By Jacob Goldstein
WSJ’s blog
April 20, 2009
How would you respond if a computer called you and asked the following question?
“Would you be willing to get involved to make your voice heard so that we can improve our nation’s health care system?”
If the computer was calling you on behalf of WellPoint, the big insurer that runs Blue Cross and Blue Shield programs in 14 states, would your answer be any different?
The question was part of an automated phone survey WellPoint conducted last week in what looks like a step into the national debate over health reform. The questions (online here) ask members how much they know about what’s happening with health reform and whether they want to learn more.
The company placed three million automated calls. Of those, 142,000 connected and 66,000 people told the computer on the other end of the line that they’d be interested in learning more, WellPoint spokeswoman Cheryl Leamon told the Health Blog.
Insurers sometimes enlist interested beneficiaries to help sway public opinion. “If there are members who are interested in supporting our position and being participants in the health care policy debate we want to make sure that they are able to participate,” Leamon said.
The health insurance industry’s main trade group, AHIP, has taken a few clear positions on health reform thus far — promising to insure all comers if there’s a mandate requiring everyone to buy insurance, and opposing a proposed public insurance plan that would compete with private plans.
Wellpoint’s Health Action Network scheme is at http://www.healthactionnetwork.com/keycontact.aspx