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The place where the world comes together in honesty and mirth.
Windmills Tilted, Scared Cows Butchered, Lies Skewered on the Lance of Reality ... or something to that effect.


Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Anatomy of a CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield lie

I decided to attempt to check my CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance policy online last night, to see how much of my prescription drug benefit I still have left (CareFirst only covers $1500 a year in prescription drugs for me, that's it - the same amount they covered in 1999 when I first got the policy, its never gone up, even though my premia have tripled).

So I go on their site to find out how much drug coverage I have remaining for this year, and of course I can't find out because that would be too useful. What I did find, however, was a whopping lie that Blue Cross seems to be using to convince customers that they're getting such a great deal. Here's what I found for my recent purchase of Simvastatin from Costco (for cholesterol):



What the above data is telling me is that I bought 90 pills of Simvastatin, a three month supply, and even though I should have paid $441.37, oh but for the graces of CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield, I only spent $9.99. And BCBS even calculated out how much money I saved by having their oh-so-generous policy - a whopping $438.38 on just this one drug purchase.

Too bad it's a lie.

The reason I only paid $9.99 isn't because Blue Cross got me such a good deal. I paid $9.99 because that's what Costco charges for the drug, no thanks to BCBS. Costco doesn't charge $441.37, which Blue Cross would like you to think. Costco only charges $9.99 for 90 pills. So, actually, Blue Cross didn't save me a dime.

But Blue Cross wants its customers to think that it's doing something wonderful for them. The sooner we tighten the regulations on these pathologic deceivers, the better.

*****
Good Point.

How CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield cheated a woman on her pregnancy

Our six-month-old daughter cost over $22,000.

You’d think, with a number like that, we must have used fertility treatments—but she was conceived naturally. You’d think we went through an adoption agency—but she is a biological child. So surely, we were uninsured.

Nope. Birthing our daughter was so expensive precisely because we were insured, on the individual market. Our insurer, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, sold us exactly the type of flawed policy—riddled with holes and exceptions—that the health care reform bills in Congress should try to do away with. The “maternity” coverage we purchased didn’t cover my labor, delivery, or hospital stay. It was a sham. And so we spent the first months of her life getting the kind of hospital bills and increasingly aggressive calls from hospital administrators that I once believed were only possible without insurance.
*****
Why am I not surprised?!

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What women should know about money

These 10 simple rules of thumb will help you stay in control of your finances.

The right way to freeze foods

The right way to freeze foods

Having a stash of frozen goods can help you eat well and stick to a budget.

Fat-burning ball provides quite a workout

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This unique piece of equipment works the abs and improves balance.

Support for public option is changing

Support for public option is changing

A government option in the health care bill has split Democrats, but the public has a preference.

Revealing polls
Also:

Cheated lottery winner stays hopeful

Cheated lottery winner stays hopeful

Willis Willis may still get a prize after a clerk cashed his $1 million ticket and disappeared.

How?
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Swine flu strikes at schools

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Despite government requests to stay open, hundreds of schools shut their doors.

Busy secretary costs PepsiCo $1.26 billion

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An administrator's mistake leads to a huge judgment against the soda giant.

The Divided States of Health Care Coverage

Where do those without health insurance live?
The Census Bureau sought to find that out, for the first time, in a survey taken last year and released in September.

McDonald's manager dies from being overworked

A McDonald's store manager in Japan died of a brain hemorrhage after being worked to death, labor officials there said.

Full Story

What do you get ...

What do you get when you play New Age music backwards?

New Age music.

Bigfoot hunters turn to rugged West Virginia wilderness

Like West Virginia needs more of a 'looneytunes' reputation than it already has.

A team of Bigfoot enthusiasts is hoping to find the legendary creature in the bogs and barrens of a West Virginia wilderness area.

Bigfoot hunters turn to rugged West Virginia wilderness

Torture makes you seem guilty

A Harvard psych study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology shows that when people are present during torture, they gradually come to believe the torture victim is guilty as a way of assuaging their consciences for their complicity in torture:
Participants in the study met a woman suspected of cheating to win money. The woman was then "tortured" by having her hand immersed in ice water while study participants listened to the session over an intercom. She never confessed to anything, but the more she suffered during the torture, the guiltier she was perceived to be...

"Our research suggests that torture may not uncover guilt so much as lead to its perception," says Gray. "It is as though people who know of the victim's pain must somehow convince themselves that it was a good idea -- and so come to believe that the person who was tortured deserved it."

Not all torture victims appear guilty, however. When participants in the study only listened to a recording of a previous torture session -- rather than taking part as witnesses of ongoing torture -- they saw the victim who expressed more pain as less guilty. Gray explains the different results as arising from different levels of complicity.

"Those who feel complicit with the torture have a need to justify the torture, and so link the victim's pain to blame," says Gray. "On the other hand, those distant from torture have no need to justify it and so can sympathize with the suffering of the victim, linking pain to innocence."

How laundry could slash US carbon emissions

If Americans adopted 17 behavioral changes they could cut US CO2 emissions by over 7 per cent by 2019.

How laundry could slash US carbon emissions

'Superspreading' doctors cause most infections

The dirty hands of doctors and nurses act as germ "superspreaders" of everything from swine flu to hospital superbugs.

Science News

From BBC-Science:

Starfish have a remarkable strategy to avoid overheating in the sun, according to new research.

Rare birds in the UK have been faring far better than their more common counterparts over the last decade

How America was named by this map... and a pun

Curry is a 'cure for cancer'

Scientists have discovered a potential cure for cancer - CURRY.
A molecule located in a spice from the Indian dish was found to kill the diseased cells within 24 HOURS .

Full Story

Massive blast in Pakistan as Clinton visits

Massive blast in Pakistan as Clinton visits

Just hours after Hillary Clinton's arrival, a bomb kills scores of people and topples buildings.

Unusual Holidays and Celebrations

Today is National Chocolates Day.

Daily Almanac

Today is Wednesday, Oct. 28, the 301st day of 2009.

There are 64 days left in the year.

Today In History October 28

Our Readers

Some of our readers today have been in:

Toulouse, Midi-Pyrenees, France
Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
Rennes, Bretagne, France
Rawalpondi, Punjab, India
Cambridge, Ontario, Canada
Welwyn Garden City, England, United Kingdom
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Katowice, Slaskie, Poland
Tallinn, Harjumaa, Estonia
Roermond, Limburg, Netherlands
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Ostrava, Moravskoslezsky Kraj, Czech Republic
Frankfurt, Hessen, Germany
London, England, United kingdom

as well a Denmark, and the United States

Daily Horoscope

Today's horoscope says:

There's nothing like ambiance.
It can make or break a situation -- especially a tender situation that might be leading down an even more tender path.
Keeping that in mind, if you have something special to say to someone tonight, don't do it over fast food.
It doesn't matter if it's a five-star restaurant, or your very own living room, just make it memorable.
And remember, whatever venue you choose, make sure the lighting is right.
You'll be able to manage the rest.

Can do.