The Health Care Chamber of Horrors: Choose Your Bureaucrat!

With their principles firmly focused on the 2010 elections, and juicy campaign contributions from the so-called health care industry, Republicans and some potentially endangered Democrats are furiously fulminating about "socialized medicine" and government bureaucrats who will "ration your health care" and "get between you and your doctor."

Can Harry and Louise be far behind?

Well, government is not the only place where bureaucrats work. They are ubiquitous in those wonderful companies we pay to bring us our health insurance policies.

They aren't big on "socialized medicine" - though not even economists dispute that universal health care is a social good. But they're regularly rewarded for rationing your health care and getting between you and your doctor.

Consider this mini-chamber of horrors, culled from a recent and highly dramatic House hearing chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman of California.

Robin Beaton, 59, found out last June she had an aggressive form of breast cancer and needed surgery -- immediately. But just days before her double mastectomy, she found out that her insurance provider would not cover the procedure. (In the industry, they call it "rescission.") Why rescission? ?

In May 2008, Beaton had visited a dermatologist for acne. A word written on her chart was interpreted to mean precancerous, so the insurance company decided to launch an investigation into her medical history.

Beaton's dermatologist begged her insurance provider to go ahead with the surgery.

"He said, 'This is a misunderstanding. This is not precancerous. All she has is acne." Still, the insurance carrier decided to rescind her coverage. The company said it had reviewed her medical records and found out that she had misinformed them about some of her medical history.

Beaton had listed her weight incorrectly. She also didn't disclose medication she had taken for a pre-existing heart condition -- medicine she wasn't taking when she originally applied for coverage.

Another witness, Wittney Horton, said her coverage was canceled after her carrier said she did not disclose that she had taken a drug prescribed for weight loss and because of her irregular menstrual cycle. Her carrier sent her a letter saying they would not have accepted her had they known she had "polycystic ovaries," a condition she did not know she had.

And Peggy Raddatz testified on behalf of her late brother, who was diagnosed with stage four non-Hodgkin's type lymphoma. In the midst of his chemotherapy treatment, his coverage was cancelled and he was not able to receive the stem cell transplant needed to save his life.

Raddatz's brother was told his coverage was canceled for failing to disclose that, unknown to him, a doctor had once noted in his file that a CT scan showed a small aneurysm and some insignificant gallstones.

These are but a few of the thousands of people who thought their premiums entitled them to be treated. And if you think these are extraordinary cases, consider this:

Blue Cross of California, a subsidiary of WellPoint, encouraged employees through performance evaluations to cancel the health insurance policies of individuals with expensive illnesses. One Blue Cross employee earned a perfect score of "5" for "exceptional performance" on an evaluation that noted the employee's role in dropping thousands of policyholders and avoiding nearly $10 million worth of medical care.

Blue Cross of California and two other insurers saved more than $300 million in medical claims by canceling more than 20,000 sick policyholders over a five-year period.

(Note to media watchers: When CNN reported this hearing, it conveniently ignored an inconvenient truth: the names of the errant insurers. Thanks to Karen Tumulty of TIME, we now know who they are: Wittney Horton and Robin Beaton were insured by Blue Cross. Peggy Raddatz's brother, Otto, was insured by Fortis Insurance Company. Also, this riveting hearing got no airtime on the TV networks, nor did it appear in The New York Times or The Washington Post.)

At the risk of inviting my own "recission," I invite you to examine my own health insurance history. I have several chronic ailments. But, over the last 15 years, Medicare - yes, that awful "socialized medicine" plan - has never denied me the treatment I needed. Ditto my Medigap insurance, purchased through AARP.

Bureaucrats abound in both the public and private sectors, and Lord knows, Medicare has more than its share of warts (is that a pre-existing condition?).

But, given my druthers, I'll choose what's now being called the public option.

It's worth remembering that, through our votes and our letters and phone calls to our representatives in Congress, we have at least a fair shot at managing the public bureaucrats. The private sector is accountable only to the bottom line and the great invisible hand of the market.

Maybe you'd like to let the market perform your next surgery?

