This is Round 27 in our Worst Company in America contest, Blue Cross Blue Shield vs CNN. Vote which sucks more, inside…
Here’s what our readers said when they nominated these two companies:
Blue Cross Blue Shield:
“operate on “screw the customer” as their guiding principle. “
“for sending out those letters to get Dr.’s to rat out any patients that they think might have had a pre-existing condition when they signed up, no matter how long it’s been since they signed up, and then lying about it in a press release. I won’t even touch on their capricious rate increases and cancellations of the past.”
“They have made an art of denying claims and coverage to people with valid claims. “
CNN: The commenter who nominated CNN did so in the following nomination comment: “Blackwater, Halliburton, Exxon, Diebold, Fox, CNN and the NY Times.” I think you can figure out from the context why CNN is on this person’s shitlist.
This is a post in our Worst Company In America 2008 series. The companies nominated for this honor were chosen by you, the readers. Keep track of all the goings on at consumerist.com/tag/worst-company-in-america/
STILL OPEN FOR VOTING:
Gamestop vs Monster Cable, Bank Of America vs Toys R’ Us
Toshiba vs Microsoft
US Airways vs Washington Mutual
American Airlines vs Blockbuster
Time Warner Cable vs Radioshack
Wellpoint vs Charter Cable
Dell vs Home Depot
Sears vs Citibank
Wal-Mart vs TJMaxx
Mattel vs ATT
Capital One vs Video Professor
eBay/Paypal vs COX
Apple vs SallieMae
Diebold Vs Pfizer
MTV vs TransUnion
CompUSA vs DirecTV
Target vs Best Buy
Allstate vs Verizon
DeBeers vs 1800 flowers
Starbucks vs United Airlines
Exxon vs Crocs
Google Vs Sony
Ticketmaster vs Wachovia
Facebook vs The American Arbitration Association
Comcast vs Menu Foods
(Photo: Getty)
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@truthie: Well that sounds like a better tone out of you. You were sounding like a BCBS PR rep there. When I worked for the State of California while I was living in Chicago I had either BC or BS of California. The admin people at my doctor’s offices were often impressed with their coverage and impressed by their high limits on coverage. Now that was over a decade ago and things may have changed.
But of course I was with the state government as well which we all know they usually get really good benefits and would be in a very large group plan due to the volume of employees they’d have to cover so they are little more sensitive to their subscribers needs. I’d suspect that small firms like my current employee would not have the same level of service a huge state government would have.
Most BCBS companies are not-for-profit (not same as non-profit). They aren’t as evil as some of the other BCBS companies out there. They should really not lump all of them in with each other. When your claim is denied, it isn’t denied by BCBS, its denied by the local insurance group. The only reason they share the same brand is so that I can go from one location to another and still stay “in-network”.
company that tries to deny you coverage, possibly putting your life at risk VS poor news coverage.
life vs news
really hard choice there consumerist.
I don’t really have a beef with either. This is the first time I abstain. (Is that the right word?)
@Bladefist: And masochists.
@Bladefist: Y’know, in a way I respect Fox News. They are kind of honest about being pro-corporate fascists. CNN and the networks are a bit more covert about being the same, to the point that a lot of suckers actually believe they are “liberal”.
There are no good health insurance companies.
To everyone complaining that Blue Cross Blue Shield is run by several separate entities – I would be completely willing to vote against “health insurance companies” rather than specifically Blue Cross.
@johnva: being pro-corporate means being pro-you, pro-citizens making a living for themselves, and making innovation. If thats fascism, then I accept that term.
If you think CNN is not liberal, then you need help. Go watch the republican debate on CNN. The fact that you think that, makes me want to pull my hair out.
@johnva: What part of “Fair and Balanced” comes off as honest to you?
The problem is that BC/BS is not a single company. Some are better than others. Who is the head of BC/BS that even get any meaning out of this? And what the hell do I care about CNN?
CNN may tell me I’m screwed, but The insurance company can actually screw me.
this is not a good match up. the two don’t have a common “piss off” factor, like best buy vs. walmart or something.
@Bladefist: Just because they’re not as right-wing as Fox does not mean they’re not right-wing. If they were not right-wing they would have destroyed this Administration by now, just like the press did to Nixon. CNN is conservative and pro-establishment in any objective sense of the word. Don’t confuse their occasional show of messing with Republicans with their overall agenda. They have been cheerleaders for the warmongers too, and to understand why, you just need to follow the money. Defense contractors and oil companies profit from war. They “win” even if we all lose.
@youbastid: Oh, I don’t mean they’re honest in the sense that they “tell the truth”. They’re just “honest” in the sense that everyone understands what their real agenda is. CNN, not so much.
