When the phone rang yesterday morning, I should never have picked up the phone. It was Blue Cross/Blue Shield of South Carolina, the predominant (if not only) health insurer provider in South Carolina. By the time I hung up the phone I realized that health insurance companies are the blood-sucking leeches of the 21st Century.
Two hundred years ago health care was even worse than today. At that time in America, the most prestigious health care practitioner was Dr. Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration of Independence, father of modern psychiatry, and for all practical purposes, the first Surgeon General of our new nation. And what did good doctor Rush prescribe as a panacea for virtually all ills, great and small? Blood-sucking leeches—or for even more copious blood-letting, simply cutting open a vein and letting all the “poisonous” blood drain away in order to cure the patient. It mattered little to Benjamin Rush that this antiquated practice was losing favor among the more scientific doctors who were seeking empirical evidence that blood-letting cured anything. As far as Rush was concerned, this is what he was taught in Europe, this is what was practiced for hundreds of years, and by golly this is what he would prescribe—no matter how many people died. Ironically, he even recommended such draining of blood for a soldier who was wounded in battle and was suffering from severe loss of blood. You’re hurt? Quick we need to drain more blood!
The representative from Blue Cross, who would eventually get an earful of my wrath, was calling to inform me that I still needed to pay my health insurance premiums for the months of June and July, even though my coverage should have ended on May 1st, as I became eligible for Medicare at that time, (I turned 65 early in May). Careful not to lose coverage during the month of May (and not knowing I could actually get Medicare a week before I was officially 65) I paid the hefty premium for the month of May. Later, I considered asking for Blue Cross to reimburse me for over-paying—until I discovered they had actually paid some benefits on my behalf for medical expenses during that month. Medicare would have paid these expenses, had I still not had a Blue Cross plan on the Health Care Exchange.
For six months, every health insurance company in America inundated my mailbox and tied up my phone with junk calls urging me to purchase supplemental insurance plans as Medicare didn’t pay for everything, and by golly, I needed to buy even more health insurance.
Yet the blood-sucking leeches at Blue Cross tell me they didn’t know I wanted to end my health insurance when I turned 65, as though I was so stupid as to want to pay $1089 per month for health insurance, rather than get Medicare which costs me nothing. So they insisted I still owe them premiums for the months of June and July, as they cannot cancel my insurance until August.
So I asked them, “Suppose my child desperately needed medical attention, but I couldn’t afford to pay my premium; would your insurance company continue to provide me with coverage?” He said no; after 30 days my coverage would automatically end and they would pay nothing. “In that case,” I argued, “My health insurance should have automatically stopped as soon as I stopped paying premiums, as I was receiving medical payments from Medicare, and Blue/Cross was paying nothing.” Before long the poor caller was being berated for representing a health insurance company.
Americans pay twice as much for the same quality of health care as the rest of the civilized world, simply because for every two dollars spent on health care, one dollar stays in the pocket of the insurance companies.
To be fair, the previous statement is not precisely correct; some of the exorbitant costs of health care are the result of the greedy blood-sucking leeches which include pharmaceutical companies, device manufacturers, and hospitals that have become huge for-profit corporations. Also, far too much money is wasted on unnecessary documentation and paperwork. The greatest sin in the health care field is not a patient dying who could have been saved—it is his dying without sufficient paperwork inputted into his computer file. Years ago, I boldly put up a sign in my office where I worked as a therapist for the county:
“We are spending more and more time documenting that we are helping fewer and fewer people. Eventually we will spend all of our time documenting that we are helping nobody.”
Tons of money is also wasted on unnecessary testing. I’ll never forget the time my doctor told me I needed to get an MRI to be certain the pain in my side wasn’t caused by kidney stones. When I got to the MRI testing facility three days later, they told me to sign forms saying that I had to pay the $3000 fee if the doctor didn’t order the procedure. I knew the doctor ordered it, but since he was short-staffed over the Fourth of July weekend, I didn’t know if they forwarded the paperwork. So I said I wouldn’t sign the form until first saw they received the necessary paperwork. But the authorization never arrived. The lady behind the desk cheerfully informed me I could still have my MRI, only I would have to pay the $3000 fee out of my own pocket. I said no thank you and walked out.
Later, when I dared to question the doctor’s judgment for ordering the MRI, he defensively justified the superfluous test by saying he thought it was imperative to rule out kidney stones. Ah, there’s the rub—no procedure is too expensive or too prohibitive as long as someone else has to pick up the tab. As long as the doctor didn’t have to pay—moreover, as long as I didn’t have to pay—both my doctor and I had no problem with my getting an MRI.
