--- On Mon, 5/12/08, No Privatization <noprivatization@...> wrote:

> From: No Privatization <noprivatization@...>
> Subject: Fw: Letters from our 5/12 Action
> To:
> Date: Monday, May 12, 2008, 9:45 PM
> --- On Tue, 5/13/08, No Privatization
> <noprivatization@...> wrote:
> From: No Privatization <noprivatization@...>
> Subject: Letters from our 5/12 Action
> To: "No Privatization"
> <noprivatization@...>
> Date: Tuesday, May 13, 2008, 1:26 AM
>
> Listed below are some of the letters collected from our
> 5/12 phone-in/email-in to Save our Health care. Truly
> inspirational!
>
> Peace,
> Billy
>
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>
>
> I have been a client of HIP
> and QLIMG for the last 18 years. I still think that HIP and
> GHI merger will be
> detrimental to the health and purse of all insured with the
> companies. The
> whole gimmick has been concocted by Mr. Anthony Watkins and
> his counterpart in
> GHI. Watkins will lower himself to any level to satisfy his
> personal greed.
>
>
>
> For the sake of the NY residents please do not allow the
> merger!!
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> I received notice of your demonstration on Friday, 5/9,
> through the HealthCare-Now list. Although I could not have
> gone even
> without the rain, I did want to follow up as I'm
> interested in the issue. I
> worked for the City in the late 1960's, and have been a
> HIP member since about
> that time, mostly on an individual basis as I was
> self-employed. I
> believed in its principles and its model as a health
> provider.
>
>
>
> Now that I am retired and on Medicare, I continued my HIP
> coverage, but am very upset about its plan to become a
> 'private' provider.
> In the last few years, HIP has acquired more
> corporate-type and
> mainstream medical practices, such as requiring members to
> travel to various
> locations to receive what had been routine procedures. In
> doing so, it
> has lost some of my loyalty.
>
>
>
> Going 'private' can only mean more of the
> same--skimpier and
> dispersed services, higher charges, overloaded medical
> staff, etc.
>
>
>
> So, can you please let me know what your plans are to fight
> this move? Thanks for any information on future actions,
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> MAY 12, 2008
>
> TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN
>
>
>
> I AM AGAINST THE PRIVATIZATION OF GHI OR HIP
>
>
>
>
>
>
> AS A RETIREE OF THE QPLB IT WILL ONLY HURT NOT HELP
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Superintendent Dinallo,
>
>
>
> I write to you today to request that you deny the
> application for conversion to
> for-profit status filed by GHI & HIP. For more than sixty
> years,
> these companies have provided New Yorkers with low-cost
> quality health
> care. GHI & HIP's non-profit status has shielded more
> than 4
> million residents from the worst effects of the national
> health care
> crisis. Removing this safeguard could trigger an even
> greater
> health care crisis in NY State.
>
>
>
> I participated in the January 29th hearing you organized at
> the HIP office in
> Downtown Manhattan. The criteria your department set out
> for justifying
> the conversion - namely that GHI & HIP prove that it is
> made in the public
> interest - seems sound. Clearly, they fell far short of
> this goal and
> near the end of the hearing, Anthony Watson the CEO of HIP
> was evasive and, at
> times, downright hostile to your assistant Kermit Brooks.
> Further,
> it is my understanding that no independent impact analysis
> has been
> conducted. Finally, I learned that Mr. Watson, after
> testifying on
> January 29th that HIP was cash-strapped, has just boosted
> his annual salary by
> some $2 million dollars.
>
>
>
> Clearly there are sound reasons why similar applications
> have been rejected in
> several other states since 2001. Slowly but surely,
> Americans are coming
> to grips with the real human costs of for-profit health
> care. My hope is
> that sooner rather than later this will lead to a
> single-payer national health
> care plan. Until then, it is the duty of citizens and
> elected officials
> to protect whatever is left of the non-profit health care
> sector. To do
> otherwise would be to recklessly endanger the lives of 4
> million New Yorkers.
>
>
>
> I hope that you are able to find the courage to defend the
> long-term interests
> of the people of this fine state and not succumb to the
> temptation offered by
> the short-term influx of cash which conversion would
> provide. Think
> of how you will be viewed when the history of for-profit
> health care is
> written. You can either be the person who assisted in the
> elimination of
> 60 years of health care safeguards or the one who said no
> to private profits
> and yes to the formation of a human-centered health care
> system. Thank
> you for your time.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> NO more
> privatization of health care.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Dear Superintendent Dinallo'
>
>
>
> I am writing to express my opposition to the conversion
> plan for GHI &
> HIP. I feel it is important that this application for
> conversion be
> rejects and that you develop a plan for reforming GHI & HIP
> while keeping
> the companies non-profit.
