Hello and Welcome

Welcome to my blog, HealthCare Mafia, which I’m writing under the nom de guerre OleanderTea.  I’ve spent nearly twenty years working in health insurance, mostly as an analyst of varying stripes.  I know the tricks, the doublespeak, where the money is really spent,  how it’s “saved”, and where the bodies are buried.

After the past several years of listening to the healthcare debate and all its attendant lies, prevarications, exaggerations, and hyperbole, I’ve decided to start throwing in my two cents’ worth as an insider, in case someone out there might be interested.

The blog’s name is based on a comment a colleague made one day. He said he sometimes feels like he works for the mafia — much like the mafia,  insurance companies offer someone a deal they’re ostensibly free to refuse. Except they aren’t, because the alternative is much worse than the “deal” you’re being given.  Actually, if you think about it, comparing the mafia to health insurance companies might be insulting to the mafia. My apologies. At least with the mafia, you know you’re paying extremely high rates and who’s getting the money.