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
One Commerce Plaza
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
York
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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