PLEASE HELP ME! I have some very legitimate concerns, and I don’t know where to turn for help. The only solution I am hearing to our healthcare woes is “insurance coverage”. Coverage is NOT care. Insurance is not the answer, it is the PROBLEM‼ The current raging healthcare debate is completely missing some fundamental flaws in our healthcare system:
Based on insurance. Our system for the delivery of medical care is based on a risk-adjusted wager as to whether or not we will need access to healthcare. We will all need healthcare, at some point, with 100% certainty. This care is filtered through the profit-driven insurance companies, who dictate to the doctors how to practice medicine.
Employer-based. Why are businesses burdened with the responsibility to provide healthcare coverage to its employees? Why is this the primary source for health insurance? Businesses need to be removed from the healthcare equation. Talk about an instant economic stimulus, try allowing all businesses to eliminate one of its greatest expenses! Our access to healthcare should NOT be tied to our employment. Losing employment should not equal losing access to healthcare, nor should my employer’s choice of insurance dictate my medical care.
What system? We don’t have an actual healthcare system. Instead it is a hodge-podge of policies dictated by special interests, such as the insurance, pharmaceutical, and hospital industries. None of these special interests have the best interest of our health in mind, but are entirely profit-driven. They only care about our health if it also happens to be profitable for them.
Power taken from doctors. Doctors are not allowed to make all the decisions. Insurance companies dictate to the doctors how to practice medicine, by telling them what tests and procedures they will pay for, and what medicines to prescribe. Doctors are the trained professionals, and other profit-based interests need to be removed from their medical decision-making.
I have seen an insurance company send a letter to a 35 year-old man living in the hospital waiting for a heart transplant, telling him that he has reached his maximum lifetime limit, and that his coverage has ended…that’s before he even gets the expensive transplant. I have also seen a woman refuse life-saving surgery because she could not afford the 20% co-pay. I have seen that individuals will pay 3 to 6 times more for surgery. What would cost an un-insured person $18,000 for a routine emergency appendectomy, only cost the insurance company $3,000-6,000. Who is better equipped to pay for this? (Answer: the insurance company, not the person who cannot afford insurance).
There is certainly a place for insurance in healthcare, and a very important one. But it should not be the basis for basic medical care, nor should 47 million people be excluded. There are better ways to fund healthcare reform than “insurance coverage”. The best one I have found is Healthcare Vouchers, as recommended by Drs. Emanual and Fuchs. But I’m sure there are other solutions possible. So why is insurance coverage the ONLY solution being discussed?
There are so many voices clamoring to be heard, I don’t know where to take my concerns. I am hoping that you will be able to help me find a way to have my one little (but knowledgeable) voice heard.
