Posted May 20th, 2009 at 10:11AMOne week after the nation’s health insurance lobby pledged to President Obama to do what it can to constrain rising health costs, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina is putting the finishing touches on a public message campaign aimed at killing a key plank in Obama’s reform platform.
As part of what it calls an “informational website,” the company has hired an outside PR company to make a series of videos sounding the alarm about a government-sponsored health insurance option, known as the public plan. Obama has consistently maintained that a government-run plan, absent high-paid executives and the need for profits, could be a more affordable option for Americans who have trouble purchasing private insurance. The industry argues that creating a public insurance program will undermine the marketplace and eventually lead to a single-payer style system.
In three 30-second videos, the insurer paints a picture of a future system in which patients wait months for appointments and can’t choose their own doctors, according to storyboards of the videos obtained by the Washington Post.
One video titled “Waiting” shows a receptionist fielding a request from a patient enrolled in the new program.
“The government plan. Okay hold on…let me see what’s available,” the woman says into the telephone. On the screen, with the caller on hold, the receptionist rearranges items on her desk, looks at a wide- open calendar and then fibs: “It looks like the first time we can fit you in is in two-and-a-half months.”
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I’ve audited several governmental organizations and the scenario the insurance company described isn’t that absurd. When management is not motivated to maintain profitability and efficiency the tone, set at the top, is one of complacency and just plain laziness and that trickles down to every rung of the organization. Compound that with the fact that there is no way this little project of Obama’s won’t be underfunded and you have yourself the recipe for stalled processes, long lines, bitter employees and, well have you ever had cause to visit a social security office?
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Profitability and efficiency should be key points regardless of whether you’re talking private or public. But the emphasis in health care should be the health of the individual, not the profitability of a third party insurance company. And your assumption that those in the public sector are intrinsically less inclined to performed their jobs well falls flat outside of your own personal choir, Brian.
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