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Joe Szakos leads the Virginia Organizing Project, an almost fifteen year-old community organization that Health Care for America Now works with in Virginia to organize for health care reform. Szakos’s organization employs dozens of people, and they get their health care through Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield.
This year, Szakos was informed that Anthem was going to increase the premiums on Virginia Organizing Project’s health plan by 14.1%. Around the same time, the Virginia Organizing Project received an email from Anthem:
We strongly support reform that builds a strong, sustainable private-sector health care system – and strongly oppose creating a government-run health plan. We are urging our elected officials in Washington to take bipartisan action that will accomplish that. We are educating policymakers in Washington and working with our trade associations to encourage Congress to build on the current system and not disrupt the quality, affordable coverage on which our members depend….
As our elected officials debate health care, they need to hear directly from you.
Szakos immediately had some questions for Anthem. Chief among them, why is Anthem using its resources to lobby against health care reform with a public health insurance option while at the same time increasing rates by 14.1%?
Szakos, along with three other Virginia Organizing Project board members, went down to Anthem’s offices in Richmond, VA to ask. He left in handcuffs. Watch the video:
Szakos, a customer, couldn’t get an answer from Anthem. There was no justification for raising rates on one hand, and spending money lobbying against health care reform on the other. And instead of trying to offer Szakos an explanation, they had him arrested.
As Szakos said in the video, this is about greed and force. There is no good explanation for these rate increases, and there is no justification for Anthem to spend money it collects in premiums from customers suffering under its "health care" plans on lobbying against reform that would help these very same people. The only thing motivating Anthem – and all insurance companies – is greed. And they get and keep their money by force.
If the insurance companies win, you lose, and if you protest, you’ll be arrested. That’s health care in this country right now, but it cannot be our future. Reform must work for you, not the industry, and that means no more denying care for pre-existing conditions, coverage you can afford, and the choice of a public health insurance option to increase competition and keep these greedy corporations honest.
Anything less is a win for the industry and a loss for you.
Szakos’s trial is scheduled for September 22nd. Szakos’s legal defense team has subpoenaed Anthem’s CEO C. Burke King and director of public relations Scott Golden to appear in court on Tuesday to explain themselves. Stay tuned for more…
(also posted at the NOW! blog)
I’m proud to work for Health Care for America Now
73 Comments
Jason,
Jane needs to front page this now. KO and Rachel better pick this up along with MaryMcc and Ron’s story.
These are outrages.
What was Szakos charged with?
Beat me to it.
Asking impertinent questions?
Afflicting the comfortable?
Actually using his 1st Amendment rights?
Ah, now we see the violence inherent within the system.
Oh this is outrageous. They’re treating citizens like peasants, encroaching on the King’s turf.
They likes them some socialist police forces to keep the citizenry from asking inconvenient questions.
I wonder if his arrest falls under breech of contract committed by BCBS to the client? The consumer just got forcibly denied access to information on his own policy. Boy I hope the ACLU looks at this.
Makes you wonder what they’ll do when the peasants start arriving with their torches and pitchforks!
Trespassing
That’s an interesting point. I wonder if that would work.
I do like that the defense council subpoenaed Anthem’s execs. Smart.
That will be an interesting one in court. His own money paid on a policy is held by this company. Essentially, he is an investor since BCBS is a non-profit.
Anthem: “Glory, glory, hallelujah! Protect the status quo!”
Recommended. Strongly.
Just listening to the execs having to explain the 14% increase in rates within the court setting will be quite the moment.
Yeah, I’m truly wondering what they’d say. I can’t for the life of me figure it out.
“Um, I wanted another yacht.”
Prior to the 2008 election, a reporter for the Guardian (Gary Younge) did some remarkable reporting, much of it in Virginia.
In this 4:34 video clip, he explains how many people in the city of Roanoke, VA were being sued by their local hospital for not paying the full, complete balance of their health care bills with the local hospital within 90 days.
This was one of the most extraordinary pieces of reporting that I saw during the 2008 elections.
This is well worth watching, and Younge underscores people’s feeling that they do not have choices – about medical coverage, as well as how people view politics (and racism).
If only — those court hearings are usually closed.
Great link, thanks.
As a (CA) Anthem BC/BS PPO client I suppose I should call them to complain about this, but I haven’t really figured out how to reach them yet (despite being a customer for years) and I’d be sort of afraid of losing my coverage ;-P. That was only half snark.
No “disorderly conduct”?
trespassing – if you are a contract customer conducting business can you be excluded from the business’ property? It seems to me that by being a customer you implicitly have permission to conduct business at the offices of the company.
He’s lucky he didn’t get tazed.
I guess if you’re asked to leave by the company, it can still be trespassing?
