Real People! Real Suffering! We Need Help Now!

As the political powers begin to bang the drums of health care reform, I once again want to make the point that real people all over America are suffering at the hands of the current system, and that radical reform is needed now. As always, information is omitted to protect confidentiality.

One patient detailed to me an incredible tale about their new health insurer. The new policy covers three visits to the doctor per year. The patient saw a specialist twice, for a problem that began a few months earlier. The insurer denied the claims for the two visits because the problem had began prior to the policy's start date, and therefore was a pre-existing condition. However, the two visits were counted toward the three visit maximum anyway! Subsequently, the patient saw a physician for a physical, and some testing was done. The testing required a follow-up test. The insurer got the dates of the work mixed up, and counted the final test as the third doctor visit, and denied the claim for the physical, which had occurred earlier, and of course, was much more expensive. Of course, the insurer has had no problems collecting its premiums!

It feels as if health insurers, besides collecting their ever-increasing premiums, are willing to do little else without a fight.

We saw yet another patient with dental pain who could not afford an appointment with a dentist. All we can do is prescribe antibiotics and medication for the pain, and hope for the best. As we learn more about the effects of inflammation on the body, and how dental problems are a serious source of inflammation, we realize that, in addition to being painful, this untreated dental condition may lead to many other serious, and costly, problems in the future.

And today a colleague told me about an uninsured patient who has been diagnosed with cancer. We will begin the often confusing and demoralizing process of trying to get low cost treatment for the cancer at a university hospital. Just what a person needs when they are diagnosed with a life-threatening illness.

What do we need? Universal, high quality health care, with no exclusions, at an affordable price.

When do we need it? NOW!

BE HEALTHY

Assuring the Insurers

It was reported today in the New York Times that a number of large health insurance groups have signalled possible cooperation with President-elect Obama's call for universal insurance, as long as obtaining health insurance becomes mandatory for everyone...

Of course we'd love to help the health insurance industry...the industry that has made their product so expensive and/or denied care to so many that almost 50,000,000 Americans go without health care...like the spouse of a patient that we heard about today. Nice couple with a small child. Unfortunately, the spouse had the misfortune of being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and has been going to expensive neurology appointments, and receiving expensive treatments, paying out of pocket, until recently when they found that they couldn't afford the cost of having both a small child and an expensive medical problem. So, they made the logical choice. Who could argue? Children, of course, come first. I guess they can put off the medical care until their child grows up, as long as they don't want to go to college, that is.

So, it only makes sense that with the great job that health insurance has done so far, of course we should place all of our health care eggs in their basket, even make purchasing health insurance mandatory. That way, every American would have the opportunity to pay insurance premiums that increase at three to four times the annual rate of inflation, or the opportunity to pay thousands of dollars in deductibles before they actually get any care paid for by their insurer, or the ultimate opportunity...to have their claim arbitrarily denied when they need help the most.

I apologize if my sarcasm regarding the health insurance industry isn't clearly evident in my writing, but I'm new to blogging and I'm working on my writing chops. But to use a simile to make myself more clear, giving the health insurance industry more control over health care seems a little like the Roadrunner allowing Wile E. Coyote to make his dinner plans for him.

BE HEALTHY