Providence to Continue Accepting Blue Shield
![Outside the main entrance at Providence St. Joseph Hospital, a Rouge Valley Medical Transport van is stationed, patiently waiting to depart last week. Communications Director Christian Hill said that transfers are limited right now. [Photo by Ryan Hutson]](https://kymkemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/image1-1.jpg)
Outside the main entrance at Providence St. Joseph Hospital. [Photo by Ryan Hutson]
Blue Shield of California is pleased to announce that Providence Health & Services has rescinded their termination notice. Therefore, Blue Shield’s long-standing collaboration with Providence Health & Services will continue under a new contract that is being finalized.
Blue Shield of California is a tax paying, nonprofit health plan that voluntarily caps its net income at 2%. We are actively addressing the challenges of the rising cost of health care, and we negotiate on behalf of our members and clients to achieve our mutual goals of health coverage that is sustainable , affordable and worthy of our family and friends.
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It is outrageous that Medicare is so bad that we need to buy “supplemental insurance” from a company like Blue Shield, which is “for profit”…
Blue Shield also significantly raised their rates, so a couple will pay more than $500/month for this insurance, in addition to over $350/month for the Medicare “B”, automatically deducted from your Social Security “benefit”…
Medicare isn’t free, and it consumes a greater and greater part of your income, as you age…
We hand out money for homeless and indigent, unsupported mothers of dependent children, retired government workers etc, but the largest group od “dependent persons” is being forced to live in poverty…
OH and thanks, Joe Biden, for colluding with Ronald Reagan to make Social Security Benefits “Taxable”… Nice going…
BTW, a couple that does have income from other sources, will be taxed for any amount earned over about $80,000 per year, so your “Savings Account” interest is taxable (if you have any savings), and any money your draw from your “Retirement Account Scam” will also be taxed as regular income… and you are forced, on pain of a stiff fine, to take out 4% of your IRA each year after you turn 73, so get ready for that…
A company the size of Providence, refusing to take insured Seniors, during negotiations with an insurance company, is similarly outrageous, but Providence and every other Medical Industry no matter the size, is forced to operate on what the Insurers will pay, while “writing off” amounts agreed upon…
And therefore, profits are occluded and, taxes avoided, by Corporate America…
They’re still talking about how Social Security will be broke by 2033, which could reduce “benefits” by 21% in just 9 years!
Someone is making good money here, but it isn’t me…
Admittedly paying taxes is painful but then again not having the income to pay taxes on is more painful. And complaining because a percentage of income is taxable when others have to pay taxes on all their income is pretty, well, sketchy.
No complex tax scheme is ever completely “fair” because those paying taxes can always find someone paying less or a percentage less or doing better , etc. And certainly tax legislation is used as the biggest ante in the game of US politics. But to live life feeling so very picked on? That’s poisoning that is self imposed.
People will willingly pay for things that they want. Most people want to live, so health care is a shoo-in for big profits.
I have never paid so much for health care as I do now, but it is really hard for me to complain. Modern medicine has saved my life at least three different times with hardly an inconvenience to me. In the 1800’s I would be dead.
However, one of the reasons that we have a government is to regulate out-of-control healthcare profits. I highly suspect that the one of reasons that we have such wealthy politicians is because some politicians are corrupt and complicit in health care corruptions.
It would seem that common sense could solve the problem, but “common sense” never seems the run for a political office.
They are not elected by people who want common sense. They are elected by people who benefit. Which I suppose is some form of the people showing common sense. A sense of entitlement is certainly common.
Blue Shield of CA is a non-profit corporation. At least, there is that.
I believe Blue Shield is a “Not-for-profit” organization which is a big difference.
So what do we have here? Two “Non-Profits” fighting over a fee for service contract…
Blue Shield was set up in 1939 by the California Medical Association, so that patients would have a middleman to control costs… They still sell a product for a price, and the price is based on fees billed by providers, many of which are for profit, but under fee-for-service agreements…
They have many ways to avoid taxation, in this country, but a top-down reassessment of the exact nature of these corporations should be approached by the government, at least every 50 years…
Medical care should be avoided, if unnecessary, but since people love attention, massive waste and fraud accompanies the operation of providers and hospitals…
You can register as a non-profit, but Providence is really a pyramid scheme, and Blue Shield is really a mechanism for steadying the income of hospitals and providers, and for enriching administrators and hospital CEO’s…
These organizations do not exist to make you healthy, they exist to make money for themselves and their operators…
Health care cost reduction is easy from the top down. Administrative pay and golden parachutes are dragging the system down. Hospital management has little to no effect on patient care. Providence CEO makes millions in pay and benefits. (It’s public information) The budget shortfalls aren’t caused by the housekeeping and maintenance staph. Start saving money from the top down!