Comments

[RightsGuy]

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP:

1. THURSDAY, June 25th---Rally for Healthcare Reform, Washington, DC
Join thousands in Washington that day to demand real health reform. Come
Great American Sickout. http://www­.1payer.ne­t/action-a­lerts/wash­ington-ral­ly.html If you can't be there, take some time to call your Senators and Representatives that day.

2. SAVE THE DATE: We are standing up for single-payer health care on July 30th! Join us in Washington, DC on July 30th for Medicare's 44th Birthday Rally and Lobby Day for Single-Payer Healthcare. http://www.healthcare-now.org/campaigns/single-payer-rally/

3. Please sign Sen. Bernie Sanders' Petition to Congress supporting single-payer healthcare. http://sanders.senate.gov/petitions/index.cfm?uid=7fd59f2e-88e1-477a-8eaf-762a5b050809

5. Take more action for Single-Payer reform https://app.e2ma.net/app/view:CampaignPublic/id:28803.2122217397/rid:31dc2a66052589ee092f9d691388aee9

6. ASK your US Senators to support and co-sign Sanders' S 703 - The American Health Security Act.

7. ASK your Representatives to support and co-sponsor Conyers' HR 676 - The United States National Health Insurance Act. (80 Representatives have signed on as co-sponsors so far).

8. INSIST that HR 676 be sent to the Congressional Budget Office for Scoring. EMAIL AND CALL YOUR SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES. FAX THEM HERE: http://www­.1payer.ne­t/faxapp/s­enders/add­/cid:6

[RightsGuy]

The Total Package: Health plan CEO compensation for 2008
May 14, 2009

Despite the trials and tribulations of the past year, the health insurance executives are still raking in MILLIONS of dollars at the end of the day. This is a look at some of the top total compensation packages from 2008 based on information gathered from the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission.

1. Ron Williams, Aetna - $24.3 million

2. H. Edward Hanway, CIGNA - $12.2 million

3. Angela Braly, WellPoint - $9.8 million

4. Dale Wolf, Coventry Health Care - $9 million

5. Michael Neidorff, Centene - $8.8 million

6. James Carlson, AMERIGROUP - $5.3 million

7. Michael McCallister, Humana - $4.8 million

8. Jay Gellert, Health Net - $4.4 million

9. Richard Barasch, Universal American - $3.5 million

10. Stephen Hemsley, UnitedHealth Group - $3.2 million

– adapted from a Special Report by Dan Bowman
http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/special-reports/total-package-health-plan-ceo-compensations-2008

Only a single-payer approach to healthcare reform will END THE INHUMANITY OF OUR FAILED HEALTHCARE INSURANCE SYSTEM, WHERE PROFITS ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN PATIENTS’ HEALTH, and where people die because of it.

We need to get the insurance companies OUT of healthcare. Our fight for equal access to healthcare for all is about democracy, human rights, civil rights, and basic human decency.

[dynwitch]

And these snakes are trying to convince us that they are currently giving Americans the best care in the world. Time for some house cleaning, America. Get rid of these cobwebs. Free ourselves from these greedy spiders who are sucking the blood out of us and our employers.

[shades3]

Heaven forbid that insurance companies should be forced to at least reduce their "bottom line."
They have been living large on the money of people who are not yet sick enough to be culled from their rolls, but if they should actually need major coverage, the insurance companies will cut them loose and never look back.
Insurance companies are BUSINESSES and their first concern is making money, not providing the means for their clients to pay for their healthcare.
Health Insurance for profit companies, like all companies, reward those who make money for them. Health Insurance executives and sales people are trained to deny coverage to those who are likely to need expensive care, or failing that, disallow payment for care that becomes necessary to a client if they possibly can find a reason, no matter how obscure.
PRIVATE INSURANCE COMPANIES ARE BUSINESSES. Businesses only succeed by generating profit. The less payouts an insurance company makes, the higher the profit.
It's in their interest to pay out as little as possible.
No wonder they are fighting so hard against a public option, or heaven forbid, SINGLE-PAYER.
THE LOVE OF MONEY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL.
Is that a pre-existing condition, sufferered by the Insurance Companies??
If it is, maybe the public should cut THEM loose.