Michigan Blues
Tuesday 19 October 2010
by: Michael Moore | MichaelMoore.com | Op-Ed
The Blue Cross, Blue Shield Building in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo: dgphilli / Flickr)
I have a rule of thumb that's served me well my whole life: whenever corporate executives begin talking about how they support "free markets" and "competition," check to see if you still have your wallet.
That's because no one -- not Karl Marx, not Fidel Castro, not your niece who owns the only lemonade stand on the block -- hates competition more than corporations. The whole goal of a corporation is to crush all the competition. When corporate executives start pushing for "free market policies," what they mean is a government that lets them become a monopoly.
Don't believe me? Well, count how many corporate CEOs (and Republican politicians) stand up and cheer for the Obama administration today:
The Justice Department sued Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan on Monday, asserting that the company, the state’s dominant health insurer, had violated antitrust laws and secured a huge competitive advantage by forcing hospitals to charge higher prices to Blue Cross’s rivals.
The civil case appears to have broad implications because many local insurance markets, like those in Michigan, are highly concentrated, and Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans often have the largest shares of those markets. [...]
Blue Cross and Blue Shield, like most insurers, contracts with hospitals, doctors, labs and other providers for services. The lawsuit took direct aim at contract clauses stipulating that no insurance companies could obtain better rates from the providers than Blue Cross. Some of these contract provisions, known as "most favored nation" clauses, require hospitals to charge other insurers a specified percentage more than they charge Blue Cross -- in some cases, 30 to 40 percent more, the lawsuit said.
As the New York Times reports, Blue Cross Blue Shield insures 60% of Michiganders -- including me and everyone in my office. They have nine times more customers than the state's next largest insurer.
And they're just doing what businesses do, even non-profits like Blue Shield: use all their power to eliminate the competition. In fact, if Daniel J. Loepp, Blue Cross's CEO, didn't do that, he'd be kicked out and someone who did would replace him. (I'd hate to see that happen -- he always seems like a real gentlemen when he writes every year to tell us they're hiking our premiums 27%.)
So this is the future we face with health care in the U.S., even with Obama's new bill: endless battles between the federal government and health insurance corporations as the companies use all their ingenuity to give us fewer choices and higher prices...at least until we get President Palin, who'll stop fighting the biggest insurance companies and start helping them kill their competition.
Which she'll do while giving tons of speeches about the need for competition and free markets.
Is there any solution for Michigan? Yes, and it's just across the river in Canada: they have single-payer health insurance. Of course, at this point we pretty much do too. The difference is that our single-payer is run by a corporation. Theirs is run by the government -- or to put it another way, democratically.
P.S. Blue Cross Blue Shield is fantastic at making secret agreements with hospitals, but not so great at actually getting people health care: the U.S. is now ranked 49th worldwide in life expectancy. Look out, French Polynesia, we're coming for you next!
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Comments
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Joe Miller's goons are
Wed, 10/20/2010 - 09:42 — Anonymous (not verified)Joe Miller's goons are coming for you, Mike.
The "don't regulate
Wed, 10/20/2010 - 13:44 — bang (not verified)The "don't regulate anything" crowd continually purport that a free market will regulate itself, that open competition is good and that government regulation- involvement - intervention present obstacles to the natural' sequence of events in capitalism. So if a level playing field is so good for competition and the fostering of capitalist ventures... why do they persist in lobbying for special advantages and laws that enable them to have leverage over competitors?
I truly believe that they
Wed, 10/20/2010 - 13:44 — bang (not verified)I truly believe that they are not capable of competing on even footing, and that they are in fact frightened by the thought of having to do so. They buy favor and then use their leverage to proclaim that they are innovative, progressive, competitive... all the while lumbering ever so slightly in a positive societal direction. Meanwhile, they use that same purchased power to "acquire" really innovative entities in order to REGULATE progress.
'When corporate executives
Wed, 10/20/2010 - 14:07 — Erich Von Freemason (not verified)'When corporate executives start pushing for "free market policies," what they mean is a government that lets them become a monopoly.'
So close, and yet, so far. It was regulations, not the lack thereof, that allowed BCBS to insert "most favored nation" clauses into contracts. Corporations don't push for free markets, they push for regulations. It's easier to let the government cripple your competition than it is to compete.
Yup, the monopoly is the
Wed, 10/20/2010 - 16:48 — AnonymousDV (not verified)Yup, the monopoly is the essence of capitalism and the best way to get one is to be unregulated. Some conservative commentator who's name escapes me once said that capitalism is by far the most efficient economic system on the planet but only when it is practiced by people of the highest integrity.
And speaking of Capitalism,
Wed, 10/20/2010 - 17:38 — Anonymous (not verified)And speaking of Capitalism, we've all heard that Wall Street firms are posting a record year for bonuses and stocks are soaring all while the economy remains stagnant. How can this be except that they are again speculating in highly risky securities but this time with OUR MONEY and secure in the knowledge that they'll be bailed out should some unfortunate event occur that bursts their new bubble. What I want to know is what this new bubble is?
