What people hate most about health insurance
Summary: In a public system bureaucracy is just waste. But in a private system, bureaucracy is a profit center. As the debate over health care heats up, this is the point I'll remember most.
Complexity. Opacity.
All done in the name of cost-shifting. And profit maximization.
Conservatives love to complain about government bureaucracies, but insurance companies are masters of the bureaucratic art. (Picture from Burningyourmoney, a typical screed against government red tape and waste.)
We got a taste of this when our young daughter had a cancer scare this spring. (It was benign.) The paperwork, and the drip, drip, drip, of bills, some for as little as $10, all over a simple biopsy consuming just a few hours.
We were lucky. If you're unlucky, as Martin Bayne is unlucky, the game gets deadly serious. You know what's going on, you know why. It's all a search for loopholes, excuses that can either cut off payments or raise your costs.
We chatted for about an hour today because, apparently, his insurer found a way to raise his premiums 39%. He sent copies of the relevant letters and a complaint over its' executives' pay.
His carrier has paid him over $350,000 over the years, he has gotten far more than he ever paid in, yet the game of complexity and opacity continues.
Defenders of these carriers, whether health carriers or long-term care carriers, rely on ideology, on rationalization, or on industry promises to defend the present system.
Meanwhile lawyers get rich, the people running the carriers get very rich, and those who thought they were covered are drowned in paperwork, excuses, and bills they cannot pay.
So there, I think, we have the real difference between a public and private health care system.
In a public system bureaucracy is just waste. But in a private system, bureaucracy is a profit center.
As the debate over health care heats up, this is the point I'll remember most.
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Talkback
try medicaid if you want a real headache
RE: What people hate most about health insurance
This is why virtually all these corporate-financed politicians stand united against a single-payer universal health care system (which every other civilized country in the world has).
It's never going to change while we keep voting for them. The Green Party and Ralph Nader have been advocating a single-payer system for years, which is why I vote for them.
Even if they don't win, it sends the corporate shills a powerful message that their pro-corporate, anti-citizen positions will cost them votes.
What message?
Even if they don't win, it sends the corporate shills a powerful message that their pro-corporate, anti-citizen positions will cost them votes. [/i]
What message? You see, MAJOR change, doesn't happen unless there is a DIRE emergency. So to say that this country's politicians will make that kind of change to health care in one shot is a DREAM-- nothing more. What voters should consider is the candidates who are willing to make incremental changes in the right direction. And today, that's the DemoRATS (unfortunately). You see, every time you vote for dippity doo Nader with no chance of winning, you are sending a message: that you are dumb enough to believe you are sending a message that is being received. Sure you can send it-- we all see the results on election day, but all you and that independent no-chance party are doing is siphoning votes.
You want to send a message? Run for congress in your area and do it yourself.
Totally unsurprising
a total ignoramus with regards to basic economics.
Bureaucracies are a drag no matter where they are.
The reason your insurance company is so bureaucratic is not to
improve its profit (those bureaucrats have to be paid). Its
bureaucratic because of government regulation of the health care
and insurance industries.
.....
What regulations?
RE: What people hate most about health insurance
It's Wednesday, and we need to find somebody to blame for our healthcare woes. Last I looked, folks under the single payer system were no better off then we whining Americans. And I've been under a single payer system, known as US military healthcare, and I don't see any distinct improvement.
The problems are systemic, and are going to be due to competing priorities. The executive and legislative branch of government's real interest is maximum number of votes for a given amount of spending. The insurance companys' and hospital administrations interests lie in maximizing profit - which can be done by growing market share or milking existing customers (or both). The doctor's interest is in producing a reasonable product (healthy you) at a minimum cost to the doctor. Your interest is a healthy you at minimum cost.
Note how often cost is important to a stakeholder compared to your health. A good outcome (healthier you) is not the top priority for most stakeholders - often not even for the individual whose health is involved.
If our personal health was truly our top priority, we would get fit and eat healthy, and quit our unhealthy habits. But we prefer our not so healthy habits as long as we can pay to keep death an arm's length away.
