An important post at Firedoglake on health care.
Americans are unhappy with their health care system. And it’s not just because 47 million American don’t have health insurance. As Jane has courageously discussed here, those who are insured are also frustrated — they’re angry — because medications, testing, and treatment that their doctors are telling them are medically necessary are being routinely denied coverage by an insurance industry whose financial health depends on such denials.
We have a system that largely depends on insurance companies, but the financial interests of insurance companies are directly at odds with the interests of people who need health care. This conflict is pervasive, pernicious, and fundamental, and it cannot be easily overcome through “reforms” that keep private insurance in the central role, no matter how well conceived and implemented.
Key concept.
I want to do more on this, but I have no more time this morning. Maybe later.
Update: See also this post by Barbara O'Brien at Mahablog on S-CHIP.
2 comments:
If you would just see what health care means in Romania you would not complain. I don't mean to sound unpolite but in Romania either you pay doctors seperatly from the insurance. There are no drugs in the hospitals. Even if you have insurance you still have to pay. And so on...
By most measures, American health care -- the system at least -- is not all it's cracked up to be. We also pay doctors in addition to what they get from the insurance, and we have an extra layer of bureaucrats deciding whether the procedure you need is "medically necessary." Over the past decade or two, we are paying more and more for less and less, and right now nearly one-sixth of our population has no medical coverage at all.
I'm always being confronted by claims that in Britain or Canada you may have to wait weeks for surgery or even an exam by a specialist, but that can also happen here -- I once had an incident involving bleeding kidneys and was told the specialist could see me in three weeks. Fortunately for me, the doctor who had referred me got on the phone and raised hell.
The point is, this is something America needs to pay attention to and to come up with something that benefits someone besides the insurance companies. It's unconscionable that in the richest country in the world, we don't have universal health care.
Post a Comment