War Coverage
A Blue Cross-HCA update
The Jimmy Carter-negotiated cease-fire between BlueCross BlueShield and HCA completely broke down Monday as Blue Cross planes crossed the northern no-fly zone into HCA territory in an early morning raid. HCA vice president Tim Scarvey said that HCA’s retaliation to “this provocation” would be limited to a week’s run of wordy full-page newspaper ads.
The early morning raid followed this past weekend’s HCA incursions into the disputed province of Kashmir, which, for complicated historical reasons, is claimed by both HCA and BlueCross.
These latest skirmishes are part of an ongoing pattern in which BlueCross, in protest to HCA settlements along the West Bank and Gaza Strip, has systematically attempted to disrupt life for the settlers by funding nighttime raids by Tamil separatists armed with reflex hammers.
Harold H. Cantrell Jr., vice president of finance at BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, speaking from the Chechnyan capital of Grozny, has demanded that U.N. inspectors be given full access to radioactive isotopes known to be held in the X-ray departments at numerous HCA hospitals.
“Of course we have isotopes—we use them to take care of our patients,” HCA’s Scarvey shot back, going on to produce photos purporting to show several BlueCross officials taking part in riots in Venezuela, East Timor and Oakland. Scarvey also alleged that BlueCross forces, in cooperation with Ulster unionists, have dug numerous tunnels under the DMZ and into HCA territory—a charge that BlueCross’ Cantrell adamantly denies.
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has appealed to both sides for calm, though his plea appears to have fallen on deaf ears.
“We’re willing to compromise, but we won’t be forced into something unreasonable,” Cantrell said, adding, “But HCA blows.”
“We won’t be forced into something unreasonable, but we are willing to compromise,” Scarvey said, adding, “But BlueCross blows.”
The German and French governments issued a joint statement urging both sides to, “Let us know when you have it all straightened out.”
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