Former Insurance Company Executive: Health Insurers Stand Between Patients And Their Doctors
Former Insurance Company Executive: Health Insurers Stand Between Patients And Their Doctors
One of the most common right-wing memes used by opponents of health care reform is that progressive solutions to America’s health care problems place “Washington bureaucrats firmly between you and your doctor.” Again and again, conservatives have deployed this meme to demagogue the health care debate.
However, the reality is there already is someone standing between you and your doctor: health insurance companies. Single mother Ellen Hayden knows this from experience. After losing her mother at the age of 7 from breast cancer, Hayden has done everything she can to get regular mammograms. Following an abnormal mammogram, her doctor recommended that she have an MRI. After the scan, her insurer, Blue Cross Blue Shield, refused to pay for the procedure and is also refusing to pay for a follow-up second MRI her doctor has suggested.
Ned Helms, a former health insurance industry executive who now works at the University of New Hampshire, told Sea Coast Online that this is Hayden’s case is an example of “insurance people” getting between patients and their doctors:
“It’s understandable that this is an emotional issue because most patients believe that ‘nothing is going to stand between me and what I want to get done,’” said Ned Helms, a former health insurance industry executive and director of the N.H. Institute of Health Policy and Practice at the University of New Hampshire. [...]
“We have this notion in our political debate and popular culture that we can’t have reform because that means that government bureaucrats will make decisions but we already have insurance people playing that role,” said Helms
Helms went on to say that one of the major obstacles to attaining proper reform is the way insurance companies often “write their own rules for the road.” Late last year, former Cigna executive Wendell Potter left his 15-year career at the major health insurer and joined the fight for universal health care. He told Bill Moyers last July that politicians who warn about the government getting between patients and their doctors are “ideologically aligned with the [health insurance] industry.”
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government bureaucrats will make decisions but we already have insurance people playing that role,” said Helms
No shit, Sherlock. But thanks for manning up and stating the obvious.
November 23rd, 2009 at 8:52 pm…politicians who warn about the government getting between patients and their doctors are “ideologically aligned with the [health insurance] industry.”
politicians who warn about the government getting between patients and their doctors are financially “aligned with the [health insurance] industry.”
There, fixed that for you, Wendell.
November 23rd, 2009 at 8:56 pmFirst Potter, now Hayden, we are seeing a few insurance company employees who have a conscience and could not tolerate their employers’ lies any more.
Tonight Olbermann showed video of a free health clinic in Arkansas; one of the persons (refused to be seen on camera) who told her story about needing free medical care because although she works, but her employer doesn’t provide it, and she doesn’t earn enough to afford it — is actually a person who works FOR AN INSURANCE company and she was afraid she’d lose her job if she were seen on camera.
November 23rd, 2009 at 9:04 pmMarie@3, Nothing shocks me anymore. Watching those animals attacking that woman who lost her daughter-in-law and infant grandchild, was so repulsive to me. Insurance companies and those people deserve their own place in Hell for what they are doing to people who, lets face it, aren’t wealthy. They have no problem letting AMERICAN citizens die in the street. No wonder my husband is grumbling about us going to Europe and Canada.
November 23rd, 2009 at 9:11 pmINSURANCE COMPANIES = DEATH PANELS
November 23rd, 2009 at 9:13 pmThat’s what infuriates me! The Industry IS the Death Panels. THEY are the ones who hold YOUR life in THEIR hands! What don’t the sheeple understand! Are they that friggin stupid! Unfortunatley, YES!
November 23rd, 2009 at 9:15 pmThis comment has been voted down. Click to read.
Snorlax,
November 23rd, 2009 at 9:32 pmJust because you can not read, does not mean the rest of are just as DUMB!
I have nothing against tax deductions but it wouldn’t do much good for a family that accrues medical bills of many times their net worth because an insurance company refuses payment on a technicality.
November 23rd, 2009 at 9:33 pmThe reality is there already is someone standing between you and your doctor: health insurance companies.
