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Healthcare
Posted Wednesday, October 8, 2008, at 8:13 PM<< Previous | Read comments | Respond | Email link | Next >>
I know of no other business in the world whereby one contracts for the services of a "Company," pays the agree amount for months and/or years, has been assured the contract will quickly and truly address his needs in a positive way, yet each time one requests the service he has paid for he must fight, often to the point of a costly law suit, just to receive the benefits he was assured would be promptly his!
I say "Company" above because if one tries to find Blue Cross of Tennessee for instance, which has over half of Tenncare, with a guaranteed profit assured by the state government of Tennessee and also has upward of 50% of the "private" health insurance in Tennessee, one will not find it on any stock exchange nor any listing of companies in Tenn. It is not a company but a non-profit association! It has a beautiful golden-windowed, high-rise headquarters building in Chattanooga yet it felt the need for a new $200 million headquarters "campus", though it will still argue you are not due that which its representatives have clearly said you are entitled. I have never heard of, nor can I imagine any company in any other field surviving two weeks operating on such a philosophy. We are told the high cost of healthcare is driven by the sophisticated technology and training now required to offer adequate patient care. Strange taking this position and simultaneously mandating their $8-10 per hour employees are qualified to make life and death decisions as to the necessity of a given therapeutic protocol. As a "victim" of healthcare providers being a long time small businessman whose wife is a cancer survivor, I have heard "prior condition" and "uninsurable" until such terms evoke nausea! Why cannot the government, as it did long ago in automobile insurance, make mandatory the possession of such a policy? If one's record is indicative of higher than normal risk, the licensed companies in Tennessee are required to join an "assigned risk" pool and accept such drivers. I don't see why the same cannot be done in the health insurance field and dictate the additional risks be spread amongst all companies, ergo additional premium costs would be held to a minimum. Comments Showing comments in chronological order [Show most recent comments first] |
Near lifelong resident of Bedford County. Will comment on the issues of the day in, hopefully a cogent and certainly an honest manner. Will propose discussions not usually fully addressed in the mainstream media.
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Might not be a bad idea Carl, SR-22 health insurance.
Excellent blog
I think we are seeing the beginnings in a new trend/wave in healthcare and it is to re-educate consumers that insurance is not there to be counted on when you are "sick" but rather a tool in helping you to be "well"
Already there are plans out there that require you to have your health "assesed" and if you have preventable/controllable issues i.e. weight, colesterol, diabetes II etc - you have to "prove up" over a period of time that you have done/are doing everything you can to improve your condition i.e. lose weight, lower colesterol, improve blood sugar AC test scores, etc. or face higher premiums than employees without these problems - the same as a smoker is charged higher premiums within a plan than non-smokers.
Although my current health plan does not have these controls (yet) - it "does" pay for any type of preventative care but if I get sick and have to go to the doctor - it comes out of my health savings account.
Carl,
KUDOS to you! I wholeheartedly agree with your statements. Health insurance should be required by law, and those with pre-conditions should not EVER be denied.
I am not an advocate for "socialized" health care either... I am however, staunchly in support of reigning in the thieves who love your monthly payments, but do everything in their power to deny that random incident as being necessary.
Fortunately, thus far I have never personally had issue with my current providers(s), however I have many, hard working, friends who have had issue after issue with insurance companies, and it is simply not right.
After my fourth heart attack I was told I should have rehab, but my insurance company did a dance about who was approved or not and even though they told me could get an exemption if an approved center was more than 60 miles away, they never paid up.
Apparently it was cheaper for me to die than getting better. I didn't die, so they started playing games with renewal dates and deductibles.
Health insurance is not high on my list of ethical industries. If my life insurance plays the same game, I will find a way to haunt them.
Yes, that's what insurance is. Cover common risks for ALL, and pay for those who suffer the risks. That's why insurance proceeds are not taxed...if they were, then the premiums should be deductible from personal income. Blue Cross "has to" pay it's CEO more than $250,000 plus bonus, perks, to be "competitive". They are technically Non-profit, but as any institution, their first priority is to stay in business, and reward those who manage it. How to fix it? Some reasonable regulation, and that is hard to do, but if they exist for the public good, they need to put the public, all members of society first.
Nice blog Carl. ;)
Great blog.
Imagine This if you will:
Someone buys an insurance policy that is made exclusively for cancer. This policy is suppose to pay for everything concerning cancer , treatments, surgery or whatever meds they may need in case of cancer.
They had this policy 20+ years paid their premiums every month just as directed, unfortunately one of them was diagnosed with cancer. They turned their first bill into their cancer policy and guess what? They were dropped like a hot potato without the insurance paying a dime. This was not some fly by night insurance company it was a major company. The insurance company said they no longer carried just a policy for cancer but yet they took their payments every month. Now that they were diagnosed with cancer there was not an insurance company in the world that will touch them.
BTW this is a true story.
Moral of the story: Just because you "think" you have adequate insurance does not necessarily mean you do. Insurance companies rarely lose in a court room, they have the money to drag your case out for years. Bankrupting you much worse than the actual illness ever would have..
The fine print on an insurance policy is fine print for a reason, it is never in your best interest.
I have been trying to educate myself about health care costs, and health insurance, and I cant make heads or tails of it. It looks to be a situation like the housing mess. It seems to be everyones fault and no one knows how to fix it.