Picture For Those That Believe All "Health" Insurance Corporations Are Evil,

[Uncle Joe]

corrupt and dysfunctional to an advanced society.... :shrug: ...I've got nothing here, you're probably right.

[MineralMan]

1. Here's a picture of Blue Cross/Blue Shield Headquarters in

Texas. There's one just as large in your state, no doubt...

[Uncle Joe]

2. "Blue Cross Blue Shield Slapped on The Wrist for Cancelling Policies."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x507382

[MineralMan]

4. I'm not pimping them, for pete's sake. I'm just showing where

the money goes. Single payer would eliminate most of that waste. Again, there's one of these headquarters in every state served by BC/BS, since they have to have a separate division for each state. Waste and more waste.

[Uncle Joe]

6. Thanks for the explanation, MineralMan, I misinterpreted your post, I apologize.

My O.P.; maybe poorly explained was meant to state there were no such pictures of non-evil "health" insurance corporations.

Peace to you.:hi:

[vi5]

3. I am for reform and a public option, BUT....

...I am a person who has actually had a good experience with a health insurance company.

I've posted about it on here before, but my son was born 3 years ago with an assortment of abnormal conditions. He was required to be in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for 6 months. He was then in a rehab center for another month. We had 16 hours of in home registered nurses for 2 years, a whole host of medical equipment, and a grand total of 16 operations requiring surgeons, anesthesiolgists, and hospital stays.

Each year, we paid our 20% copays and after the $2,000 out of pocket max (which given the in-home nursing we met within the first week) the insurance company covered everything. Now I realize that $2K a year is not small change to a lot of people, and nor is it to us. But in that 3 years (2 and a half actually before I was forced to switch when my company got sold) I never had to fight a single thing. I got my Explanation of Benefits and they covered it all. I never had to call and yell at them. I never had to get my blood pressure up. Nothing. In 2 and a half years the insurance company paid $750,000 out to assorted doctors, hospitals, home care agencies, medical equipment companies. And they never argued with us about any of it.

Now if I hadn't switched then we would have been inching ever closer to our $2 million lifetime cap. But still.

And the thing is, that my son is now almost a "normal" 3 year old. He's about 90% there and he's come as far as he did and my family came as far as we have in this ordeal because we had good insurance.

So I'm definitely all for the public option or single payer or whatever. Because in all our time in and out of hospitals we saw so many people not so lucky and so many people whose kids didn't get the kind of care ours did, and it broke our heart.

[Uncle Joe]

5. I am happy that things worked out well for you and your family, but I have a different take on who

helped your family.

It wasn't the insurance corporation that saved your family, it was all the other people sending in their premiums and your family as a matter fortune, luck and circumstance was chosen to be taken care of.

I view the nation's health care; in the same light as the Titanic, every American is on board but there aren't near enough life boats and the primary reason for that tragic predicament is because some powerful and or wealthy individuals or corporations along the way decided people having nothing to do with health care should profit from the American Peoples' illness and injury. I view this as an immoral and dysfunctional system that undermines health care for everyone, even those being taken care.

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. Don't forget regulations

When my sister and my parents lost their coverage, we hired a family attorney and set up a trust and he helped us find new insurance. He said the only reason the insurance company never canceled them before my sister reached her cap was because laws prohibited it.

Now this was years ago and laws are probably different now. But sometimes govt does take care of people. And that's why I am a liberal. :)

[Uncle Joe]

10. You're correct and thanks for the reminder, proud2BlibKansan.

:thumbsup:

That would be the government.:hi:

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. I am so glad your son is doing well

I have a sister who is disabled and she finally reached her cap. It took years but it happened. And she was still sick. It's not a place I would ever want anyone to be. She had been covered on my mom's policy and when the cap was reached, the insurance company not only canceled my sister but my mom and dad too. My mom was healthy but my dad was sick. We had to scramble to find new policies for all 3 of them. Not fun.

[cynatnite]

9. A company my husband used to work for actually provided us with fantastic insurance...

All meds were covered 100%. They mailed our prescriptions to us. Deductible was $250 and they paid 90% of everything. Hospital bills, including ER visits, were covered 100% of the time.

Oh, and husband's company took out a small portion of his check that went to an account to help with what the insurance didn't cover. His company matched it dollar for dollar.

It's been so long ago that I can't remember the insurance company we used and never have I seen any that gave us such great coverage since then.

That was almost 20 years ago.

[Uncle Joe]

11. The last 20-30 years have been particularly dreadful, I believe a major contributing factor

may be the aging baby boomer generation putting an increasing squeeze on for profit "health" insurance corporations.

I also believe this problem will only become more acute over the next of couple of decades without major health care reform.

Finally I believe the only cure is single payer universal health coverage for every American from the cradle to the grave, anything short of that will only be treating the symptoms while pro-longing a dysfunctional dependency on for profit "health" insurance addiction that will only become harder to break as it increasingly enslaves the American People, turning us in to corporate indentured servants at best.