Hi Everyone,

I think all of us who tabled at the UHCAN-MN booth at the Pride LGBT
Festival
thought it went successfully. I especially want to thank several
volunteers
who really did amazing ed/outreach and held the booth down against
ferocious winds. They are: Carol Halonen, Carol Perko, Harry
Greenberg, Beth shapiro, Dori Ullman, Wendy Thoren, Danene
Provenchar, joel albers. 60 people signed up for the list serve or
phone tree, and 100s got informational flyers. $30
in donations.

Nearly all MN major HMO insurers, and some national also tabled at
Pride: Blue Cross, UCare, Medica, Cigna. They gave out everything
from tote bags to pens, key chains, the works. Of course they were
there to market themselves and attract enrollees. The fact is though,
their marketing practices amount to organized deception. Unlike us, i
would bet their tablers were paid staff (maybe even overtime), and
the promotional freebees weren't exactly free. On the contrary, we
are paying for it all through our premiums. And marketing is the
second highest administrative cost, only to billing. So what could be
going to health care service, goes to marketing.

Their PR is designed to make the public believe HMO insurers are an
intrinsic part of the health care system, and your best pal. What HMO
insurers do in practice has actually been harmful to people denied
coverage due to HIV or AIDS. But for the GLBT community and hosts of
the festival, the insurers have not been their best friend. I would
assume that there's all kinds of discrimination of lesbian, gay,
bisexual, and transgendered people applying for or experiencing their
policies. Before it had to be outlawed in MN, women were
discriminated against in health insurance policies and probably still
are. Age is still a discriminatory factor in premium rates. It would
be interesting to study this further, to what degree the GLBT
community is restricted or denied coverage, or costs more. so much
for "Our Rights, Your Rights, Human rights, and i would add, health
care rights.

thanks,
joel