David,
Your conclusion that the system is "immoral and broken" is right on target. We need a new, different healthcare system rather than accepting or tweaking the one we have. We also need to create our own rather than simply adopt the Canadian, British, Japanese or Taiwanese models.
However, let"s not simply blame the insurance companies. It is not government policies that "allow insurance companies to do whatever they want." The insurance companies are doing what we want. Yes they are. All insurance companies are distributed risk betting pools. They exist to make money for their stockholders, not to pay for our health care. Indeed, their primary function is to avoid paying because that is how they make profit. The problem is not the insurance company. The problem is a system where you make money by denying, delaying, or paying less for medical services.
You and I may not be stockholders in HCA, United Health or Blue Cross, but I guarantee that a large number of our readers are " through their pension plans. We need to change the system, not just blame the "gouging" insurance companies. Please see my posts on healthcare here at Huffington Post and my blog at thesystemmd.com.
I am glad you are healthy, and writing.
Deane Waldman
Health Care As the New Terrorist to Fear
Thanks to America's health care system, today was a very stressful day for me. My story is so typical as to be boring -- which is a really sad commentary.
This morning, while thumbing through some routine paperwork, my wife discovered that I have no health insurance. Without going into the details, we missed a bi-annual deadline for payment -- a deadline that the company buried in fine print, and one that the company didn't even bother to tell us was approaching, or even missed after the fact. They just ended my coverage, with not so much as a letter or a phone call.
Fortunately for us, we discovered the situation before a 60-day continuity-of-coverage window closes, and I got temporary insurance. Of course, for bureaucratic reasons that I don't understand, I'm not allowed to re-enroll in the same plan I thought I was on. I have to wait to do that. Put another way, the health care company that had been gouging me, and then tossed me away without so much as a peep, is perfectly fine leaving me without coverage -- even if I'm willing to pay for it.
My initial reaction this morning was raw panic. Until the situation was resolved, I felt like I was going to periodically break down and cry because I felt so completely helpless. But now that the initial shock has passed, I can say I'm lucky in all of this.
I am a sole proprietor so I get gouged on health care, but my wife and I have worked hard to save diligently to pay for coverage through her graduate school (and to those who have flippantly claimed that because I'm a columnist and writer I make a whole ton of money, I will only say that the term "struggling writer" didn't come out of thin air - I ain't complainin' but I also ain't swimming in money). We have the resources, and thankfully, we caught this problem in time. But for every one of me who discovered the problem and had the resources to rectify it, there are probably 10 or 20 who either never figure out the problem until it's too late, can't pay to rectify the situation - or both. Just as frightening is how tiny an error you can make to watch your entire health care safety net be ripped away from you and your family.
Had I, say, been in a car accident in that time period that I didn't know I was cut off from coverage, I would have been bankrupted, and possibly not been able to pay for medical care that I needed to stay alive. That's not an exaggeration. Had I needed any kind of serious medical care in that time period, its very possible it would have cost me my entire life savings -- and the reason would be that we innocently missed a bureaucratic deadline that a company didn't even bother to warn us about -- or warn us that we had missed.
In a world of unending email and junk mail -- a world where the average person is flooded with paperwork -- this is an unacceptably small margin of error, especially considering what is at stake. I mean, we're not talking about losing a gym membership or a magazine subscription or your cable television for missing a deadline -- we're talking about losing access to life and death medical coverage. And yet, the margin of error that could lose you your coverage is less than the margin of error that a gym or a magazine or a cable company will grant you for their services.
This situation is emblematic of a health care system that is both immoral and broken. Throwing people off their health insurance with no warning because they accidentally misread fine print is sick and wrong -- and should be criminal like it is, say, with housing. In many localities, landlords have to give you at least some warning before evicting you for a missed payment. But unbelievably, that's not the way it is with health care.
The behavior is perfectly legal thanks to government policies that allow health insurance companies to do whatever they want, to whomever they want. And the behavior has created a whole new culture of fear. We now not only have to be afraid of Al Qaeda and hurricanes and evildoers, but also of the health insurance companies that we are customers of - and executives from these companies still have the nerve to go before Congress and publicly wonder why so many people hate their guts.
That this fear is now becoming an anger-based political uprising shouldn't be surprising. A population forced to live under this kind of terror -- and that's what it is -- is one that will start fighting back when the survival instinct kicks in. And by the looks of the polls on health care, the survival instinct has most definitely kicked in. Better late than never.
Join the book club for David Sirota's upcoming book, The Uprising, due out on 5/27.
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All of us around here who know about and support Conyers' HR 676 should take every opportunity to mention it to anyone who will listen, to email your local representatives about it, and, as hard as this may be to apply practically, be ready to turn out in force when our so called "leaders" start trying to skirt the issue, or when they try to sell us on some half-assed insurance-based reform.
