re: #13 darthstar
A few years ago, a friend of ours got a job at Kaiser’s business office. I looked across the table (this was the first time I’d met them or most of the people at the party) and said, “Congratulations, I hope they offer Blue Shield.” That got a guffaw out of a couple of people at the table.
In my (San Francisco Bay) area, they’ve apparently cleaned up their act. Kaiser gets the same or better ratings as the other HMOs available around here.