Hussein! For the Amerikan
Wed, 10/20/2010 - 20:54 — Vic Anderson (not verified)Hussein! For the Amerikan halfascist dictatorship which can't even make the trains run on time!
"Look out, French Polynesia,
Thu, 10/21/2010 - 10:30 — Socialist Michigander (not verified)"Look out, French Polynesia, we're coming for you next!"
LOL!
Not usually a fan, Mike, but I liked this one.
Palin and her 'free market'
Thu, 10/21/2010 - 13:11 — Floresta (not verified)Palin and her 'free market' entourage of angry village idiots are apparently completely unaware that they are mere puppets in the corporate takeover in this nation.
Wed, 10/20/2010 - 21:48 —
Thu, 10/21/2010 - 16:05 — Erich Von Freemason (not verified)Wed, 10/20/2010 - 21:48 — AnonymousDV (not verified)
"Yup, the monopoly is the essence of capitalism and the best way to get one is to be unregulated."
Do you have any evidence to back up your claim?
History has proven over and over again that monopolies cannot be sustained in a free-market economy, and that the best way to maintain a monopoly is to get the government to burden (or even outlaw) your competition with expensive regulations.
For example, J.D. Rockefeller single-handedly drove the retail price of kerosene down by 80%, driving almost all of his competition into bankruptcy in the process (he had ~95% of the American market and ~90% of the world's market). By the time the government broke up his "monopoly," foreign competition reduced his share of the oil refining market to 70% (and his control of the U.S. crude oil supply had dropped to only 14%). IOW, the free market, not the government, broke up his monopoly.
Shall we be done with this
Thu, 10/21/2010 - 22:44 — Scott ffolliott (not verified)Shall we be done with this and get on with renewing the public good.
The issue at hand is that of the pubic benefit vs. private profit.
Vic Anderson: you are, of
Sat, 10/23/2010 - 10:07 — Anonymous (not verified)Vic Anderson: you are, of course referring to Bush/Cheney. They got their Rethug Congress lackeys to de-regulate everything and give their base, the haves and have mores, a huge tax cut!
von freemason knownothing!
Sat, 10/23/2010 - 10:09 — Anonymous (not verified)von freemason knownothing! Read a history book. Teddy Roosevelt used the Sherman Anti-Trust Act to break up Standard Oil. Get a clue!
Most health insurance
Sun, 10/24/2010 - 08:38 — Claire F (not verified)Most health insurance choices come up for renewal in November. Make another choice besides BC/BS if you are able; if not, talk to or write to your HR department and CEO about lack of acceptable choices. Complaining on Truthout or any other media is not going to get the word to the decisionmakers. If you have a choice, look for a non-profit HMO or medical foundation. BC was started by some hospitals as a way of guaranteeing payment for services; BC was started by some doctors as a way of guaranteeing their payment. Each state has it's own chapter regulated by state insurance rules; in some states they merged, in other states not.
Every day I fear that my
Sun, 10/24/2010 - 10:04 — wilhelm scream (not verified)Every day I fear that my MAINE-CARE card will be invalid with Paul LePage as governor (he's republican and wants to cut civil rights for gays and atheists like the right wing in congress) I'm on a fixed income and need meds. if the republicans get their way, I'll have no meds and have seizures to give some rich person a tax break that gets away with labor law violations ( like my last employer; never providing me with a lunch break when I worked over 6 hours which is illegal in Maine).
Sat, 10/23/2010 - 15:09 —
Fri, 10/29/2010 - 06:54 — Erich Von Freemason (not verified)Sat, 10/23/2010 - 15:09 — Anonymous (not verified)
"von freemason knownothing! Read a history book. Teddy Roosevelt used the Sherman Anti-Trust Act to break up Standard Oil. Get a clue!"
Yes. I mentioned that in my post. I guess you missed the part where I also mentioned that Rockefeller's near-monopoly was already falling apart by the time the break-up took place. What they broke up was, at best, a FORMER monopoly.
Erich, go play your whiny
Wed, 11/03/2010 - 14:17 — Frances in California (not verified)Erich, go play your whiny song for your rich promulgators; your posts provide nothing to us regular folk.
Wed, 11/03/2010 - 19:17 —
Sun, 11/07/2010 - 20:37 — Erich Von Freemason (not verified)Wed, 11/03/2010 - 19:17 — Frances in California (not verified)
"Erich, go play your whiny song for your rich promulgators; your posts provide nothing to us regular folk."
My rich promulgators? What rich promulgators? People don't have to be paid off to believe in freedom; they have to be paid off to give up their belief in freedom. You've made it very clear that you're being paid off with the hope of the government stealing from others and giving the money to you.
The Buddha said, "All anger is directed at the self." Stop pretending that you're angry with me and look inside.
The great philosopher Laurie Anderson said, "Paradise is exactly like where you are right now... only much, much better." I'll leave it to you to figure out what that means.