Have no illusions; if we want this, we will have FIGHT for it--and peaceful demonstrations may not be enough to do the trick. If securing oil access through war against a nation that did not attack us is worth expending human life over, then isn't securing our future with a UHC system--for ourselves and for those who will benefit long after we're gone--isn't that worth the same sort of sacrifice?
I know that sounds dramatic, but in this country today, the corporations and the 1% will not give up ANYTHING willingly, and despite what you may believe, they do hold the reigns of our government. If we want it, we will have to force the issue.
Let's face it - insurance is, and always has been, a racket. Supposedly a means for sharing risk, insurance instead has evolved into a purely profit driven, Wall Street-beholden behemoth that takes much but gives little. The future of health insurance is denial of care, which is fast becoming the primary way companies can maintain their profit margins. They will do this in a variety of ways, including subterfuge such as described by Sirota; the CEOs and boards of trustees have no conscience when it comes to choosing between covering enrollees or protecting the bottom line. It would take a huge groundswell of protest (or a series of medical catastrophes, heavily publicized) to change this system. I don't see that on the horizon, so the travesties will go on.
For over thirty years I have been constantly covered by health insurance. Every time I switched jobs, my old insurance was still in effect until the new kicked in. There hasn't been a day in 3 decades that I have not had insurance. For this I count my blessings.
Recently, due to the desire to slow down my work life, I went shopping for personal health insurance. What a pleasant surprise, NOT.
I have one question that I would like the insurance industry to answer.
If my new insurance company excludes coverage for my left shoulder, which 2 years ago had calcific tendonitus, and determines it to be a preexisting condition, how is it that one of my prior insurance companies is not responsible? After all, I have been constantly insured, so how can the insurance industry absolve themselves of responsibility and why should I go without coverage for that condition-I thought that was why they called it insurance.
In the bigger picture this is no biggy. Taken as a microcosm of the industries practices- it is damning.
The execs of insurance companies should be outed. for how much they make and how much health care they have.
people should divest their money from funds that invest in health insurance corporations.
such funds should be created - just like green funds.
The reason insurance funds do so well is because they are legalized gambling where the house can change the odds at will. There is no competition, yet they claim there is no collusion. Go figure.
I figure UnbiasView for an insurance agent. Nobody else would ever feel the insurance industry doesn't need a drastic overhaul. I'd rather be screwed by the government ineffeciently, than be screwed by insurance companies efficiently.
And if you learned to read you would see that I agree with that, I just don't think the government taknig it over would be anything close to a smart idea.
The insurance company bean counters are actually destroying their own industry. The more attrocius the service becomes the more the American electorate will demand that they be eliminated as a middle-men. Middle-men, because that is exactly what they are. Their services are actually useless because their only goal is to save money by denying service.
Hell, anyone can make money by taking money in and never paying it out. Is that the perfection of the free-market system. Corporate lawyers will say yes right up until the end.
(When the Democrats take over, watch for all the newer cheaper and more friendly Insurers to appear.
LOL And watch all the suckers buy into it.)
"anyone can make money by taking money in and never paying it out"
Why aren't you on a yacht right now then if it's so easy to make money?
Because, unless you're an insurance company, it's illegal to take money without giving a good or service in return.
Perhaps because taking money and not giving it back is called stealing and not everybody is a neocon who advocates such behaviour.
Damn this new response limiting system! UV, I'm responding to you here...
This one...
"Perhaps because taking money and not giving it back is called stealing"
aka taxes?
Okay... last time I checked, taxes were an investment in infrastructure, fire service, cops, military protection, y'know stuff like dat dere. I don't mind paying when I AM getting something in return.
"Perhaps because taking money and not giving it back is called stealing"
aka taxes?
"Had I needed any kind of serious medical care in that time period, its very possible it would have cost me my entire life savings --"
... not to mention your LIFE!
What is "RIGHT-TO-LIFE" all about? It's NOT about MORALITY. It's about MONEY!
If you've got it...You're DENIED your right-to-DIE. (Terri Schiavo)
If you don't...You're DENIED your right-to-LIVE. (un- and under-insured americans)
Heartless healthcare personnel are playing god with people's LIVES...and there OUGHT to be a law against it!
Obama will do everything in his power to put a STOP to the PRICE GOUGING of the OIL and HEALTHCARE industries, to begin bridging the gap between the "haves" and the "have nots".
Matthew 25:31-46 "Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me."
We The People ARE cursed...unless we begin to take care of each other...UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE is a good start!
Stay safe, healthy and happy,
Love, Loretta
Amen Loretta.... amen.
