Thank You Blue Cross

The fact that Blue Cross of California is leading the insurance company effort to stop any reform in the state's health care system makes me smile broadly. There couldn't be a more reviled corporate entity around these parts than Blue Cross, the team who systematically tried to throw any sick person off their rolls and reduce any effort to get them to actually pay for medical treatment, which after all is their entire job. Health Access picked up on this and noticed that Blue Cross tried to use the Enron energy crisis as a scare tactic ("Unintended consequences do happen"), when in fact nobody is more like Enron than... Blue Cross.

Because there are so few rules on insurers now, Californians are concerned now they are one job change or life event away from facing a blackout of coverage. We have over 6 million Californians in a coverage blackout. Frankly, we have tolerated deregulation for too long: new and fair rules would increase the security that Californians have now with their coverage, so they are not denied because of their health status.

BlueCross' ad campaign may backfire with the public. They won't believe BlueCross, and they will make it clear to Californians what we can win with health reform.

I don't think it's may, I think it's will.

Nobody's going to buy this for a second. That's why the campaign is only in Sacramento and not statewide. If our leaders in this state are anything like Democratic national leaders, they'll immediately drop all health care reform plans for fear that Blue Cross will continue to be mean to them. But having Blue Cross argue about responsible health care policy is like having Tony Soprano argue about gun control. And it's up to us constituents to let the politicians know that.