Huh.

My wife and I both have Group Health, and have never had a problem with them. What are some actual complaints about them that you've heard? Why are they so detestable? Really, I'd like to know.

I used to work there. While I understand the joke, in that abortions are a. cheaper and b. less risky than c. pregnancy (as an example, a pregnancy is not just a risky operation, it also takes a long time and it's likely that there may be infections, complications, and other trauma from the birth process - well, ok, as I said, it's still a very bad joke, and I would have hissed too.

This is only tangentially relevant, but my understanding is that the "Group Death" nickname was originally created by anti-abortion activists who were unhappy with the fact that Group Health covered abortions.

Group Health was mentioned two or three separate times, in unflattering ways -- it seemed character-driven, as if Tim had a particular bone to pick with them, but it wasn't really developed. In light of that, it doesn't seem necessary to pick on a particular HMO for the sector's failings.

Although I prefer UniWell over PugetCare.

Man Brendan you are REALLY PISSED right now.

I've never been covered by Group Health, but I used to work for a health clinic. Group Health sometimes covers services outside of its own facilities. When it does, it makes sure to make the process as difficult as possible for both patients and doctors.

GHC does cover abortions, and while some women choose to go outside for the services, many get them in-system.

The "Group Death" moniker stems from a power struggle between GHC (a consumer cooperative) and a physicians' interest group.

I've had GH for years and have chosen GH coverage regardless of other options available. It's not standard American insurance, but it's damn good health care, and more evidence-based than a lot of consumer-demand-driven PPO plans.

I used to work in Risk Mgmt. at Group Health. It's probably the best HMO in the country right now. Outstanding levels of service.

With the way the HMO system and, at times, GHC have been vilified I can see some GHC devotees getting upset by the jokes. However, what I think is worse is that Heffron chose to go with a totally lame Seattle cliche (in "Group Death"). Maybe it comes off better in the play but whenever I hear someone mention Group Death I have to force a fake laugh. It's not clever anymore. It's old and tired. This play sounds like a series of Seattle-centric novelty acts.

Christ, you people are defensive about Group Health. How come?

And, for the record, Heffron did not use the "Group Death" joke. One of my editors did.

I've heard the Group Death thing for years now. I had Group Health for over 5 years and never had a problem but I heard numerous stories from women, many of whom I worked with and some who were my patients, that Group Health practioners and the red tape of GHC, stood in the way of them getting life-saving care. One had breast cancer, one had breathing issues and almost died at one point from poor care, and one was my ex-mother in law who had GHC in somewhere like Minnesota.

although I think GHC has gotten progressively better in recent years, the moniker seems to have come from a slump in care about 10 years ago. IMO.

Agreed. I was a member for years, just left recently. Service was sketchy for awhile, but seems to be great now. My complaint was that you couldn't pay extra to get extra. Not a big deal till you want a private hospital room

Saw Mitzi's Abortion yesterday, it was TERRIFIC!

Hi Brendan. I work in Group Health's Communications Department.

Our media relations staff have a 24-hour pager. So the person you spoke with (at whatever number you called) should have connected you for a more viable comment than you received late on Friday.

So here's a more substantive response for your posting, in which you wrongly characterizes ACT as "caving."

Instead, ACT and the playwright should be credited for modifying the Group Health reference. Clearly the audience found it distracting within a play advancing such an important societal discourse.

While the reference may have localized the play, it didn't make a point reflecting reality:

1) Group Health would never encourage abortion to avoid high-cost care for any woman or child. Group Health physicians would recommend abortion for their patients if deemed medically appropriate or necessary.
2) Group Health's offers health plan coverage of elective abortion services; however it is optional for employer groups to include the coverage in their benefits.
3) Group Health members voted in the 1971, 1974, 1985 and 1986 to support a woman's right to choose an abortion. And,
4) In the 1990s our Board of Trustees (members elected by the membership) voted to oppose legislative attempts to reduce or complicate access to abortion services.

Through the years, it's been painful to have Group Health (a non-profit, consumer-goverend healthcare system that coordinates coverage and care) tarred by the anti-managed care backlash.

Is the organization perfect? Of course not. But in the fractured American health care system, those close to Group Health believe it employs smart, innovative approaches; and delivers better care. This may explain why you sometimes get strong defensive responses when the all-too-easy-to-toss-off moniker "Group Death" is used; or when the organzation gets unfairly lumped.

Hi Jay:

Thanks for your comment. That's all good information. But I still stand by the word "caving." While GH's position on abortion services is tangentially relevant, what's really at issue is when and why an artist should change the content of her work. Tim's lines were never meant to be any real person's official position but they were treated that way by a few GH fans—a treatment weirdly legitimized by Heffron and ACT when they decided to change the joke. I don't think the audience as a whole found the line distracting at all—it got one of the biggest laughs of the night—just a few squeaky wheels.

Regardless, Mitzi's Abortion is a good play. You all should see it.

Hey Brendan,
I guess I'm a day late on all this, just got back from Walla Walla, but I thought I'd check in. Yes, I did change Tim/Nita's exchange with the Group Health reference. And I can see where it would looked like I caved. And in a sense, I did cave, because it had been bugging me, how the Group Health stuff seemed to pull quite a number of the preview audiences out of the play, they got stuck on it, and I felt like I could lose the joke to keep the focus. Especially because my point is not just about Group Health, but the way the US health system is set up, practically ALL health insurance companies have a profit motive, and it's something that can affect how they respond to a patient and their individual situations. So, while my car was broken down outside of Yakima, I changed Group Health to a faux name, for about an hour and a half. Then decided I didn't want a faux name in the play and figured out another way to make the point, which, funny enough, includes Group Health in a list of providers, and that's how that bit of dialogue currently stands, and I'm pretty happy with it. Although, I might tweak it some more, who knows. Anyway, in that hour and a half, while there was a faux name, ACT sent out the change-in-the-name notice. And so it goes... It's a new play, it's still pretty slippery. Fact, the Aquinas' infatuation used to be on Peter Jennings, then for a short time on Donald Trump, until finally resting with that silver-haired presence, Anderson Cooper.

Thanks, Elizabeth: And good call with Anderson Cooper. I think that was a funnier choice.

This whole thing is so Seattle.

I don't get it. Virginia Mason regularly makes front page news for egregious instances of medical incompetence, remember that time a couple of years ago when they injected someone with some toxic substance from an unmarked bottle? Absolutely tragic. And yet no one's started calling them "Virginia Manson" yet. Maybe it is all in the name. The word "Premera" doesn't exactly lend itself to bastardization. By the way--one cool thing that Group Health did recently is make it so you don't have to go through your regular doctor to get to see a specialist--you can go directly to an orthopedist or a dermatologist if you need one--no referral.

Well, I was born at Group Health, but that was in 1954 when a membership-cooperative health-care-management system was a radically innovative concept. FWIW. As the local Delegate of the World Esperanto Association (UEA) I am thrilled to see the language I love featured in such a positive way in a significant theatre piece set and debuting in the city I love in this, the year of the Seattle Esperanto Society's hundredth anniversary. I have never been to a full-fledged stage play in a major Seattle theatre before, but my wife and I have tickets to this one!

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