Congressional committees heard a lot this month about the devious schemes used by health insurance companies to drop or shortchange sick patients. It was a damning portrait — and one Americans know from painful personal experience — of an industry that all too often puts profits ahead of patients. Full Story »
Posted by Kristin GorskiTo:
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Well-written and persuasive. Features facts I did not know before reading it. Presents a realistic, though general, emphasis on what is needed to reign in unethical and destructive insurance company practices.
If health care reform requires virtually all Americans to carry health insurance — as it should — industry leaders acknowledge that there would be enough healthy people paying premiums to offset the higher costs of covering the sick and the need for rescissions and other such practices would disappear.
Competition from a new public plan could provide a benchmark for judging how well private plans are performing. And clear evaluations of both public and private plans would be a boon for consumers. Senator Jay Rockefeller has proposed creating a nonprofit organization to grade all plans offered on a national exchange based on such factors as adequacy of coverage, affordability, customer and health provider satisfaction, and transparency of procedures and decision-making.
Another strong pro for creating a public plan.
This is the key. Insurance company actions to drop patients paradoxically undercut their own success; having all Americans insured makes the system work.