I took a job in Canada and used the COBRA from my old job to keep insurance. My provider never sent me anything: notices of bills due or notice that the insurance would expire. I suddenly found myself without health insurance with no warning. Typical. My former auto insurance provider did the same thing. They gave me no notice that my insurance was expiring and when I was in an accident after the expiration, they would only reinstate me at triple my former policy -- in spite of 20+ years without a claim. I found other insurance, and I enjoy occasionally replying to the former company's attempts to "get my business."
Until we have universal health care, not health insurance, we will continue to be used and abused by the insurance companies. The only way we'll ever have affordable health care for all citizens of the US is to remove the profit motive with a single-payer, government run system. Unfortunately this idea seems to send congressmen and senators running screaming and pulling their hair, shouting "socialized medicine". Medicare and VA care are government run and have a reasonably good reputation with most, so what's wrong with a similar system for all? Perhaps because it doesn't involve lobbyist money?
Please, please see (here on Huffington Post): "Universal Health Care Saves $$ by..."
Why do you want more government in your life?
Please name a single government program that is run efficiently.
The system needs reform but people can't always be looking for big brother to save them because it isn't going to happen and if it does happen they create more problems.
Based on the behavior of this administration I'd have to say it MUST BE the military. I don't guess that these "fiscally responsible" "small government" advocates would be shoveling money and putting the US into record levels of debt with a government program that's inefficient would they be? Military expenditures represent the largest chunk of the federal budget currently - I'm SURE that there is no waste or inefficiency in those programs, right?
Do tell me - if the "system" needs to reform, then what's to force that to happen? Describe in detail for me how the "free market" is truly working for Health Care in the US, and how competition has EVER played a major role in keeping prices low for health care (hint - look at the record jump in cost before you answer me) Why don't we privatize police protection as well as the fire dept using the same model? Those who are subscribers can have police protection or prevent their house from burning down.....Those who don't - tough luck. How long in that model before the US devolves into a set of feudal city-states where wealthy people live in gate-guarded communities with private police, fire, etc... and the commoners live outside the walls (gee....Baghdad?) in whatever chaos they can stand before they leave or revolt.
Or is it just easier to pull out the "big-government" boogey-man and try to scare people.
"Do tell me - if the "system" needs to reform, then what's to force that to happen?"
New regulations but to just say government take it over would be one of the biggest mistakes in the history of this country right along with Iraq.
Single government program that is run efficiently? Medicare. Overhead/administrative costs in the 2% range. And "efficiency" is a shibboleth. In healthcare the appropriate standard is "effectiveness", not efficiency. The Nazis were efficient -- Hitler made the trains run on time, especially all the way to the prisons/genocide ovens. Complaining of governmental programs' 'inefficiency' is a propaganda device to deflect attention from appropriate performance standards onto the corporate agenda of 'efficiency', which really means securing the largest possible profit. Insurance companies are primarily a highly profitable scam, and should be removed entirely from the financing of health care.
Your comments speak loudly of plain ignorance; UHC works well, more/less, all over the world--but we can't possibly pull it off here in the US...what utter nonsense!
If this were a challenge issued in a manner that would your Rethug masters a ton of money, you and your NeoCon heroes would be all for it, but since it applies a socialistic principle that works for everyone and not purely for profit, you automatically, without a hint of forethought, declare it unworkable. Leave it you rightwing simpletons to declare every option that you've never approved of and have never tried as being impossible! You rightwingers are a disgrace to the concept of American ingenuity!
Please, save your drivel for your rightwingnut buddies....
Good point... let's privatise the police and the army.
Sums it up for me, Oldchef.
"healthcare" is as close as you can come to war.
it truly comes down to human lives for profit.
while watching "schindler's list" many years ago,
i came to see how the power mechanism of war was closely intertwined
with how business is done. business aspires to the ultimate power of war.
war makes business look like a school girl.
bush has killed tens of thousands of school girls,
maybe a hundred thousand.
and back to the point of business and war,
i believe the "healthcare" (wealthcare)
atrocity is akin to 911 attack every two weeks or so,
and this for the last eight (20?) years.
no one can account for all those who died
in hopelessness, or drugs, or suicide, in circumstances
that are unaccountable, but intrinsically related.
bush used the criminal invasion of iraq
to take healtchare off the table. hmo's were free
to declare war on the american people.
sadaam used chemical weapons on his own people and killed a hundred thousand,
the u.s. used hmo's on its own people and killed more (even those with healthcare
were denied adequate healthcare, not to mention the millions without any healthcare).
america was given the top end,
thus the responsibilities were the greatest,
bush was a low evil visited upon his own people, and the world.
if there is a christ and a christian god,
and accountability for sins,
bush and his people will rot in hell.
