1. Obama may have lied about conversations with convicted fraudster Tony Rezko
Blagojevich’s lawyers allege that Rezko admitted breaking the law by contributing “a large sum of cash” to a public official. Blagojevich’s attorneys say that public official is Obama. Obama said that Rezko never relayed a request from a lobbyist to hold a fundraiser in favor of favorable legislative action. But the point may be moot: regardless of Obama talking/not talking to Rezko, Blagojevich’s attorneys say that Obama refused the request regardless.
Why would WellPoint work to improve health care for women with breast cancer while automatically investigating every single woman diagnosed with breast cancer for possible cancellation of their policies? Remember this new “it” word, recission.
Noun
1.
recission – (law) the act of rescinding; the cancellation of a contract and the return of the parties to the positions they would have had if the contract had not been made; “recission may be brought about by decree or by mutual consent”
Before they fell ill, none had any problems with their insurance. Initially, they believed their policies had been canceled by mistake.
They had no idea that WellPoint was using a computer algorithm that automatically targeted them and every other policyholder recently diagnosed with breast cancer. The software triggered an immediate fraud investigation, as the company searched for some pretext to drop their policies, according to government regulators and investigators.
Once the women were singled out, they say, the insurer then canceled their policies based on either erroneous or flimsy information. WellPoint declined to comment on the women’s specific cases without a signed waiver from them, citing privacy laws.
But WellPoint also has specifically targeted women with breast cancer for aggressive investigation with the intent to cancel their policies, federal investigators told Reuters. The revelation is especially striking for a company whose CEO and president, Angela Braly, has earned plaudits for how her company improved the medical care and treatment of other policyholders with breast cancer.
The disclosures come to light after a recent investigation by Reuters showed that another health insurance company, Assurant Health, similarly targeted HIV-positive policyholders for rescission.
Oh yes, the answer is $$$$$$. Lots of it.
The investigation last year by the House Energy and Commerce Committee determined that WellPoint and two of the nation’s other largest insurance companies — UnitedHealth Group Inc and Assurant Health, part of Assurant Inc — made at least $300 million by improperly rescinding more than 19,000 policyholders over one five-year period.
WellPoint itself profited by more than $128 million from the practice, and the committee suggested that the figure might be largely understated because the company refused to provide information about cancellations by several subsidiaries.
Cost to the insured/patient…their life. I think stress in this case is just as bad as the disease. (more…)
I’d say that this is spot on. USER in Chief silences gay protesters. Regardless of where you sit on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, you can certainly see the hypocrisy in all of this, right? Read on…Petrelis Files gets it right.
Then there is the same silence from the orgs regarding the arrest today of six gay military personnel, both veteran and current active, at the fence of the White House. Click here for some mainstream news coverage, and here for blogosphere coverage.
Here we have two glorious activist zaps, on both coasts, pushing the envelope to have our supposed fierce advocate and friend in the White House make good on his various promises to our community, made when he was campaigning for the Oval Office, and neitherGLAAD, HRC nor NGLTF can be bothered to issue statements on the action. Yet not a single word, as of 3:30 pm SF time as I write this, from GLAAD, HRC, or NGLTF on their respective web sites about zaps.
However, all three orgs today distributed statements mourning the death of African American pioneer and civil rights and women’s advocate Dorothy Height, who also supported the gay rights struggle for equality. Check out the releases from GLAAD, HRC, and NGLTF noting the passing of Height.
Monthly performance chart by weekly buckets Year To Date.
We dare ask: where is this alleged sustainable improvement since the beginning of the year?
To be sure, the last bucket includes just Weeks 13-15, so one more week will be required for an apples to apples 4 week bucket. For the last bucket to be merely flat (0.0% change), the current week will need to generate $33.1 billion in tax withholdings, a 19% increase over the $26.8 billion withheld in the year ago period. We will update this chart once this week’s data is released. We are not anticipating a 19% increase in weekly withholdings.
Hager – a teacher by trade whom NBC hired last year as an occasional “Today” contributor – thanked Clinton for engaging in the “rarity” of “a Bush interviewing a Clinton.” Clinton joked in response: “I was thinking, you know, if your family fed in questions I’d be cooked.”
“No, no. They love you,” said Hager. “In fact, they joke that you’re my grandfather’s stepson … because he talks about you more than he talks about anyone else in the family.”
This, Clinton noted, would probably make him the “black sheep” in the Bush family.
