Leslie Margolin, Former Blue Cross President, Speaks Out Against Plan To Spike Rates

[laughingliberal]

Leslie Margolin, who recently resigned as president of Anthem Blue Cross in California, is speaking out against a plan put forth by the health insurance company earlier this year to increase the cost of individual coverage plans by as much as 39 percent.

Margolin claims she urged the insurance giant to reconsider its intention to spike its rates and to explore alternative solutions to lower the cost of care, the Los Angeles Times reports.

"I thought the rates were too high," explained the former Blue Cross president. "I thought the impact on our membership was too significant."

But back in February, when Margolin testified before California lawmakers on the plan to boost premiums, the then-Blue Cross executive sang a slightly different tune.

"I will do anything I can do to take costs out of the system," she explained, stopping short of condemning the plan.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/10/leslie-margolin-former-bl_n_677225.html

Could be the next Wendall Potter in the making! Good on her!

[bananas]

1. Is she a professional liberal?

[laughingliberal]

2. ROFL!! Probably the only way she'd get any attention here, today!

I think she's showing great courage & it would be nice to see her acknowledged.

[Sebastian Doyle]

10. I'm sure Bobby the lost Bee Gee will be calling her one soon.

You know... never satisfied with "the most fuckingly awesome health care reform ever" like any sensible woodchuck should be. :eyes:

[PA Democrat]

3. K & R for another FORMER insurance exec. with some basic human decency.

[JohnnyLib2]

4. .A bright light in the darkness.....

:thumbsup:

K & R

[waiting for hope]

5. I have BCBS here in NC and our rates (group plan

through my husband's company) just went up 33 percent ... K&R, we need more like her.

[spoony]

6. K n R for a woman of conscience! nt

[mike r]

7. A company president has the final say

and she was the president.

I smell revisionist bullcrap.

[laughingliberal]

9. Who knows? I'd say, though, the fact she is no longer there would say something.

Not sure the President does always have the last word? Is there both a president and a CEO? A board of directors? Shareholders? Presidents can be ousted and it's possible she was ousted over this.

[Alcibiades]

8. The administration and congressional Dems were punked

by the insurance industry. They worked with them to get the bill they claimed they needed to reduce costs and make healthcare available to more Americans. The individual mandate? That was supposed to work to lower premiums. Now, the insurance industry gets to raise rates even more than they have already been doing, which is saying something, and pass the blame onto healthcare reform.

Where the fuck are all the healthcare economists who thought this bill was such a good idea? And when will Robert Gibbs call these increases crazy, and demand that healthcare CEOs be drug tested?