When I signed up for the 8/31 town hall meeting several days ago, I noticed that it was set to take place in Richardson, Texas. I think I even commented that Richardson is home to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, and that UnitedHealth Group has a large presence nearby. Thus, I fully anticipated all along that this meeting would be heavily attended by representatives from the health insurance industry. However, being a fairly busy person, and not always planning ahead to the extent that I'd like, I just now went back to my email to get the exact location of the meeting:
Eisemann Center (Richardson, TX)
2351 Performance Drive
Richardson, TX 75082
The significance of this? Find out below the fold.
Here's the map of the meeting location (B) on Performance Drive.
As it turns out, this is right across the street from the largest commercial real estate project currently underway in the Dallas area, the new headquarters to Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas, now nearing completion on Lookout Drive. Here's a close-up, or you can view the map yourself at the following link:
Google Map Link
Looking at Google, I see that Eisemann Center is 5.3 miles from the current Blue Cross headquarters (C), and also 5.3 miles from a large UnitedHealth Group office (A) on the President George Bush turnpike (named for the elder Bush, in case you wondered). I'm not sure what's in that UnitedHealth building, because they also have offices in Plano, 16 miles away.
Anyway, I couldn't help but think that this might not be a coincidence that a town hall meeting being run by 3 Republican Congressmen is being held in a location so conveniently located for the health insurance industry. Perhaps I'm reading too much into this.
Thoughts?
Oh, and yes, I would imagine that real estate outlay set them back a good chunk of change, not to mention the vertical expansion to Health Care Service Corporation's headquarters building in Chicago. Perhaps the other thing we should ponder here is whether those funds would have otherwise gone to medical care.