Sunday, September 11, 2016

Response to Pinnacol's CEO Kalin's Amendment 69 bashing letter.


Phil Kalin Pinnacol Assurance president and CEO has been going around Colorado writing self-serving letters and articles denouncing Amendment 69 the ColoradoCare health care reform amendment on this November's ballot.  I'm responding to the letter he had published in the September 8th issue of the Durango Telegraph and titled "Amendment 69 and workers comp." I have made the effort to incline footnotes with links to further information for your convenience.

Update, with more shocking research I realized there's way more information out there that people ought to be aware of than I can handle here at citizenschallenge.blogspot.
Therefore I've started a new information packed blog, Memes Courier, Election 2016.  If this topic interests you, you'll want to check out that collection of resources, with more to come.  (9/12/2016)
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Having direct experience with Pinnacol Assurance practices I found their CEO Phil Kalin’s self-serving Amendment 69 bashing letter to the Durango Telegraph (Sept. 8) rather fascinating and I’d like to respond to him.

In his first sentence Phil Kalin voices his opinion: “Is there any question about the damage Amendment 69 would do (to Colorado’s Worker’s Comp program)?” He simply presents this query as a self-evident truth and moved on. But what is it that would be damaged? Worker’s Comp or Pinnacol Assurance’s cozy profitable arrangement?
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Irene Aguilar, M.D. Colorado State Senator and Primary Care Physician

Yes on Amendment 69: ColoradoCare makes sense economically

Knopf: Slaying myths around ColoradoCare and single-payer health care (column)
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Mind you, this is the same Pinnacol Assurance that was taken to task by Colorado legislators for having an excessive profits driven culture of refusing claims. Then reprimanded for spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on an executive golf vacation to Pebble Beach, giving 4.3 million in golden parachutes to 12 outgoing executives and other excessive bonuses.
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See footnotes ¶3
Pinnacol Assurance | Performance Audit May 2010 
Colo. lawmakers question bonuses paid by insurer 
Audit: Pinnacol shows abuses  
More Scandal Ahead for Pinnacol?