Insurance company First-Health Coventry "...wrote a prescription for him to die."

[DRoseDARs]

Originally posted by aneeshm
Why is healthcare in th USA to goshawful expensive ?

Because your insurance companies haven't learned yet the joys of screwing their clients.

[Ted Striker]

Because the country has been infected with the sickness of profits at all costs and everything else be damned

[Provost Harrison]

Originally posted by Sandman
It would be nice to see the next Democrat presidential candidate propose guaranteed healthcare for every American.

Then again, rugged individualism might prevail.

But it wasn't even an issue of rugged individualism, it was complete neglect by his insurer. I am sure the lawsuit will be worth many millions, but it's too little, too late!

[Provost Harrison]

Originally posted by Ted Striker
Because the country has been infected with the sickness of profits at all costs and everything else be damned

I can imagine. In the UK car insurance is very, very expensive, because it is a legal requirement. Other insurances on objects that are more expensive, for example buildings, are actually cheaper. All because it is a legal requirement. So for something like health insurance, where your life is on the line, I can imagine it is a complete cashcow to the insurance companies.

I am also aware of the problem of completely state-owned healthcare under the capitalist system, because the pharmaceutical companies will see the likes of the NHS as complete cashcows. Pharmaceutical companies like money, oh hell, do they like money. In fact they are probably some of the most tight-fisted organisations I have come across.

[Krill]

And as pharmaceutical companies are so rich, they ought to bwe able to afford paying you a better wage PH...

[Provost Harrison]

It's not so much my wage Krill that is the problem (although more is always welcome), but the fact they are constantly cutting headcount to the point where it makes our job virtually impossible to do effectively...

[PLATO]

I have always been a proponent for the profit motive being a major impetus for research in healthcare. We need entepreneurs to lead the charge for new and innovative treatments.

This story gives great pause to that kind of thinking. What use are the best treatments when only the rich can afford them? What use are insurance companies when they will deny life saving treatment due to cost?

It seems to me that universal healthcare will be hugely expensive in its own right, but the real danger may lie in stiffling research as the only consumer of that research will be a government that sets prices and not a demand market.

This is really the most difficult problem of our age. We are developing technology that can extend life, but the cost is tremendous. At what point do we accept a lower standard of living for a longer life?

So many questions that society has to answer...

[aneeshm]

Originally posted by DRoseDARs


Because your insurance companies haven't learned yet the joys of screwing their clients.

And I hope they never will . Thanks to medical tourism , the West and India may kill two birds with one stroke . The West gets medical treatment for an affordable cost , and we get the West's money . In the meanwhile , our government-funded institutes of higher education and research continue their excellent research work .

[Gibsie]

Wow, I'm proud of the right-wingers of Apolyton. Not one of them has tried to justify or excuse this appalling behaviour from the insurance company.

[Provost Harrison]

Originally posted by PLATO
I have always been a proponent for the profit motive being a major impetus for research in healthcare. We need entepreneurs to lead the charge for new and innovative treatments.

This story gives great pause to that kind of thinking. What use are the best treatments when only the rich can afford them? What use are insurance companies when they will deny life saving treatment due to cost?

It seems to me that universal healthcare will be hugely expensive in its own right, but the real danger may lie in stiffling research as the only consumer of that research will be a government that sets prices and not a demand market.

This is really the most difficult problem of our age. We are developing technology that can extend life, but the cost is tremendous. At what point do we accept a lower standard of living for a longer life?

So many questions that society has to answer...

Utter rubbish. Due to the economies of scale of the NHS, they are actually involved in one hell of a lot of research and pioneering techniques, whereas smaller organisations do not and can not as their prime motivation is profit...

[Dr Strangelove]

As you know the Medicare Prescription Assistance program went into effect at the beginning of this year. The program is basically administered by insurance companies. Elderly people have 49 plans to choose from, but many of the plans aren't just prescription plans, they're also insurance plans. Some of the plans are even HMOs. I've encountered instances in which confused elderly people have been signed up for an HMO without being fully informed about what they're getting into. They thought that they were just getting a prescription program. Now I've got patients whose coverage has been switched from Medicare to private HMO plans. They're not only not getting their medications paid for because they don't know the procedure to order their medication, but they're not getting their healthcare paid for either because they're locked into an HMO plan that requires them to see a physician participating with the HMO plan, but they don't know who they're supposed to see.

A particularily ominous aspect of this development is that many of the elderly are going to wind up paying more for their care. As it stands now Medicare sets the rates paid for services. If Medicare says that it will allow a certain fee for a service, such as office visits, then that's it. You can't charge over the allowed amount. With private insurance the deal is a little different. The insurance company pays what it pays for a service, if the charge is greater than what the company allows the patient is billed for the rest. That means that as the elderly are switched over to private insurance they're going to suddenly find themselves paying the balance on services that used to be fully paid for by Medicare. I'm willing to bet that many will wind up paying more for their total healthcare.

[Provost Harrison]

But hell Doc, it pays for tax breaks for the rich!

[C0ckney]

Originally posted by aneeshm
But it is privatised even in India - and it is quite affordable here . Insurance is not an absolute must , as it is in the USA . What's the diff ?

you sometimes hear about people going over to india for various elective treatments (like hip replacements and eye surgery) that are subject to waiting lists and cost a lot privately here. however even though these seem relatively cheap, i would imagine that they are out of reach of the average indian.

[BlackCat]

Originally posted by Gibsie
Wow, I'm proud of the right-wingers of Apolyton. Not one of them has tried to justify or excuse this appalling behaviour from the insurance company.

Though not being one of them, lemme make a try :

[RW nopublichealtcaremode]
The company actually acted in a sound and social good way. By refusing to pay for unnessecary and/or experimental treatments they save millions of dollars for those people that are insured in their company. If they just paid for such thing common people would have to sell their houses and other property without reason.
[/RW nopublichealtcaremode]

[Krill]

Um.

PH, do you know anything about Herceptin?