Spousal abuse is a pre-existing condition not covered by health insurance. ThinkProgress reports that Caesarean sections are also a pre-existing condition. Most insurance do not cover Maternity care. Why do Insurance companies hate the women and the little babies?
Some more details here.
http://george.loper.org/~georg…..l/988.html
It looks like Anthem wasn’t the people who called the police. It was a passerby, on the basis that they were blocking the sidewalk.
perhaps he can get Wendall Potter as an expert witness…
I’m with the AFL CIO ….I call {{{{BULLSHIT}}}}.
I thought by electing Obama he would pass around those handcuff keys.
I was surprised that Jane didn’t Front Page Mary Mc’s story. And, a little disappointed. It’s a great story. Personal Interest. One of our own.
Not my site. So, who am I to question?
Why is the Democratic Party so gutless, spineless and without principles or convictions? It’s way past time for a 3rd party. Until both corporate parties are destroyed, either from the outside or the inside, the possibility of true transformational reform is impossible. The status quo will not hold and working and middle classes can’t hold on for much longer.
Ah! Then the case will likely “be” about “private property” “rights” and “security and public safety” “concerns”?
This “debate” surrounding “health care” (or its lack) in the US and the behaviors of the monied “interests” is becoming more “interesting” every day.
(Appears to me that “the people” are “noticing”, BTW)
DW
But, then, there are fabulous posters like Christy who sometimes get little support. She posts a wonderfully thought out and written post each and every morning. Sometimes front posted, but, usually few FDL folks there. Go figure. I can’t say why. I’d hate to see this site turn into just a bunch of rants.
Listening to John Lennon’s Strange Days just now. How ’bout that?
Most pecular, Mama!
Now, I’m listening to George Thorogood. I prefer to be by myself. Ha ha, indeed. It’s a good thing I took a day off to work in the yard, ’cause if it was to talk with like-minded folks at the lake, I might have to go find a bottle.
I wonder if he has the nerve to pull a rove/meyers and refuse honoring subpeona
Are you referring to Lennon’s “Nobody Told Me?”
Didn’t think John ever covered the Doors song named “Strange Days.”
No one seems to know the rules of the insurancy industry. If you’ll just take a look, you will see that they are entirely in line with core American values.
http://www.sjtrek.com/trek/rules/
I think part of it is that the new configuration of the Lake can be confusing.
Still, seems like Anthem was refusing to meet with Joe…
Yep, Marcy and TBogg receive a fair number of comments, anything else that isn’t front paged tends to go beggin’.
Yes, you are correct. Sorry.
They are both good. But, was getting off on Strange Days Indeed words.
Anthem, a division of Wellpoint is private
Try this
In The Early Mornin Rain
It’s been new for a while. Nobody likes change. I’ve hard – ha. But, hell, let’s move on, or get lost. I guess.
I Am Not A Brain Surgeon.
Listening to vintage 1964 Stones myself. Back when they were still hungry (and good).:)
No sound card yet on my sort of newish laptop, but I know the song.
What? You want to make me tear up?
Just that way today.
(((Raven)))
Rat and Rav:
Listening to Tom right now. She was an American Girl.
Heya, Demi!
You sound a wee trifle bit frustrated.
Must be something more than the last few comments?
Some larger sense of something, perhaps?
Just curious.
Some days I’m just not in the same (or “related”) “perspective” as others, and I’m more convinced than ever that IT’S UP TO US, as individual flesh and blood beings, to do whatever needs to be done to build viable and sustainable communities, from which to have the support to tackle the larger “more intractable” “it has ever been thus” happy-horse-shit which is squeezing life and hope right out of humanity.
Damn, demi, I apologize for the rant …
What’s really on your mind?
DW
Now you’re just being Petty.
PS, Make No Mistake, when the other laptop comes home, I’ll be listening to that. Thanks, brother.
Going to feed my outdoor critters, birds and squirrels mostly. Keep yer chin up.
You are so fricken’ sensitive…in touch. Only the daughter is getting married in two weeks. Got two part time jobs, both new, lottsa stuff to learn, minimum wage and full of other sinners, er, uh folks who are challenging to deal with. A new girlfriend at the gym, one of the new jobs, has a book she’s going to lend me: Working With You Is Killing Me.
Sorry that it bled into my comments. Called in Well today and worked in the back yard pulling weeds and using the weed wacker. I thought that it might have burned off some of the negative. Oops.
“We strongly support reform that builds a strong, sustainable private-sector health care system” – since when are charities considered part of the private sector?
BCBS is a non-profit, which is to say a charity, under the supervision of the Secretary of State for Virginia. It seems that a powerful attack on them would be to demand an investigation of their executives for improperly profiting off of the management of a charity. How it can be legal for managers of charities to be earning large paychecks is beyond me.
Right you are. I had forgotten all the BCBS organizations lost their non-profit status in 1986-1990’s. And that Anthem is private.
