Dave Jones, the Insurance Commissioner of California is ready for a fight and so are the people. Keep your eye on Dave as the battle for single payer in California unfolds.

The for profit health insurance industry is destroying lives in pay or die California. You don't believe me? Look at this.

Working families are being gouged to the point of having to drop their already woefully inadequate coverage. Coverage so bad and so bare bones that it usually carries a deductible of $5000-$10,000. For Blue Shield customers who buy their own insurance, the likely rate hikes will be the third since October, amounting to up to 59 percent in some cases.

In a particularly naked attempt to tamp down criticism of its egregious gouging, Blue Shield is hiding behind an actuary who will not even speak to the press to explain his findings. The Blue Cross actuary who's in hiding is none other than David Axene.

Mr. Axene, is the actuary who last year found errors in the BC/BS rate hike application. One would assume BC/BS figured by enlisting Axene as an "independent" arbiter of price gouging, it could slam through yet another rate hike. But Axene has gone to ground, and isn't talking.

Note on David Axene's web site, he is deflecting all inquires to the BC/BS PR hacks. Here's a copy of Axene's full report.

The for profit insurance industry earned 12 billion in profits in 2010. Insurers are so flush that if you want to make money in the stock market, investors are being urged to buy funds that include health insurance companies.

Seems that skyrocketing profits go hand-in-hand with skyrocketing premiums. The greed of the insurance industry knows no bounds. And it is greed, a particularly deadly sin, which will bring them crashing to the ground

The good news is that grassroots groups, including California OneCare (where I serve on the all-volunteer board) are coalescing around plans to bring universal single payer healthcare to everyone in this beleaguered state.

Take a look at this report which was on the PBS Newshour a day or so ago. Pay attention to Dave Jones, the recently elected California Insurance Commissioner.

Dave Jones is their biggest nightmare, and we're (that means all of us) , going to help him rid the state of this parasitic industry.