Daily News Updates - Health Insurance News

Meanwhile, guess I’m just stuck, Pt.2 – How bad and how to fix.

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Not a surprise to anymore, the main reason for this is the spiraling costs of profit-making medical care. Since the 2000 election and especially over these last 4 years, soaring medical costs have left wage increases in the dust. Some of the worst years actually saw wage increases go backwards, while profit-driven medical costs kept rising. With health insurance company CEOs drawing $14 million a year paychecks, is it any wonder? With more and more employers scaling-down or eliminating employer-based health insurance benefits altogether, an added blow is landed on the already-downtrodden. So, as the survey brings out, “High costs are deterring not only the uninsured from seeking care, but also many insured people who are struggling with higher deductibles, co-payments and other out-of-pocket expenses as their employers or health [insurance] plans shift more of the cost burden to them.”

With these scaled-down health insurance policies, a very large portion of these cases were caused by plans that denied treatments given by doctors and hospitals. On the flip-side, many other cases resulted from doctors and hospitals not accepting coverage from some of these health insurance plans. Another problem, common to both the ‘underinsured’ and the ‘uninsured’ was the long delays in getting the medical attention they needed. Many, either could not get through on the telephone or could not accommodate the restrictive operating hours offered by doctors’ offices and clinics.

This telephone survey being referenced so heavily was fairly extensive and included some 18,000 citizens. The organization conducting the study was the Center for the Study of Health System Change. They are financed by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and are a well-respected nonpartisan research group. The criterion used was that the respondents required the health care that they did not receive. The resulting consequences were beyond the scope of this study. The study, still, charges that it is “disturbing that unmet medical needs increased the most for people in poor or only fair health — those most likely to get even sicker if they don’t get treatment.” The summary of the article written by the “Telegraph” is the strengthening case for universal health care, “with moderate cost-sharing provisions.” The précis holds that “All Americans should be able to get medical care when they need it. “