And here is a good history resource on those conversions.
BTW- Thank you for front paging this Jane!
You are not a ranter. Leastways, what I’ve read.
What’s really on my mind?
I spend a lot of energy trying to hear people, totally translating what the sound coming out really means. At work, I mean, so that when I come here for a dip and (off and on during this day) I see a lot of judgement and little (in how I’m hearing) subastance, it just makes me sad. That’s all. People can come here and say anything they want, really. Fuck me *g*
gt
Thank you Klynn- I am at least 15 years out of date!
It should be illegal for for-profit companies to offer insurance of any kind, but that is not the issue at hand.
Scroll and call. Scroll and donate.
Xenos – I was out-of-date too! TarheelDem brought me currrent @ 38!
I thought your scroll and donate comment was for trollers. Looking at the list of comments, yes, scrolling, I hope you don’t think I’m a troll. Or, do you?
No way! Never demi!
My post was preemptive!
I actually enjoyed reading the exchange between you and DWBartoo.
It was amazing — we were having a meeting where I work about how we were getting our benefits cut because the policy cost skyrocketed, and the Blue Shield rep at the meeting would not shut up about how badly the government was going to destroy health insurance. Unashamed pure propaganda, totally bewildering and inappropriate.
First of all, it was obvious that they got our small business to switch to their plan using a reasonable rate, and then jacked the price up once we were switched. After only a year. Real subtle.
This lady would not shut up about how care would be rationed, like it isn’t rationed now based on ability to pay, death panels, like there aren’t death panels now trying to cut loose expensive/sick policyholders, America has the best health care in the world (rah rah go USA), Canadians/French are giving birth/doing self surgery at home/back alleys, etc. Oh yeah socialism.
The thing that got me the most, and I’m not the kind of person who says this lightly — I was looking at her, and listening to her, and I got the rare feeling that this woman is knowingly lying to me. Not this woman has a difference of opinion — I got straight lie from my BS detector. I truly had no animosity for Blue Shield or this lady before the meeting. After the meeting my danger-sense was riled — this is a woman and a company who are liars and trying to take more money than they deserve and do me harm.
The final indignity is that the head of our company is a Limbaugh Republican and agreed with everything she said — oh by the way he’s having to sue because they won’t pay for his gastric bypass surgery to treat his severe diabetes and arthritis. He’s thinking of switching to his wife’s plan.
Whew..had me going there for a minute. Going to nap now. But, hey, the yard looks better. :)
Yea, I have new heros today. Thanks Jason… this totally rocks. Any ideas on how we can help them?
The police should be ashamed of themselves.
Why didn’t he call and make an appointment?
All for show.
I just realized recently that I hadn’t seen anything by Christy in a while. Turns out she wasn’t showing up in my RSS feed. Updated my reader with the RSS feed on her page currently, but it’s not working either. Maybe it’ll get fixed–in the meantime, I’m trying to remember to check in there while I’m on another FDL site to see if there’s anything new.
Most BCBS are private now.
Wouldn’t surprise me one bit if he did.. even if not, he certainly should not have received such treatment, as citizen or customer.
This should be everywhere. We MUST get this video out. People should see what companies do to the people they view as a problem.
Anthem ruined Maine’s state experiment in “public option.” A salutary lesson for those who think that we can “keep the insurance companies honest.”
Direct action is good, though.
Exactly. Just like the doctors who got themselves arrested before the Baucus commitee so that single payer would get covered were front-paged. Oh, wait…
Not to take anything away from direct action!!
I don’t know the accuracy of this by Frank33 “Most insurance do not cover Maternity care.” but such sure underucts the arguments about malpractice reform in Texas and the lack of obstetricians .
I love the part where
As they say on the street, “You may beat the rap, but you won’t beat the ride.” Next step, after acquittal, sue the bastards: Force them into making depositions, determine their total net worth, publish all personal info found from discovery (DOB, SS #, net $$, etc.), and generally, make a big pain in the ass of the corporate officers.
Does this guy need a little financial support for legal expenses?
During Obamafest in Denver last year someone filming the comings and goings of lobbyists at a hotel was arrested for standing on a public sidewalk.
If the info in that link is correct, they never went into the building. The closest they got was hollering through the locked doors. So they were ‘trespassing’ on a public sidewalk? Or possibly in a private parking lot? Surely if there’s no No Trespassing sign OR a clear instruction from the owner to get out, standing in a parking lot isn’t trespassing. And did they have a clear instruction to get out? Apparently not if the guy was following their instructions to call the customer service number as he said in his statement. If he had occupied the building they’d have a case but it sounds really weak to me.
I hope this makes MSNBC media, I am shocked and outraged. I put my life on the line in Vietnam and other conflicts for this? Thanks and Public Option is needed.