A big congratulations is in order to hissyspit and fellow travelers who received mailers from Blue Cross asking for help in telling Kay Hagan to "oppose government run health insurance" and used the cards to send their own messages.
Apparently, it worked: NC insurer says timing of mailings unfortunate
Excerpts and commentary over the jump...
I love it when a grassroots action item makes the big time. From Associated Press:
RALEIGH, N.C. — Even Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina acknowledges that its timing on two recent mailings was unfortunate.
The News&Observer of Raleigh reported that customers first learned their rates will rise by an average of 11 percent next year.
Then they got a flier urging them to send an enclosed preprinted, postage-paid note to Sen. Kay Hagan denouncing what the company says is unfair competition..
Yesterday, I read the diary Subvert Your Blue Cross NC Anti-HC Reform Postcard To Sen. Hagan, which suggested using the card to send your own message. I thought that was a brilliant plan, and wondered what would happen...
Indignant Blue Cross customers, complaining that their premium dollars are funding the campaign, have called Hagan's office to voice support for a public option. They've marked through the Blue Cross message on their postcards and changed it to show they support the public option, then mailed the cards.
Way to go, North Carolina! You rock!
And from BC/BS:
Blue Cross spokesman Lew Borman said the mailing relied on voter registration records, not a customer list. Since the company controls more than half of the state's health insurance market, the names on the lists overlapped.
He declined to reveal how much money the insurer paid for the mailing.
I won't venture a guess as to how much they paid, but let me see if I can think of a better use for the money. Hmmm...maybe they could use it to, oh, I don't know, how about using it to PAY CLAIMS???