I’m Glad We Have Kaiser (for now)

I wonder how much they saved by not having to pay the claims for all these people whose policies were canceled?

Blue Cross of California systematically violates state law when it cancels health insurance policyholders after they get pregnant or sick, making no attempt to determine whether the consumers did anything to merit such harsh treatment, a scathing investigation by state regulators has found.

As a result of its unprecedented investigation, the Department of Managed Health Care today fined Blue Cross $1 million. The department’s findings also expose the company, the state’s largest health insurer, to legal liability in dozens of lawsuits filed by consumers who allege their policies were illegally canceled, subjecting them to substantial hardships.

Other major insurers face similar investigations and are targets of lawsuits over similar charges.

The investigation found that Blue Cross used computer programs and a dedicated department to systematically cancel the policies of pregnant women and the chronically ill regardless of whether they intentionally lied on their applications to cover up pre-existing medical conditions, a standard required by state law for canceling individual policies. Regulators examined 90 randomly selected cases of policy cancellations and found violations in each one.

Hat tip, Kevin.

Why Bush Won’t Be Impeached

I posted a somewhat shorter version of these thoughts on a private web board tonight, then decided I might as well expand my thoughts into a blog post. It’s in response to an ongoing discussion of when, if ever, the Congress will impeach President Bush:

I’m quite sure that even some Republicans heartily wish Bush were out of office, although probably not for the same reasons as we Democrats. Even so, that doesn’t increase the likelihood of impeachment.

It feels really good to say “Impeach him!” and visualize the humiliating trial and spectacle that Bush deserves. Hell, I’d love to see it too. I’d love to see Cheney go down, and Rove led away in handcuffs, and all of these assclowns get the punishment they so richly deserve. Don’t think that because I disagree with [the people waiting impatiently for impeachment] that I don’t want those things too.

But this is real life, and real life is very, very rarely that neat and clean. If I’ve learned anything in my years on this planet, I’ve learned that human beings are drawn to the extremes. We love drama, we love showdowns, we love big, exciting finishes. We love vengeance and payback and bad people getting what they deserve. And in situations like this one, we want to think that that’s what we’re going to get. We want it so badly we convince ourselves that it’s the only possible course of action.

The other side of the coin is that inertia is a powerful motivator too. People are very much in love with the status quo, and they deeply fear change. There’s also that fact that despite all the crap that this administration does, we still have a country to run, and only so may hours in the day to get things done. Is payback for past offenses more important that that? Not everyone thinks so. After all, Bush is termed out, and there’s less than 2 years to go until Election Day 2008. Perhaps it would be better to just get through these next two years as best we can, minimize the damage as much as possible, and then move on with some other President.

The end result of any event is hardly ever as good or as bad as people predict. Usually, what you get is something that’s more nuanced, more towards the middle of the possible range of results. What does that mean for the current Gonzales / Rove / US Attorney scandal? I don’t know, but I strongly suspect that what will happen will end up looking a lot more like the Libbey trial than like the Nixon impeachment.