The Price on Your Life

Unfortunately, the title is not referring to a skilled sniper waiting on the top of a building targeting you because your own government leaked your CIA ‘secret’ identity to get to your husband; that would have been a really cool story if it could have ever happened in real life…I am referring to guys sitting at the top of tall buildings wearing fancy suits and sitting around board room tables talking about how to save their company big bucks, putting more money in their own wallets, and denying you healthcare coverage, all at the same time. At the moment, everyone is focusing on what they think is wrong with the new healthcare reform bill so I thought I would take some time to focus on what is totally faked up with the current private insurance business.

If you are fortunate enough to live under the current private healthcare system in America, you enjoy many benefits and options that those of us living under a public healthcare system do not enjoy. For example, you have the benefit of worrying about being dropped for medical coverage if you contract a serious illness. You have the added benefit of going bankrupt from those medical bills. Seriously though, let’s review the facts of the situation and try to figure out if private health care run by insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies is the best solution.

The reality is that you are only valuable to an insurance company until you get sick. The private insurance company’s objective is to turn a profit. It is not profitable for them to pay claims but it is profitable for them to charge premiums to healthy people. To predict actions by people or companies (run by people), look no further than the main incentive. In this case, big bucks are the incentive. Somehow these fakheads are so greedy their thirst for money has outweighed their morality. They don’t give a flying fak about you, your sweet daughter, Suzie-Q, or your husband, Joe the Plumber if it involves them spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to treat your/her/his illness. Unfortunately, I did not have to look very long to find the following typical story of the current health care system:

“InNovember 2007, Patsy Bates sued Health Net Inc. , a California based health insurance company, alleging the insurer unlawfully canceled her health insurance policy retroactively. HealthNet rescinded Bates' policy after she was diagnosed with cancer, had begun chemotherapy treatment, and incurred $ 200,000 in medical bills. Health Net based the cancellation on its belief that Bates knowingly lied about her medical history when filling out her application. Under California law, policies can be canceled if an individual knowingly commits fraud (Cal. Health and Safety § 1365(a)(2)).

Further investigation by a California judge revealed that Health Net reportedly paid the executive in charge of the cancellation more than $ 20,000 in bonuses. The California Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) subsequently fined Health Net $ 1 million for failing to disclose information (when asked by DMHC investigators) about bonuses paid to employees.” (Source here)

I wonder how many times those greedy faks pulled the same trick in the past and ‘save’ millions of company money.