Also note that the only 2 stakeholders that really give a fig about your actual health are you and your doctor. Your doctor cares because his reputation and income depend upon perceived successful outcomes.
Changing bureaucracies (private insurance for government) doesn't change the priorities particularly so I have no expectation of improvement from a transition to a universal single payer system. In fact, it will inevitably get worse because the outcome of your health treatment no longer impacts the doctor's income, and because you have no longer have any financial incentive to make your lifestyle healthier.
Money is not the greatest incentive, but it changes behavior of more people than any other incentive/punishment I can think of.
just my thoughts
Well...
Seriously, insurance companies are not in it to improve the health standards of the community, they are there to make money.
When is the last time you looked?
Ideology against facts won't work this time.
Canada??
How about them "Late Posting Charges"?
If the amount the insurance company has contracted to pay for a given service isn't enough...
Then the provider will find some stuff that wasn't on the original billing, and re-bill you and the insurance company...
The insurance company claims it's already paid the full amount, will not tell the provider to stuff it, leaving you with the full amount of the "newly found" charges!
What's sad is that the actual doctor probably has no clue what is going on...
And, as long as he is paid... Doesn't care...
Mike Sr.
RE: What people hate most about health insurance
a bit naive
Stockholders, meanwhile, do not have the option of voting on executive compensation. They can gripe, but most stock is held in mutual funds or 401Ks. When it comes to 'individuals' holding the biggest chunk of a company's stock, it's usually the executives themselves. Hmmm...
an awesome responsibility
And I think it's above your pay grade. All your incentives are to minimize costs, which means minimizing coverage. The insurers' incentives are to maximize profits, minimizing coverage and maximizing price. You note there's not enough choice to suit you.
Meanwhile, where do the interests of your employees' lie? If your insurance costs were guaranteed to be level with those of your competitors, they would lose their advantage over you.
Not to mislead, but...
RE: What people hate most about health insurance
The only ways to fix the highly inflated prices of healthcare are to first get this country out of the extreme debt it is in so our dollar is actually worth something somewhere, second make health savings accounts mainstream, so we have higher deductables for care, and we wouldn't go to the doctor for every runny nose we get therefore making us educated consumers of healthcare, and third us getting off our butts and taking care of our bodies so we need less health care.
Socialized healthcare only works in they eyes of politicians who cannot do math on a large scale, and dream of the profits they will receive from the health system lobbiests because the price of healthcare can get even more outrageous when WE are TAXED for it.
Conservative Mythology
conservative mythology, or truth spoken by people who live there
Ask Canadians
We need reforms in the opposite direction, namely in the direction of the public interest.
Harping on "socialized medicine" is content-free ideology. I'm tired of people spouting the phrase with no knowledge of what it means.
There are a wealth of choices in systems which would represent reform, lower costs, longer lives, than what we have now.
Unfortunately conservatives won't even engage in the debate. It's all ideology to them.
So we'll vote 'em all out and won't listen to a word they say, which will result in a reform system which will have abuses identical and opposite to those we have now.
I think you're better off engaging the debate.
such stereotypes
It doesn't matter how healthy or educated you are about healthcare, you're still held hostage by the system - and the system is FOR PROFIT. Insurance companies would still find 'reasons' to raise rates every year and deny as many claims as possible.
Here's reality: I have a health issue arise over a weekend; naturally my primary care physician is unavailable. I don't go to an ER or immediate care center because of cost, but instead wait until Monday and show up at my doctor's office at 8am. I explain that I'm donating a kidney to my sister in two weeks and therefore have to drive half an hour for bloodwork and be back for - oh yeah - my JOB. What does the nurse say? Can't help you; you need an appointment.
Here's another reality: my GYN (who I've been seeing for over a decade, same as my PCP) has ordered me to four ultrasounds in five years, despite the fact I'm asymptomic (of anything). I have to pay for these suckers, so I finally told her I thought the tests were unnecessary. Her response? If I won't subject myself to the procedure (and pay for it) then I'm no longer her patient.
I take responsibility for my health care; it'd be nice if my providers and insurance company would too.