Thursday, June 28, 2007

We Don't Care; We Don't Have To

There's an old Saturday Night Live sketch that features Lilly Tomlin (I believe) as an operator for the telephone company. The basic premise of the sketch is summarized with this motto: "We don't care; we don't have to; we're the phone company." Back in the 1970s, one phone company basically had a monopoly on all phone service throughout the US. The result was terrible customer service and constantly-increasing rates. I've been reminded today of this sketch as I've encountered such an attitude of arrogance from a corporation.
<rant>I just found out that the school's current health insurance provider, Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Kansas is now refusing to allow us to be a "group" as defined by their terms. This callous disregard for the needs of a small business disappointed me greatly. Obviously, BCBS's only real concern is making copious amounts of money, and small groups like ours simply are not profitable enough.
Their policy is disappointing, of course, but what they wanted to do was what reminded of the SNL sketch. It shows the callousness and indifference that BCBS has for its "clinets." BCBS wanted to dump all of us who were covered, effective July 1. Now, they came to this decision only in the last week or so, meaning that I would have had about two weeks to hunt for individual health insurance, something I can't really afford, nor would I have been able to get coverage in that short a time span. Did they care about that? Not at all. Were they breaking state law? Absolutely. Our new chief administrator, by the grace of God, found out that according to Kansas law, BCBS must offer all of us who were covered under the group plan the same plan for 6 months, albeit at the higher, individual rate. BCBS was loathe to admit this, of course, but after some hard work, they finally obeyed the law grudgingly. </rant>
It is most disappointing that a company should choose to act in such a cold-hearted way. I have to remember, though, that God is in control, and there is a reason that He has allowed this to happen. I do not understand it, but I have no choice but to trust Him. I know from past experience that He will provide, and I can't wait to see how He'll provide this time.

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