Question about health insurance

Insurance wants to pick and chose what aliments it covers, it decides what medications you can have - no matter what your doctor says.
Isn't that practicing medicine without a license?

The Governor of Wisconsin wants to mandate that insurance cover autism spectrum disorders but their is a lovely coalition that is against it because it isn't cost effective
http://www.thewheelerreport.com/releases/Apr07/apr9/0409healthcaremandates.pdf

Health insurance should cover health issues and if they can't do the job then they should be out of business - let the government take over. I know people whine that it can't be cost effective but frankly that is bullshit whiners that don't want to let go of their record breaking profits, that they are making in economically black times. They spin the media so people really think it's true.

The customer has zero influence on prices these days. When people holler about high prices the wealthy always answer back that prices are based on supply and demand. That's just plain old bullshit, especially when it comes to necessity items like health care.

Since the majority of Americans want a single payer health care system what's the real hold-up? Is it apathy or is our system so overwhelmingly corrupt there is no hope?

is money. Insurance companies donate big to political campaigns. Until we have public funding of campaigns, we may not have real health care reform. If you look at the plans being proposed by most of the candidates, they are variations on the current system. They've all embraced "universal health care" as a catchy phrase - but to almost all of them, that means a perpetuation of the employer based system, and continued reliance on insurance companies. The only candidate who is advocating for a true single payer system is Dennis Kucinich.

I believe he's 68 and I know he means it.

how else would everyone get coverage? They could offer the fake coverage like they do with the seniors?
I'll have to see if I can find out but I don't know if he can be nailed down because I'd guess he's open to what ever gets the job down -effectively and fairly.

This is from his site:
http://obey.house.gov/HoR/WI07/About+Dave/
"A second priority is health care. Dave has been a driving force behind doubling federal investments in medical research and in expanding access to affordable health care. He believes every American should be covered by affordable health insurance, that managed care patients need a Bill of Rights, and that Medicare should provide affordable prescription drug coverage for seniors."

His first priority - Education

But "affordable health insurance" is code for employer based/insurance coverage. All of the presidential candidates are saying similar things. The term "universal health care" no longer means the same thing as "single payer." Dennis Kucinich is calling for Medicare for all. Medicare has administrative costs of about 3%. Insurance companies have administrative costs of 25%+

I'll ask him directly what he means, but I believe he ultimately means single payer because we all know "affordable" still means a lot of people still can't afford it - it's one of the things where those that have can excuse themselves from reality and feel better because since it's affordable if they don't have health coverage that's 'their' choice.

a clerk at the insurance company makes medical decisions for the insured.
Maybe - maybe, after appeals a medical person will look at the file.

I really think that most people who do have insurance do not think about it as a problem. They think that everyone is getting medical care if they go to the emergency room. Of course we know that is not the case, but people have mistaken impressions.

I think that media should include the phrase "if you have good insurance" when they have stories about the latest medical advance.

Their only job is making money for their shareholders. That's the only legal requirement for any publicly traded for-profit corporation. Paying claims is the one thing they don't want to do. So they try to maximize the profits by denying legitimate claims, denying coverage for proven procedures, raising their already obscene premiums, adding nonsensical deductibles and copays, and refusing to cover the costs of necessary prescription drugs.

In an enlightened country, the executives of these companies would be strung upside down from lamp posts with their exposed viscera eaten by crows. In America, they're admired as astute business people just using best business practices to increase profitability.

That's why any new health care "reform" has to be single payer, and has to eliminate these parasites from the equation. If they're allowed in, they'll just screw it up all over again, and probably more efficiently, since they've learned from their mistakes and improved the ways they can steal.

Other than that, they're a great bunch of guys.


wp

It's not the same as insuring your car. When you buy car insurance you aren't planning on getting into an accident. When you buy health insurance you plan on getting health care, but the insurance companies treat you like they treat your car. They don't expect you to ever use it. This is why there are so many exceptions, so much meddling in diagnosis and treatment and why sick people aren't insured in favor of the healthy ones.

http://opensecrets.org/industries/indus.asp?Ind=F09

That's just the lobbying at the federal level -- it does not include lobbying costs at the state level.

The solution: there has to be enough of us demanding a solution. We have to be loud, we have to organize, and WE HAVE TO DEMAND CHANGE. There has to be enough of us screaming that the politicians fear getting voted out if they don't do what we want.

Though the same amount of money would flow through the health care system, it wouldn't flow to the right people - namely the big insurance companies. Instead, the money would flow into the government through taxes, and directly to the health care system through payments. Did I mention payments to Blue Cross? Anthem? Nope. And that's the problem. We would in effect become one big giant self-insured corporation, and the insurance companies would die. And they dont' want that to happen.

that love you when you're healthy and dump you when you're sick. It's obscene. CEO's make a fortune each and every year. What am I saying? Each and every month! Their concerns have nothing at all to do with their policyholders and providing healthcare. I can't imagine why a single-payer system that includes them even crosses the mind of anyone proposing humane health care for this country.

n/t