AP, Raw Story Cover BlueCross B.S. Postcard OUTRAGE and DU, DKos Internet Protest

[Hissyspit]

Hey, that's me in there in the Raw Story story. :-) Thanks, Daniel Tencer.

Also, Jason Rosenbaum of FireDogLake covered it. Kpete picked up on that in her post: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6878612 Give her a K&R. Jason used my postcard photo. Raw Story used DUer Lex's postcard photo. Lex did the original thread Sunday, matrix to all this.


Here's the Associated Press story: http://www.reflector.com/news/state/nc-insurer-says-timing-of-mailings-unfortunate-923783.html

NC insurer says timing of mailings unfortunate

The Associated Press

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

RALEIGH, N.C. —

- snip -

Indignant Blue Cross customers, complaining that their premium dollars are funding the campaign, have called Hagan's office to voice support for a public option. They've marked through the Blue Cross message on their postcards and changed it to show they support the public option, then mailed the cards.

Here's DUer Lex's original thread which went to the top of the Recommended page: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=6853620

Here's my Daily Kosl thread which was a Most Recommended diary most of Monday: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/10/26/797142/-Subvert-Your-Blue-Cross-NC-Anti-HC-Reform-Postcard-To-Sen.-HaganI-Crossed-Out... Photos of Blue Cross's mailer can be seen there.

I'm glad that this got statewide North Carolina coverage so as to undermine Blue Cross' ludicrous and self-serving effort. (CEO will make $4 million this year... There was ALREADY controversy in the state earlier in the year about that and then they go shoot themselves in the foot.) We'll see what happens with Sen. Hagan. Thanks to Lex and to all the other DU NC protesters and to everyone who posted suggestions!

REAL UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE FOR ALL AMERICANS


http://rawstory.com/2009/10/insurer-informs-of-rate-hike

Insurer informs of rate hike — then asks customers to oppose reform

By Daniel Tencer
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 -- 9:59 pm

Customers of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina are up in arms about a flier the company sent out urging their clientele to oppose health care reform -- shortly after sending out a notice informing them their health insurance rates would go up an average of 11 percent.

"Indignant Blue Cross customers have rebelled against the insurer's message, complaining that their premium dollars have funded such a campaign," reports the Raleigh-Durham News & Observer.

Over the past few days, Blue Cross customers have started a Web-based campaign to smother the insurance company's message. In its flier, Blue Cross had included a form letter to North Carolina Sen. Kay Hagan, asking Hagan to "please oppose government-run health insurance." Customers have taken to marking up the form letter and using Blue Cross' pre-paid postage to ask Hagan to do the opposite:

- snip -

But, as Jason Rosenbaum points out at The Seminal, Blue Cross controls 53 percent of the health insurance market in North Carolina, including 98 percent of individual non-employer-provided policies, so inevitably the fliers would have landed with Blue Cross customers.

Blogger Hissyspit at DailyKos was among the people who received one of Blue Cross' fliers.

"I figured out that the enclosed postcard could be altered to conversely subvert the intended purpose and that's what I did," Hissyspit wrote. "I crossed out portions of the message, wrote in my own, and and put it in the Saturday mail."

It was only after that happened that the blogger realized many other North Carolinians had come across the same idea.

The irony of the backlash against Blue Cross' campaign was not lost on Rosenbaum.

"Thank you, Blue Cross, for making the point for us so well," he wrote. "Whatever the insurance companies want, you should want the opposite."

THE UPCOMING PROTEST:

http://healthcareforamericanow.org/

"It is time for us to Protect the Public Option, Pressure Blue Cross into stop opposing reform, and Participate in actions here in North Carolina!

That's why we're writing to you. Blue Cross just sent a mailer out to its policyholders here in NC that includes a printed, pre-paid postcard to Senator Kay Hagan that opposes the Public Option. In response to this outrageous use of their customers' premium dollars, we're asking you all to take three actions:

1. If you received this mailer from BCBS, please mark out in RED the words "Oppose government run healthcare" and write in RED "SUPPORT THE PUBLIC OPTION," mark out in RED "doesn't need" and write in RED "NEEDS." Then put the postage pre-paid revised card in the mail and call Senator Hagan's office to tell them that you have sent the Blue Cross card but in support of the Public Option.

2. Please join us at 11:00 on Friday morning (October 30, 2009) at the BCBS headquarters to protest their greedy campaign against health care reform. We'll bring our Crime Scene yellow tape and a blown-up version of the postcard, have fun, and send a message to Blue Cross and to Washington that we are going to get health care reform in 2009 that serves our interest, not the insurance industry's.

The BCBS headquarters is at 1700 Chapel Hill Durham Blvd, Chapel Hill, NC.

