I am not a cheerleader for Republicans. The fact is this looks bad to most Americans. You can either acknowledge this fact, or keep your heads in the sand. Having lavish retreats while you raise rates nearly 40% is not the right thing to do, no matter how you look at it.
And if you think WS execs deserved million dollar bonuses while they tanked their companies and then the economy, let’s just agree to disagree.
“I am not a cheerleader for Republicans. The fact is this looks bad to most Americans. You can either acknowledge this fact, or keep your heads in the sand. Having lavish retreats while you raise rates nearly 40% is not the right thing to do, no matter how you look at it.
And if you think WS execs deserved million dollar bonuses while they tanked their companies and then the economy, let’s just agree to disagree.”
Agreeing to disagree is fine however it’s best we have the same set of facts. This is not about Wall Street bonuses or lavish retreats. This is about base salaries of executives in a huge company. Here in CA where Anthem Blue Cross is a subsidiary, a 1 million dollar salary is not unusual. Sorry but that’s the simple truth. Second, these are not lavish retreats for executives. These are sales conferences/rewards for the foot soldiers out selling their policies. If you sell enough you get a free trip. If they don’t offer these, the agents will sell Blue Shield or Health Net. It’s good business pure and simple.
I have already written to and recieved a response from their media dept re the inappropriate timing of the rate increase but let’s not confuse that with the current story. The media and left is lying and misrepresenting the facts. If you let them walk all over a legitimate business endeavor, where do we draw the line.
With respect to the increase in rates, they are only allowed to increase the rates once every 12 months. That means if they passed this opportunity they would take it in the shorts for 12 months. I would have preferred they operate at a loss for 12 months to avoid loading the gun as it were but I see their problem. If they pass on this increase, do they increase it double in 12 months? Most of the insured can always switch to one of the non profit carriers...except Anthem tends to be the most competitive along with Kaiser. How do you respond to their rates being below a non profit like Blue Shield over any measurable period? They are a very efficiently run company and their profit margin is far less than people expect. The article is misleading in every facet.