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Consumers filed so many complaints against FIC they started a website in 2008 called "Upset Freelancers Union Members." The site is filled with posts by hundreds of angry customers.
New York insurance broker Chris Serrano told The Examiner that he has sold conventional health insurance policies to 60 former Freelancers customers.
Horowitz was picked in December to serve a three-year term as a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Records kept by the New York State Board of Elections show the Freelancers Union PAC has raised more than $215,000 since 2008.
Neither FIC nor CCIO responded to a reporter's request for comment"
More:
"Sara Horowitz, founder of the Freelancers Union, does not believe in a Canadian-style single-payer health care system, she said on WNYC's radio program, the Brian Lehrer show. She believes that individuals should be able to buy insurance through groups like the Freelancers Union that would give them bargaining power against insurance companies. They
should get assistance through vouchers or a refundable tax credit if they can't afford it.
Under the labor laws, the
Freelancers Union can't engage in collective bargaining over wages or working conditions because it is not a real union. The entertainment unions can today, because they were grandfathered in. Collective bargaining Horowitz sees as a "moment in history", as she told Lehrer. Judging by listener phone calls, Lehrer suggested that, the biggest problem freelancers had with the Freelancers Union (at the time, in 2007) was that they couldn't meet the
organization's definition of freelancer, which requires that they work at least 20 hours a week in one of seven industries typically associated with independent workers."
A dab more:
Criticism
The cost of
selling individual insurance requires more overhead than group insurance. "Policies that provide the exact
same coverage to someone working for a large employer will cost more for an individual," says the Center for American Progress's website for college students.
"Even worse, insurers can pick and choose preexisting conditions and then deny coverage for those deemed too costly to cover." A Center for American Progress fellow estimated the average
difference in administrative costs alone was $300 per year between individual and group insurance. [6] The Freelancers Union acknowledges those problems with the open market, but asserts that its large-group bargaining power, its captive insurance company's obligation to grant coverage, and its non-profit marketing role all serve as effective remedies.
In January 2008, Freelancers Union was criticized by both its members and the press when its new Freelancers Insurance Company became the entity providing coverage to members. At that time, the Union dropped Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield in favor of a range of new options,
mostly more expensive, with Anthem BC/BS remaining only as claims processing agent.[7] Members then faced the complexity inherent in comparing the limits, exclusions, co-payments, co-insurance percentages, and annual and other deductibles of the various new options with those of the old plans.
Through this process, some members were even inadvertently dropped altogether.
Oh Yeah....this is the way to do it. It's just another "transparent" pay off.