George Orwell is still with us, his “doublespeak” firmly ensconced at the headquarters of Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield here in New Hampshire. Oh wait … let’s be honest about this. What we have from Anthem these days is unadorned, shameless bullshit.

This comes from a company that has mis-managed its customers for years, that has a terrible record of response to customers and which has been over-charging consumers for even longer. A fine corporate citizen, eh?

Here’s what they are up to now: they want to merge with Cigna, putting together two health care giants and eliminating much of their competition, now and potential. Their merger, if approved, will give consumers far fewer health care options and ensure that the prices for what they get will be much higher. There’s no good news there.

The American Medical Association (AMA) cautions that this merger will lead to “undue concentration” of services for consumers (that would be us, the patients). The President of the New Hampshire Medical Society says that without competition “there will be price gouging” as we go forward. Of course they are right. Most doctors care about patients. Anthem doesn’t give a shit.

if you doubt that, consider this “doublespeak” from an Anthem corporate lackey: “The complementary capabilities of Anthem and Cigna will enable us to continue to lead the transition to value-based care that will reduce costs while improving health outcomes. It will allow greater efficiency, thereby enhancing our ability to better manage cost-drivers that can impact affordability.”

Whew. That requires a translation since it means absolutely nothing except some bad writer’s idea of a press release. The merger will do nothing to help customers. It will pad the bottom line for the newly merged company, and it will ensure that your choices will be limited. Anthem says the merger will enable it to “lead the transition to value-based health care.” Mmmm, you mean they haven’t considered doing that before? By “greater efficiency,” it means they can fire some employees which will allow them to “better manage cost-drivers” which means charge more. For everything.

Write your congressman, speak up, friends. This merger is a disaster for most of us. Unless, that is, you are one of the exceptionally overpaid Anthem executives who won’t be fired after the merger and will get bonuses from all their extra money costumers will have to pay.

Have a nice day.