It could be worse. And it would have been had the Republicans kept their promise to repeal and replace Obamacare.
Thankfully, Republican Senators John McCain, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski had the courage to stand up to their fellow Republicans—and join with all the Democrats—in rejecting Mitch McConnell’s repeal of Obamacare; a horrible bill that basically said, “If you are poor, and get sick, you should die.” But even if the Republicans have lost their zeal to repeal and replace Obamacare, we are not there yet. Saving Obamacare is not enough. It is merely a significant step in the right direction, and not where our country needs to be.
We need health care that does two essential things:
1. Provide health care for all Americans as a universal right.
2. Lower the costs of health care dramatically so it can be affordable for all Americans.
There are some things the government should not do. The government shouldn’t build cars, or else the best we will get will be worse than the Yugo. The government shouldn’t run restaurants, or else the best we will get will be like sickening school lunches served in middle school cafeterias.
Then, there are some things that private businesses should not do. We don’t want private roads and highways. We need good public tax-supported schools; not just good private schools. When private industry builds prisons, it is their interest to keep as many Americans in prison as possible.
Providing health insurance is something private businesses should not do. It is something our government should provide. There is no “free market-place” to buy health insurance. During WWII the government foolishly put in place a freeze on wage increases. So if big companies wanted to attract better workers, they couldn’t pay more money. So instead, the offered valuable fringe benefits such as health insurance. The health insurance industry grew tremendously, and became powerful politically.
Trouble was, if you worked for a company that didn’t provide health insurance, you were screwed. If you worked part-time or were temporary, you were screwed. If you lost your job or were unemployed, you were screwed. If you were self-employed or ran a small business, you were screwed. If you were over fifty and looking for work, and companies wouldn’t hire you because your health care benefits were too expensive, you were screwed. If you had pre-existing conditions you were screwed. The health insurance companies were in business to make money; not save lives or keep people healthy. The only ones who benefited from costly health insurance, were the health insurance companies.
Just because health insurance companies, like Blue Cross, are big businesses, doesn’t by itself make them evil. But putting the burden on big companies to provide health insurance for all their employees, harms almost every industry except the health insurance industry. Over twenty years ago I read a thoughtful article in the business magazine Forbes, which argued that American businesses can’t compete globally with foreign competitors; if American businesses have to provide their workers with health insurance, but foreign companies don’t. Other countries’ governments provide universal health care to all citizens. GM or Ford have to provide their American workers with health insurance. Thus, a car made in America would cost much more than a car of the same quality made in Japan or Germany. No wonder so many American companies pulled up roots and moved their factories to other countries.
Yet Obama tried desperately to not directly fight the insurance companies in reforming health care, as he and the Democrats feared nothing substantial would be passed, if the insurance industry fought it tooth and nail. Don’t get me wrong. Obamacare is far better than nothing. Repealing Obamacare would have only made things far worse, and no better.
However, Bernie Sander’s single payer system is an idea whose time has come.
“Any Democrat worth their salt that doesn’t unequivocally say Medicare-for-all is the way to go? To me, there’s something wrong with them. We’re not going to accept no more hemming and hawing. No more game playing. Make your stand.”
Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution and former Ohio State Senator
Does this mean we have to take on the insurance companies? Hell, yes!
“We will be taking on the most powerful special interests in the country: Wall Street, the insurance companies, the drug companies…”
Senator Bernie Sanders
Are we there yet? Not by a long shot. But Bernie Sander’ plan may soon become the salvation of our health care system after the mid-term elections of 2018. The only good thing about Trump is that he has ruined the Republican brand so badly, the Democrats have a golden opportunity to take over Congress in the mid-term elections next year.
But you can bet those special interest groups aren’t going to quietly fade away without a fight; and they will spend millions, if not billions, of dollars to preserve their special privilege. There are plenty of politicians (mostly Republican) who are already in the pockets of these huge donors trying to stop real healthcare reform. They may have the money (as they got filthy rich on your illness) but we have the votes. I just pray we have the sense to listen to those who advocate for a single-payer, Medicare-for-all system.
It took a long, long time to finally get rid of blood-sucking leeches as an approved practice of medicine. It will be none too soon to finally get rid of the blood-sucking leeches of health insurance and pharmaceutical companies who are pocketing huge profits over our need for adequate health care. If we could eventually get rid of blood-sucking leeches two hundred years ago, we can do so today.