“Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?”

“That was Groucho’s line, till Blue Cross came along. Now Blue Cross is spending big money on a smooth-as-glass ad campaign to tell us: ‘We can’t guarantee they’ll always be healthy, but we can guarantee they’ll always have coverage.’

“This would be the same Blue Cross which made news a little differently earlier this month, ‘Blue Cross of California agreed Thursday to stop canceling individual health coverage unless it can show policyholder deception – a major shift by the state’s largest health insurer … (Los Angeles Times, 5/11/07).’

‘This would be the same Blue Cross behind a website that cautions us to be careful about health care reform – while many of us have insurance with huge deductibles, insurance that doesn’t pay for medicines we need, insurance premiums we can’t afford, and of course millions of Californians don’t have any insurance at all.

‘We think those millions of Californians know the answer to Groucho’s question: “who are you going to believe?” And if Blue Cross wants to hear that answer, they can give us a call – we’ve got plenty of stories from people who have problems with their health coverage.’