Bonuses For Dropping Sick Policyholders

November 21, 2007

This article from the LA Times reminded me that I wanted to post about the flawed health care system. I recently saw Michael Moore’s SICKO on DVD having missed it in the theater. Michael Moore tends to be heavy handed, but his subjects are always worth inspection. The health care industry is of particular interest to me both because my father is a doctor and because I am a type 1 diabetic who is not eligible for insurance within the current system except through group plans. If I were not working for, or in this case owning, a company with the minimum number of employees, I could not get health insurance. SICKO basically shows that the insurance companies are out to make a profit regardless of the human consequences… the less care they give and the more risky patients they decline, the less money they spend. The LA Times piece shows that certain insurers are doling out bonuses based on their employees denying patients care and saving the company money. In SICKO Moore interviews a woman who’s husband dies of cancer because his health insurance denies his treatment. My dad has told me that he frequently is hung out to dry by insurance companies who refuse to pay for very easily justified care he has given patients. The drug and insurance companies have successfully lobbied to crush support for universal health care as “un-American” or “communist”. Once again, big business is manipulating government. If lobbying were made illegal, politicians could not be easily bought and they would be forced to look out for the welfare of their constituents. Please read the article and check out SICKO.

-Shepard Fairey

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