>
>
>
> Conversion would remove the non-profit safeguards such as
> a cap of 15% of
> the budget that can be spent on administration and
> oversight of premium
> increases. Also I am concerned about tiering of policy
> holders which would limit access to care.
>
>
>
> We need to pass a single payer insurance bill such as HR
> 676 which would end
> the GHI & HIP debate.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Dear NY State Insurance Dept. of Public Affairs,
>
>
>
> I am writing to urge you to deny the privitization
> plan for GHI and HIP. If these insurance companies are
> allowed to go
> private, there will be a new profit incentive for them to
> begin denying
> coverage for medical treatments even more often than they
> currently do.
> An independent impact analysis of this plan is urgently
> needed, and I
> believe it would show that this plan would prove harmful
> both for the city and
> for its citizens. Please say no to this plan.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> I ask you
> not to go forward with the privatization plan of GHI & HIP.
> As a health
> professional and former nurse faculty member of CUNY I have
> received services
> from both health plans. I also have witnessed the hardship
> and suffering of
> patients whose claims were denied by private insurance
> companies.Clearly
> at a time when we are learning about the abuses and
> indefensible profits of
> private insurance this is the wrong way to go.
>
> I see what
> the privatizating provisions of Medicare ( Medical
> Advantage, Part D
> Prescription) are doing. My premiums go up as the private
> insurance
> industry and drug companies enjoy record profits and
> special treatment.
> Don't do this to GHI and HIP.
>
> Why is this
> "conversion" being considered? Who would benefit
> beside the private
> insurance industry? Why now at a time of recession? It is
> wrong and
> makes no sense. Don't do it. Don't do it.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Eric Dinallo
>
> NY State Superintendent of Insurance
>
>
>
>
>
> Mr, Dinallo,
>
>
>
> I oppose the "conversion plan" for GHI/HIP and
> ask you to stop this
> from happening.
>
>
>
> The merger of GHI & HIP would mean that 93% of city workers
> would be in one
> plan and that a 1% increase in premiums would cost the city
> $27.5
> million; Such an increase would lead to highly contentious
> bargaining
> with TWU, UFT and D.C. 37 as City Hall attempts to increase
> health care
> concessions.
>
>
>
> There are many concerned residents who feel the same.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Honorable Eric R. Dinallo
>
> New York State
> Superintendent of Insurance
>
> One Commerce Plaza
>
> Albany, NY , 12257
>
>
>
> Dear Supertindent Dinallo,
>
>
>
> Please do not allow the GHI/HIP Conversion Plan to happen!
>
>
>
> How would a conversion from non-profit to for profit
> benefit the people of New
>
> York ? In the current economic climate, which
> will take years and possibly
>
> decades to recover from, such a conversion would be
> devastating. As a
> direct
>
> pay member whose current monthly premium is higher than our
> rent, our family
>
> would not be able to afford health insurance at all. I was
> diagnosed with
> cancer
>
> last year and need to be able to continue have health
> insurance.
>
>
>
> If this conversion is allowed to occur, the
> "longstanding primary mission
> to
>
> serve the health coverage needs of New Yorkers" will
> be replaced by the
> primary
>
> need to increase shareholder value.
>
>
>
> GHI and HIP were created to provide access to health care
> for working class
>
> Americans. Well, we working class Americans are still here
> and we still
> need
>
> accessible affordable health care!
>
>
>
> Thank you for your consideration.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> I am writing to express my frustration over the GHI/HIP
> conversion.
>
>
>
> 93% of NYC employees in one privately operated insurance
> plan is UNSUSTAINABLE! Of course they will raise premiums
> sooner or later
> (probably sooner!). And there are no plans for rate
> hearings! Furthermore, no
> safeguards will keep this slippery slope from eventual
> landslide. Private
> Health Insurance Must Go!
>
>
>
> The FOR-PROFIT insurance industry is a huge
> problem in the provision of healthcare in this country.
> Worst offense:
> profiting by denying care!!! It happens all the time.
> There is no reason
> to expect GHI/HIP to behave differently if they become
> privatized.
>
>
>
> I earnestly request that Superintendent Dinallo reject the
> conversion proposal for GHI/HIP.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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>
>
>
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