America’s Health Plan? Use Your Credit Card When Your Insurance Plan Screws You

By: Scarecrow

"This post is to urge you to watch PBS Frontline's Sick Around America, on the outrageous practices of America's health insurance conpanies. But first . . .

I just saw a TV commercial that starts off sympathizing with a person who had an unexpected illness, with thousands in medical bills that her health insurance provider would not cover. A calm voice then tells us the solution is put your medical bills on your Citi, Capital One and other credit cards. And they're serious."

On Frontline's Sick Around America, we follow the outrageous practices of America's health insurance companies. The wonder is that we tolerate their criminal abuse.

An academic first explains the obvious: that health insurers make money by talking premiums but denying claims, which are called "losses." We then see this perverse incentive structure played out with several patients, who wind up with companies refusing to provide coverage or, having supposedly offered coverge, refusing to cover claims on spurious grounds.

Other Americans are shown desperately failing to find affordable coverage after losing their jobs or their marriages. We follow a patient who dies from lack of health coverage; she is one of 20,000 who do so every year in America. Only in America.

We just witnessed public outrage at $160 million in bonuses to AIGPF employees, but did you know that a major health insurance company just settled with the NY AG on claims that it unlawfully/fraudulently rescinded insurance claims of over $300 million? Tip of the iceberg. In another case, insurance employees were paid large bonuses based on their success in rescinding insurance coverage for those who thought they were covered. So your premiums are going to pay bonuses to people whose job is to screw you.

These are the same companies who, having bought themselves out of criminal indictments and multimillion dollar civil actions, think they deserve a seat at the negotiating table over health reform. Now they arrogantly tell us they'd be willing to consider dropping prior-illness exclusions and differential rates if only the government will require that everyone buy their insurance policies. All they want is a guaranteed piece of the action, at twice the cost of every other industrialized nation. What's the word for a protection racket?

And the condition for this "bargain" is that the US not create another public health plan that people could join and that would -- heaven forbid -- force the private plans to compete with an entity whose mission was to provide health care and wasn't trying to make a profit by denying them health care. More background on the public plan here.