Do you want to cut health insurance costs in half? Don't allow them to go public on the stock market. I couldn't imagine investing in an insurance company that denies coverage to a child so I can get my dividend, but there are lots of people who have no problem with this. Once you go public, your priorities change. Profits and stockholders become more important than your customers, corners are cut that affect peoples lives so they can hit revenue goals. Bean counters, in NY skyscrapers far away from any chance of seeing the repercussions of their accounting, cut costs and services to build value.
Plus, your chances of being cured of anything are about nil, since all research nowadays is geared towards treating symptoms, never the disease, thus rounding out the cycle. We've turned Docs into drug dealers and big pharms advertise new conditions to treat non-existent "diseases". It all needs to revamped, from top to bottom.
I kinda thought that is kinda shocking. Perhaps what should happen is to make ALL healthcare providers non profit. For profit healthcare providers would be illegal. Interesting that as soon as one of em becomes for profit, quality of care drops, they drop customers, execs get raises, seems that is the result in most cases.
Absolutely true. As long as there's a profit motive, people are going to be secondary to profit. Every denial of service means larger profits and the purpose of corporations is to profit the shareholders, not the customers.
Figure it out, poster "UnbiasView".
"Do you really want the government to decide what kind of business you are?"
The whole point is that HEALTH. CARE. SHOULD. NOT. BE. A. BUSINESS.
A civilized society does not make a for-profit business out of people's health and lives - whereby the profit is actually made by DENYING people health and life.
I can take your conservative mentality about not "giving the government power to decide what industries are non-profit", IN GENERAL. However, if there ever was an exception, health care is it. Just about every other advanced western society on this planet has determined that it is a worthy exception and implemented single-payer, government overseen (notice the word overseen as opposed to run - another more detailed discussion...) health care.
Why can't you conservatives argue ANY issue based on the objective reality and facts involved instead of STARTING with a philosophy and then simply insisting on rigidly applying that philosophy no matter what.
Does anyone think before they talk?
Do you really want the government to decide what kind of business you are? That is oversteppiing in every sesne of the way.
The system needs reform but you can't give the government power to decide what industries are non-profit, they can use their influence but come on.
Welcome to my world. I moved to another state after losing my job. My COBRA expired in October 2006. My current employer (since June 2005) doesn't provide insurance. Silly me thought it'd be easy to get health insurance. I was wrong. I had thyroid cancer in 1999 and skin cancer in 2004. I have a grandmother, mother, and sister who had breast cancer. So now I'm 51, and I'm uninsurable at any price.
My husband has good insurance from his union. As his spouse I have always been covered along with our children. Well, just a couple of months ago, in an irrelevent looking mass mailing, they said that spouses who are offered coverage from their work MUST accept that coverage, even if it costs them money to do it, or is less coverage than the union plan. I was given 3 weeks (!) to respond or I would be dropped from the plan. I left the letter unopened in a pile of bills and by the time I opened it, I had been retroactively dropped from the plan and had no coverage. No warning letter, no grace period, not even the full 30 days to reply that you get with any utility bill. I do not have access to any other health insurance and I was able to get reinstated. But what about the families where the spouse has to now pay large premiums to participate in a bad plan while the rest of the family enjoys the union coverage? And this is a UNION plan, supposedly concerned about its members. Yikes.
Yes, but it's still insurance. Big difference between health insurance and health care. Insurance is for profit.
As a fellow sole proprietor who pays for family health coverage out of pocket on the open market -- where, subject to medical underwriting, we are one serious or chronic illness away from not ever being able to buy coverage again -- I am all too aware of how all of us are the thinnest thread away from being financially destroyed. Of course, the same applies even to people who get health benefits from their employer, because they are just a layoff -- or an employer's decision to drop coverage -- away from the same fate.
Thank you for posting this. And I'm glad things worked out for you.
Thank you also for mentioned the insurance industry and al Qaeda in the same breath. No doubt, they'll cry foul, but my contempt for both -- and my fear of the threat they pose to my security -- is about the same.
And yes, many have already replied to your post Moose, but to add to the current movement from a slightly different perspective, I will posit that I think that your reasons for not supporting Obama are more insidious and less substantive than you let on. For whatever reason this may be, that is your right, but at least be truly honest about it. You should know that the corporate-media talking heads have determined that the only people supporting Obama are the "Highly educated, liberal, black, type folks" so you should understand that we are not this way for no reason, so you should at least present yourself accordingly.
Um... excuse me? Though my post above doesn't note it, my posts below and elsewhere on this site make clear my enthusiastic support for Obama.
Posted May 12, 2008 | 08:27 PM (EST)