Tuesday, April 27, 2010

NM BCBS Raises Rates on Consumers One Hour Before Public Meeting: 24% HIKE in Rates

NM Blue Cross Hikes Premiums Before Public HearingPosted:

April 27, 2010SANTA FE, N.M. --

Blue Cross and Blue Shield and the New Mexico insurance superintendent have signed off on a rate hike on insurance premiums, less than an hour before a state Public Regulation Commission hearing to hear opposition to the plan.Public Regulation Commissioner Jason Marks calls Monday's agreement a back room deal announced before the public had a chance to comment.

The hearing was called after a 24 percent increase in Blue Cross and Blue Shield premiums in December.

The revised rates allow the company to raise premiums by an average of 21 percent.A spokeswoman says that will affect 40,000 New Mexico customers.Read more: http://www.kfoxtv.com/news/23279227/detail.html

Monday, April 26, 2010

NC 2010-2011: $500 MILLION Unanticipated Medicaid Growth: We Don't Need No Stinkin' Public Option

Amazing figures in the just published NC Justice Center, BTC Reports, Volume 16 No1 April 2010.

Naw: we don't need no Public Option when it comes to health insurance for $500,000,000 'unanticipated budget pressure' as associated with people going onto the Medicaid roster is surely no indication that people have health insurance that they can afford (or even obtain).

page 7 : http://www.ncjustice.org/?q=node/474

Projected FY 2010-11 General Fund Budget Gap

Anticipated Budget Pressures

Unanticipated Medicaid growth $500,000,000
Unanticipated Community College Enrollment growth $85,000,000

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Also, as associated w/ Community Suport Services (Mental Health: NC DHHS) in NC, they had this to say:

".....Cuts to programs that fall under the Health and Human Services (HHS) portion of the budget have also impacted individuals and communities. The deepest outright cuts to HHS programs were to community support services for people with mental illness and substance abuse issues and to personal care services that help individuals with medical conditions to remain in their homes and out of institutional settings. The mental health association of North Carolina estimates that 10,000 to 15,000 individuals currently need community support services but are unable to access them to due to funding constraints. ..."
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The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (film)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Treasure_of_the_Sierra_Madre_(film)



"....The bandits then reappear, pretending, very crudely, to be Federales, which leads to the now-iconic line about not needing to show any "stinking badges". After a gunfight, and the fourth American is killed, a real troop of Federales appear and drive the bandits away.,,,"