CHESSNOID

After watching the Michael Moore movie Sicko, it is easy to see that the American health care system is in need of a fix.  If you haven’t seen the movie, take some time to watch it and educate yourself about the problems that exist out there.

Sicko Trailer

There are people who have health insurance, but when something comes up that is expensive, the insurance companies deny the operation or procedure for bogus reasons.    I think most people are happy with their health insurance until the insurance company denies a claim that should be covered.

San Diego News Network:

Using data culled from California’s Department of Managed Care’s Web site, the CNA said it found that the state’s five largest insurers rejected 31.2 million claims for care from 2002 through June of this year. According to the nurses’ union, PacificCare denied the largest percentage of claims (40 percent), followed by Cigna (33 percent), HealthNet (30 percent) and Kaiser (29 percent).

I think this is where one part of our rising costs come from in the American system.  The insurance company is for profit and that guides their  decision making process. They are the unnecessary middlemen that cheats Americans.

The other problem the American health system has are the ambulance chasing attorneys who try to game the system  and look for lawsuits where it is cheaper for the doctors or hospitals to settle than to hire attorneys to defend themselves.  Doctors have to pay for malpractice insurance which continues to skyrocket and give doctors incentive to leave the medical field.

CNN.Money:

Dr. Patricia Perry, 44, a dermatologist based in Burbank, Calif., operates a solo practice. She mostly performs medical procedures such as skin biopsies.

Perry said she’s “seeking to get out” of her profession because she’s fed up with insurance reimbursement challenges while struggling to cover other costs associated with being a doctor.

“When you get to a point where you feel unappreciated and you’re arguing with people about being paid, it takes away the passion for what you do,” Perry said.

Daryl Richard, a spokesman for insurer UnitedHealthcare (UHC), said his company is taking steps to address some of providers’ concerns.

“We agree 100% that there is too much paperwork” tied to reimbursement claims, he said.

Richard said UnitedHealthcare offers a Web-based application to all of its providers that will enable the company to adjudicate claims to determine a reimbursement and a patient’s out-of-pocket expense “by the time the patient makes it to the (doctor’s) front desk.”

“This takes away some of the unknown for both providers and consumers,” he added.

Perry pays $2,500 a year in malpractice insurance. “I am licensed in three states. To maintain my license I have to pay a fee every one to two years in each state,” she said. She also pays a considerable amount of money every year to attend annual trade conferences required by her specialty to update and hone her skills.

Listening to the Obama administration and Congress trying to create a bill to fix health care is disheartening.  I say that because they don’t deal with the issues that cause health care to become unaffordable.  They simply want to give everyone health insurance.  This will actually make costs rise in both the short and long term.  They want to spend a trillion dollars to fix the American health care problem, but they ignore what the causes are and spend in ignorance.