3. If you and your organization have your own list serve, please send this message along so that we can get as many cards to Senator Hagan's office as possible, and show a good crowd Friday morning at the Blue Cross headquarters to let them know how we feel."

[gademocrat7]

1. K & R

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

2. Good job in using BC's self-serving post card against them AND for getting it noticed

I love this! So many would have just sworn and thrown it in the garbage and you took it so much further.

I know that someone raised the issue if this wasn't a subversion of the postage paid bulk mailing rules in the first place because the whole "postage will be paid by addressee" was inaccurate since Sen Hagan was the addressee, not BC. I think a few posters on Kos suggested taping the postcard to a brick and then mailing it! -----}(

[Hissyspit]

8. Even if none of the postcards ever get to her, she know about it now!

Lex called the office, N&O called the office, I emailed Sen. Hagan. It worked.

[Hissyspit]

13. "knows"

[Starry Messenger]

3. Three cheers for Lex & Hissyspit!

:thumbsup: Great stuff.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. You guys rock!

[Hissyspit]

7. Rock for National Health Care!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiSQIbNxjcU

[WillyT]

5. K & R !!!

:kick:

[snagglepuss]

6. Kudos. K & R

[Monk06]

9. So they send a 11% rate increase in the mail plus a demand they're slaves/customers lobby for them ?

It's like someone kicking you in the balls and
then asking you to wash their car.

[babylonsister]

10. Rec'd. The timing was unfortunate?? Ugh. And props to you, Hissyspit! nt

[Hissyspit]

11. I know. What a ridiculous spin. Timing was bad? It shouldn't have been done at all.

So corrupt a system we have.

[Hissyspit]

12. I posted a new diary at Daily Kos. Go there to read some of the collected comments from around the

Internet.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/10/29/798377/-UPDATE-Protest-Over-BlueCross-NC-Anti-HCR-Postcard-Goes-Viral

"The liberals and progressives had better start calling out the blue dogs and that scum bag Lieberman in public. I’m sick of this polite bullshit! Harry Reid should print this story, call a news conference and bitch slap Lieberman with some facts."

"Let us continue with the sinking ship analogy. A nasty pirate – call him Blue Beard of the Cross and Shield Clan – seized a ship by stupidly cutting a hole in it’s hull below the water line, the better to get aboard and start stealing from the passengers. He soon realizes his mistake as the ship starts listing. So he orders his hostages to start bailing with their hands. When that doesn’t seem to stop the sinking, Blue starts throwing passengers over board. Now at first, he tries to be reasonable about who he murders – tossing into the drink only those who have the most serious preexisting health problems, reasoning that they’ll die soon anyway. But soon he becomes more desperate and less discerning, and more and more hostages drown by the hands of his thugs. Now the government, which is very cowed by Blue, pleads with him to stop drowning passengers and offers to give him a 900-gallon-an-hour hydraulic pump to enable him to keep the ship afloat without throwing anyone else into the shark infested waters. Blue takes the pump in exhange for some vague promises regarding hostage welfare, but by that time the hole is taking on water at 850 gallons an hour and, even worse, it’s increasing in size and the amount of water flooding through it is increasing by 11% each hour.

Now, substitute gallons with billions of dollars and hours with years, and you’ve pretty much have our nation’ healthcare system. Oh, and the ship can only take on about 1500 gallons until it sinks."

[Hissyspit]

14. kick - for those interested. nt

[Hissyspit]

15. A poster at Daily Kos suggested that constituents email something similar to his/her email:

"Gentlemen:

Like many North Carolinians, my wife and I received a mailer earlier this week from Blue Cross - Blue Shield of North Carolina, with a postage paid post card to send to Sen. Kay Hagan urging her to oppose the so-called "public option" for health insurance reform. I suppose that we ended up on the BCBS mailing list because she was until this summer on the WCU faculty in the nursing department.

It is difficult to track exactly how much of our NC taxpayer dollars go to support BCBS-NC through the State Employee Health Plan, but it is most certainly in the hundreds of millions of dollars annually, and in one report I found online it may be as much as $2.5 billion per year. In any event, there is no doubt that we taxpayers are funding a significant portion of BCBS-NC, including this latest effort on their part to sway public opinion.

I urge you to look into the propriety of such political activity by a nominal non-profit health insurance provider that receives much of its revenue from the state's coffers. As a minimum, it must be said that their protests against "government run healthcare" should be exposed for the cynical hypocrisy it is.

Thank you once again for your service to the state and Haywood County."

[intheflow]

16. This would be an excellent LTTE to any NC newspaper. n/t

[sabrina 1]

17. I accidentally unrec'd. Really wanted to rec. this

Maybe someone can balance it. Second time I did that this week.

Anyhow, kicked for the great work done by everyone.

[Quantess]

18. I just cancelled yours out. (no text)

[sabrina 1]

19. Thank you ~ n/t