Kicking a dying man - a tale of US 'care'

[Swagman]

Source: the Sydney Morning Herald

Kicking a dying man - a tale of US 'care'
HELEN PITT
March 25, 2010

The day Barack Obama's healthcare reform package passed, I received a letter telling me my seven-year-old son's American health insurance would be discontinued. I was sent the same ''termination'' letter three times, multiple pages of convoluted insurance-speak I had come to know well after living for a decade in California.

I went to live in the US in 1999 for my American-born husband William to have treatment for a brain tumour. Over 10 years he had four brain operations, six weeks of radiation, numerous rounds of chemotherapy, immunotherapy and multiple prescription medications.

My husband might have been battling cancer, but the battle with the insurance companies proved just as sickening. Each time William had a brain operation we would receive a bill - usually in the vicinity of $50,000-$80,000 for the operation and three-day hospital stay - despite the fact we paid a hefty premium and the insurance company intended to pay costs.

I've heard often that unsuspecting and unwell patients who are insured have paid hefty medical bills because they are vulnerable, confused, tired of being harassed by hospital billing departments or simply didn't understand the insurance jargon that the bill was the responsibility of the insurance company, not the patient.

<snip>

The term ''socialised medicine'' was invented by the American Medical Association in 1947 to disparage president Harry Truman's proposal for a national healthcare system. It was a ploy to protect the interests of the US medical insurance industry, and the term was resurrected by Ronald Reagan to counter Jimmy Carter's campaign for national insurance. Yet ask any American what's so bad about "socialised medicine" and they are clueless.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/kicking-a-dying-man--a-tale-of-us-care-20100324-qwn4.html

[midnight]

1. Sadly these vultures have very little stopping them from ending this abuse.

[Demit]

2. Do you mean from continuing this abuse?

[midnight]

9. Sorry for being so clunky in my wording. I want the abuse to be stopped.

I don't see much consumer protection to end the abuse.

[depakid]

3. " the problem with the US health system is the insurance companies ."

...This reform plan still means the uninsured need to be insured - there's no plan for a public system like Australia's.

Just what exactly Obama's reforms mean for patients remains unclear. All I know is that when I moved back to Sydney last year one of my greatest reliefs, and proudest moments as an Australian, was re-enrolling and receiving my Medicare card for me and my son.

It will give me great pleasure to write to his American health insurer to say its services will no longer be required. I won my final battle the only way I know how: I left the country.

Note that Australia has both effectively regulated private insurers AND a public option.

Something Americans could have been on the road to, had the Obama administration used its bully pulpit to repeat story after story after story like this, rather than coddling the insurers and pandering to their corrupt Senators.

One thing for sure- the decision not to fight means that every story like this coming down the pipeline can now be laid at the administration's and the Senate Democrat's feet.

[GreenPartyVoter]

4. +1000

[depakid]

6. There's nothing whatsoever in the legislation to put a stop to this:

The day his doctors gave William the ''go home and die speech'' in 2005 we went home and within an hour the hospital billing department called, followed by his insurance company, disputing a $2000 bill for a brain scan in 2003 they claimed was not pre-approved by his insurer. It was.

I yelled down the phone to them both something along the lines of: leave us alone, let my 41-year-old husband spend some time with his son and die with some dignity, not on-hold on the phone to an insurance company mid-medical bill dispute.

William died peacefully at home a few months later. The calls from the insurance company stopped because the debt collectors took over. It was tempting in my grieving state to write them a cheque and be done with the harassment. Instead, I kept my husband's advice firmly in mind: ''don't pay them a cent.''

I wrote multiple letters and enlisted the help of William's doctors to prove no money was owed. The bills continued two years after he died.

In fact, due to the perverse incentives toward higher copay and higher deductible insurance- we can expect even more of these types of stories in the coming years.

[eridani]

7. True. If there is private insurance, the government must DICTATE rates

--just like public utilities commissions dictate utility rates.

[grahamhgreen]

5. This bill will do little to prevent this.

[emilyg]

10. Sadly true.

[Shining Jack]

8. Another horror story to add to the huge pile of the ones I've heard about.

It's totally disgusting.:(

[followthemoney]

11. When you take what I need to live, you take my life.

The reason horse thieves were lynched in the Old West was because taking a man’s horse in the wilderness was tantamount to leaving them for dead.