Courage Campaign
October 2, 2011
Last week, Kaiser, a publicly subsidized healthcare provider that pays no taxes, quietly announced that it's rolling back its outrageous 10.7% rate hike on 300,000 Californians to 9.5%.
That may not sound like much, but it amounts to at least $13 million that struggling Californians can keep for their families instead of handing over to multimillionaire Kaiser executives.
Why did they do it? Because you made them. It's a victory, but we can't stop here.
Thousands of Courage Campaign members stepped up, emailed Kaiser's CEO, and told him they oppose raising rates on employees of small businesses and non-profits at a time of record profits for Kaiser. Along with our friends at the National Union of Healthcare Workers, we wrote to Governor Brown, asking him to instruct the Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) to examine Kaiser's rate hike to see if it was justified.
That's exactly what the DMHC did, and Kaiser is trying to do damage control by reducing its rate increase on hundreds of thousands of people. This is what can happen when we stick together and raise our voices.
We've got to keep pushing them. We won't rest until Kaiser's rates are subject to sensible regulation. Please support our ongoing efforts to stop obscene rate increases for Californians with legislation like AB 52.
Kaiser made $1.6 billion in profits in the first half of 2011 without paying a dime in taxes. Measures like AB 52, which would allow the state to reject health insurance rate increases, are the only way to stop their greed.
Rick, Domingo, Eddie and the Courage team
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