This is a no brainer. As I’ve posted before, health insurance companies take 40-45% of every dollar WE give them and pocket it as pure profit. Consumers have GOT to wise up to what’s going on and demand their representatives do something about it NOW. Health insurance is something that should not be allowed to operate in a ‘free market’ fashion – health care is something that should be inviolate, highly ethically bound. MDs are supposed to abide by high high ethical standards, so should health insurance, pharmaceuticals, biotech, and hospitals. This is a very fixable problem – one that the f$#@ing politician piece of feces are great at pointing OUT to us, but are useless in coming up with a viable solution. (like so many other failed governmental policies such as the ‘war on drugs’, the penal system, the social welfare system, etc.)
this is why i get my news from the onion!
Anderson Cooper is good and I used to watch a lot of CNN so I voted Blue Cross BS.
All your votes are belong to us
@Bladefist: They’re bad, sure. But not Fox News bad. I mean, come on. Since when does cleavage trump reporting talent? Since 1996 when Fox News put T&A into ALL of their content. How do you sell right-wing bullshit that’s been discredited for decades? Have some blonde airhead with big fake tits say it. CNN still gets the ‘evil’ award because they at least APPEAR to be a legitimate news organization.
CNN is so blown out of the water on this one, there isn’t even floatasim left over. Lets see a news agency that sometimes puts it’s own spin on things or an insurance company that bails out on you when you most need them. No contest.
@johnva: Paranoid much?
CNN, because I prefer to get my news free of some snobby news anchor looking down their nose and saying, “ew, we have to actually report the facts instead of making them up?”
This is another bad matchup. Should have been CNN vs. Monster Cable.
@Bladefist: Not paranoid, just reflecting the reality of how decisions get made in this country.
@lilkeith7: I personally either use BBC or i just surf the Net. Digg is also fun, i don’t know if it’s NEWS in the same sense that BBC is news but it’s pretty funny.
Blue Cross Blue Shield hands down. CNN can’t hold you hostage when your life hangs in the balance. And BC/BS was in it up to their eyeballs (late 1960s) when health insurers were theorizing how to convert their product from a function of the free market into a commoditized necessity shifting costs from what consumers were willing to pay in a competitive pricing environment to the five stage process of creating socialized healthcare which guarantees their profits. They suck beyond all comprehension. Further I cannot say without risking banishment.
CNN are just lip gloss and hair spray swine bellying up to the hog trough of PR fax blasts and calling it news.
@bjcolby15: Umm, you do realize that you just confessed to preferring watching news networks that just make sh*t up, right?
Lemme guess… Fox?
And if you think that O’Reilly isn’t a multimillionaire elitist snickering condescendingly at you guys once the cameras are switched off, I pity you.
@Corydon: Ditto!!!
CNN used to be the “Walter Cronkite” of news integrity. Now it’s no better than Fox and MSNBC for biased, sensationalized reporting.
I think people are so sick of entertainment-focused news that if a network went back to old school hard-hitting reporting with honest to goodness stories without the Hollywood grabbing headlines, it would sweep ratings.
I often watch BBC news because it’s the only place I can watch news without tarted up female newscasters, sensationalized stories, political bickering mixed in.
Health insurance companies are murdering swine whose practice of denying services ultimately kills people.
BCBS by a mile. CNN hasn’t resulted in the deaths of anyone so far as I can tell.
It gives me great joy to vote for BCBS.
Yes, I know they’re separate companies…that just happen to have the same name. But the fact is:
BCBS of GA = SUCK
BCBS of CA = SUCK
Epic failure to actually provide the insurance you pay for makes you worse than CNN, BCBS.
This is one of the worst (if not the worst) “company” designations in the vote-off. As many have already said, “BlueCross BlueShield” isn’t a nationwide company. Each state is different, some are for-profit, some are not-for-profit, the only thing they have in common is that they license the BCBS trademarks. If BCBS of Rhode Island denied your claim, BCBS of Oklahoma had nothing to do with it.
Having BCBS in there is more like “worst brand in America” – not “worst company.”
@banmojo: How can a not-for-profit insurance company make a profit?
So… difficult… to chose… Consulting the comments…
@jswilson64: Exactly. My particular flavor of Blue Cross cannot deny you coverage for pre-existing conditions. Ever. It’s in the agreement.
This particular version is a good company, that’s why I chose them. I’m sure they have their faults, but honestly, Blue Cross =/= the same thing every time.
Blue Cross Blue Shield just dropped my 85 year old grandparents with no warning. Oh yeah, my grandmother just was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Coincidence? What a bag of flaming @*&%#s!
Anthem BXBS turned me down for individual coverage because I had cancer six years ago, and take an anti-cancer med. They told me to feel free to reapply once I’ve been “sign, symptom and treatment-free” for 15 years. My oncologist says the anti-cancer med I take is considered “treatment.” So in order to get Anthem to cover me, I would have to go off the drug that keeps me from getting cancer…for 15 years.
Does that make sense to you?
My consolation in all of this is that I expect Anthem BXBS to be gone in 15 years. And I’ll still be here.
Any health company that tries to screw their own customers in a proactive way deserves to burn in hell.