Health Insurer Blood Money – I Hope They Choke On It!!

We all knew that for-profit Health Insurance profits would go the way of Oil Company and Financial Services Organizations profits — straight UP. Now health insurers have joined the ranks of corporations that are too BIG to FAIL. The health insurers skyrocketing profits are due to patients putting off needed care that could save their lives because they cannot afford the cost sharing (either premium costs or out-of-pocket service costs).

Congratulations to the health insurance industry they have finally hit the big bucks by getting away with denying necessary medical care and killing off those patients that cannot afford it. I hope that they enjoy their Blood Money and when they meet their maker can explain how they helped kill thousands of people for the sake of their bonuses.

I want to know — Where the HELL are the Regulators?

May God have mercy on their condemned souls.

Subject: {NY Times Letters to the Editor} The Self-Rationing of Medical Care



Huge Profits for Health Insurers as Americans Put Off Care

May 13, 2011
Health Insurers Making Record Profits as Many Postpone Care
By REED ABELSON
The nation’s major health insurers are barreling into a third year of record profits, enriched in recent months by a lingering recessionary mind-set among Americans who are postponing or forgoing medical care.

The UnitedHealth Group , one of the largest commercial insurers, told analysts that so far this year, insured hospital stays actually decreased in some instances. In reporting its earnings last week, Cigna , another insurer, talked about the “low level” of medical use.

Yet the companies continue to press for higher premiums, even though their reserve coffers are flush with profits and shareholders have been rewarded with new dividends. Many defend proposed double-digit increases in the rates they charge, citing a need for protection against any sudden uptick in demand once people have more money to spend on their health, as well as the rising price of care.

Even with a halting economic recovery, doctors and others say many people are still extremely budget-conscious, signaling the possibility of a fundamental change in Americans’ appetite for health care.

“I am noticing my patients with insurance are more interested in costs,” said Dr. Jim King, a family practice physician in rural Tennessee. “Gas prices are going up, food prices are going up. They are deciding to put some of their health care off.” A patient might decide not to drive the 50 miles necessary to see a specialist because of the cost of gas, he said. (continued)

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The Self-Rationing of Medical Care

May 22, 2011

To the Editor:

Re “Health Insurers Profit as Many Postpone Care ” (front page, May 14):

How more scathing an indictment could there be of the insurance industry’s commodification of the nation’s health? In a faltering economy, the health insurers have rung up record profits, rewarded shareholders with new dividends and are demanding double-digit premium increases for fear of possible higher costs.

Is health a commodity to be sold for profit, for bonuses and dividends, or is our nation’s health a responsibility of our government? Can we not now, or ever, see the need to replace this needless, costly, money-sucking, claim-denying middleman, this so-called health insurance industry, with a single-payer government-administered system?

HERBERT BENGELSDORF
Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., May 14, 2011

The writer is a retired psychiatrist.

To the Editor:

You report that “major health insurers are barreling into a third year of record profits.” A major reason: use is down among their policyholders, and therefore care providers are submitting fewer bills than expected. Policyholders did not suddenly become healthier, however. Rather, the cost-sharing required by the policies they can afford has become too burdensome. So they deny themselves beneficial care.

Research shows that patients have trouble differentiating between services they really need and those they can safely avoid. As a result, many become sicker unnecessarily and require services they would not have needed if they had taken care of the condition before it became too serious to ignore. And when that happens, the insurer — as well as the system — spends more than it would have otherwise.

Surely, we should not reward the insurers responsible for this situation with the double-digit rate increases they are seeking.

STEPHEN M. DAVIDSON
Boston, May 16, 2011

The writer is a professor at the Boston University School of Management and the author of “Still Broken: Understanding the U.S. Health Care System.”

To the Editor:

I am a retired pediatrician who has AARP’s health care option through UnitedHealthcare as my supplementary insurance for Medicare. This year, the premium has risen to $6,000 for me and my husband, an internist. It seems quite obvious that a universal health care plan sponsored by the government (Medicare for all) would not be profit-driven and in the long run would lower medical costs. We would be willing to pay higher taxes for this.

It is truly immoral that about 50 million people are uninsured. Despite all our medical expertise, we have among the poorest outcomes in the developed world. Incidentally, we are among the lowest taxed of those nations that enjoy better outcomes.

I read recently in this newspaper that Medicare runs a 2 to 6 percent overhead compared with the average managed-care companies of 12 percent. It seems wrong that insurance companies are middlemen making a handsome profit on a vital service that could well be done (and has been) without them.

The insurance companies must have a powerful lobby and influence in Washington. Something is very rotten, not in Denmark, but right here in the U.S.A.

NANCY SHEVELL SCIALES
Flushing, Queens, May 15, 2011

To the Editor:

Acknowledging lower use of health insurance benefits by enrollees as a result of higher premiums, deductibles and co-pays, insurance companies, you report, “continue to press for higher premiums, even though their reserve coffers are flush with profits and shareholders have been rewarded with new dividends.”

Is this not rationing? It is dollar, not health resource, rationing, however: preserving profit flow at the expense of timely medical care.

This form of rationing does not address costs per se, because deductibles apply across the board (as opposed to exempting basic preventive or chronic health maintenance care, which would encourage judicious use of resources), and ensures, ultimately, higher mortality per enrollee through delayed diagnosis. Where are the cries of “death panels”?

DAY HILLS
Seattle, May 16, 2011

The writer is an oncologist.