Monday, October 6, 2014

They're baaaack! More on fake anti-consumer ads

Those of you who have been around the block a time or two will remember those "Harry and Louise" ads which were so effective in causing the Clinton-era health reforms to tank. Well, meet "Ana and George", a supposedly small business-owning couple who worry that if Proposition 45 passes, it will take away the power of the "Independent Commission" to set health insurance rates for Californians, and give it to a politician, who can take millions in special interest money. And that's why they're voting against Proposition 45.

Well, that would be a bad thing, if one word of it were true. It isn't. Ana and George are simply Harry and Louise reincarnated. And according to Consumer Watchdog, a creation of the same ad man, Rick Clausen, who gave us Harry and Louise in the first place. And Rick Clausen appears to be a puppet of the insurance industry, which has to date spent $37.5 million to defeat Proposition 45.

So Ana and George are not real small business people. What about the independent commission they lament is being sabotaged by that dastardly politician? There is no such animal. What there is is the Covered California board, a board appointed by politicians, (many of whom in fact, take millions themselves from insurance companies). And Covered California has no power to regulate rates. All they can do is implement the Affordable Care Act.

Oh, and that corrupt politician? He's Dave Jones, the Insurance Commission elected by the people of the State. And he takes not one dime from any insurance company or their minions.

So far, the law does not allow him to regulate health insurance rates the way it does auto and home insurance rates. What he'd like to do is put the brakes on runaway health insurance rates,  just like Commissioners do in 35 other states.

We passed Proposition 103 regulating car insurance rates in 1988. Now we need to pass Proposition 45, to put the brakes on Insurance rates!

Yes on 45 spot with real nurses here.

No on Prop 45 with fake Ana and George here.

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