were discovered when the city proactively started taking core samples from its levees. Far better to find out in advance than just keep building houses behind them and find out when the levee blows in the middle of the night in some winter storm.

On the west side of Yolo County, I agree with County Supe Matt Rexroad that having a flood control expert on hand is a good thing for Yolo County and the city of Woodland, even if we might not necessarily agree on the best means to solve the problem. Woodland got pretty close to flooding last year, it’s a good idea to have a full-time expert working on it.

Moving south towards the delta,  the Chronicle reported a couple of days ago that Judge Frank Roesch has ordered that the pumps in Tracy that send water to East Bay and SoCal communities and farms either find a way to operate them without killing endangered species or shut down. This is on top of the ongoing discussions of how to come up with a framework to deal with the gordian knot of delta levees, water exports and floodplain development that Cal Fed hasn’t been able to solve.

Going east towards the foothills, Bayne of Blog recently blogged about Sacramento Congressman Dan Lungren moving towards calling for to be drained and restored. Usually a cause of environmentalist groups going back to ur-naturalist John Muir himself, the conservative Republican congressman seems to honestly be interested in the possibility of restoring the scenic valley in his district. While San Francisco officials oppose the move, UCD science blog Egghead reports that a recent Masters Thesis by UCD Geology grad student Sarah Null argues that the same water flow could be maintained without the dam.

While it’s not actually Central Valley levees under discussion, meterology blogger Jeff Masters over at Weather Underground has a couple of posts up (1, 2)reviewing what went wrong with New Orleans’ levee system that are worth a read. The Army Corps of Engineers do not come out looking very good, to say the least. Always worth a read.

Finally (ok, this last bit’s a bit of a stretch, but the rice is grown with irrigation, so it kind of relates), Hank Shaw from the Stockton Record has coverage of the pre-match trash-haiku’ing between Mike Villines and Fabian Nuñez about the upcoming Great Sushi Roll-off. Nuñez’s haiku?

Sushi challenge on
The public very happy
We aren’t naked chefs

Land-locked Clovis man
Makes worst Republican Rice
Since Condoleeza

Núñez sushi wins
Feral cats at Capitol
Reject Villines’ swill

Who knew Fabian was a poet?

This just in from the OC Republican Party:

Republican Councilwoman Janet Nguyen of Garden Grove won the February 6th – Special Election for the 1st Supervisorial District Vacancy. The seat was previously held by Democrat Lou Correa.

Nguyen will join Republicans John Moorlach, Bill Campbell, Chris Norby and Pat Bates on the Board of Supervisors thus creating an all-Republican governing board not seen in Orange County since 2004. Nguyen also becomes the first elected Vietnamese-American Supervisor in Orange County history.

“On behalf of the Republican Party of Orange County, I would like to congratulate Supervisor-Elect Nguyen in her hard-fought victory,” said County GOP Chairman Scott Baugh. “I commend the hard work of all Republican candidates that worked night and day to increase Republican registration and turnout.”

“Our member communication efforts during this special election played a critical role in the effort to elect a Republican Supervisor. This Supervisorial win will help continue our positive trend in Central Orange County,” said Chairman Baugh.

OK, so I guess now that Trung’s done, the GOPers are getting back into good terms with Janet. I guess we’ll see if all those nasty wounds will begin to heal.

The infamous Gary Miller video has surfaced…in a DCCC online ad.

Brian: As you may know, Gary Miller, who went unchallenged in 2006, has seen some heat for this real estate transaction where he was supposedly “forced to sell” his property.  He is forced to do land deals (for land that he can increase the value of by pushing for legislation in Congress) because he’s poor:

Miller, a fifth-term Republican representing conservative inland Southern California, said in an interview that he had put his real estate investment activities on hold upon entering politics, only to find that “I was worth less money every year.”(AP 2/23/07)

Poor, poor Miller only makes $165K/year. How does he survive on that? Of course, he should be doing land deals that are affected by his position in Congress!