But I thought the primary focus of health insurance companies was the health and well being of their customers? Oh wait, it’s the bottom line that is their primary focus.
November 23rd, 2009 at 9:34 pm““Mandate” mean anything to you?”
Did I timewarp? Nope, nothing in current law.
NEXT!
November 23rd, 2009 at 9:35 pmI think it started with Reagan when he said that government is’nt the solution, Government is the problem..So these deciples of Reagan will never see the government as being good for the people..They would rather trust capitalist with their health and wellbeing over the government even knowing that much of their premiums go to the companies profits.
November 23rd, 2009 at 9:36 pmIt does’nt matter to them..When an insurance company says “your not covered” they say.”OK then”..I guess we just did’nt pay enough in all these years..But Government is still bad..
OSTL says:
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we must realize that nobody is forcing us to get insurance
Really? What about the fascist in the white house?
OSTL..it’s 2009..the fascist have left the Whitehouse.
November 23rd, 2009 at 9:40 pmCome out of your coma dude.
In crazy right wing world, people calling themselves repubs thinks this woman is a socialist. And some of them are probably in worst shape than this woman.
November 23rd, 2009 at 9:42 pm“Fascist”. “Marxist”. “Socialist”.
The stupid trolls continue to use them interchangeably and almost never accurately.
November 23rd, 2009 at 9:45 pmMake NO Mistake. OSTL is a bumphuckdipshit.
November 23rd, 2009 at 9:46 pmOSTL says:
——————————————————————————–
Make no mistake, obama is a fascist!
Do you even know what fascism is?
November 23rd, 2009 at 9:46 pm[...]politicians who warn about the government getting between patients and their doctors are “ideologically aligned with the [health insurance] industry.
I am not sure if this is an ideological alignment, as much as it is a monetary issue: reich-wingers wrap their rhetoric in ideological terms, but the bottom line here is the insurance industry’s profits, nothing more, nothing less.
The dittoheads who think their insurance company will pay for any and all procedures are either naive, foolish, or uninformed rubes.
November 23rd, 2009 at 9:48 pmOf course, anyone who would say that Chimpy “kissed the Democrat’s ass” is simply beyond reach.
November 23rd, 2009 at 9:48 pmJeffy, you’re a proven racist who wants to murder the President and hates the 9/11 families. You said you want to drop bombs on American cities to murder Muslims because they’re Muslim. And that poor little deaf girl you slandered.
Your opinions are garbage.
Really.
November 23rd, 2009 at 9:49 pmOSTL,
November 23rd, 2009 at 9:52 pmLook up the word fascism and cut and past it in here..then remember how bush privitised the military, how bush let poluters form enviromental legislation and how bush let oil company executives write energy policy..
then ask yourself..”do I realy know what I’m talking about”?
Oh God. The troll brigade. No facts, no arguments. Just the buzz words they think that will inspire fear. Been there, done that….
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:01 pmthen ask yourself..”do I realy know what I’m talking about”?
And, if you have trouble coming up with an answer, let us know. We can help you out with that.
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:02 pmJeffy, you’re an apologist for proven racist Keith Bardwell. We get it, you hate minorities. Go back to Stormfront.
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:03 pmNew@26, Well. The troll won’t answer. I wonder if he has a dictionary to look up ‘Fascism’? Maybe not.
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:09 pmP.D. says:
PD..He does’nt want to because he ca’nt justify his stupidity.
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:12 pmDon’t give the stupid trolls too much credit. They simply don’t care what words mean; that’s for snobbish “elites”.
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:17 pmthe US congress is going to make us buy insurance from insurance companies that keep their anti-trust exemption?
the dementia of our “representatives” has moved to a new level.
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:18 pmpete@33, Yeah. That’s how we got into this mess in the first place isn’t it? I mean, Bush was the guy you wanted to have a beer with, right? Al Gore was a college educated ‘elite’. Bush may have went to an Ivy League school. But I think Daddy paved the way for his ‘Good’ grades.
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:22 pmgrowaspine says:
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the US congress is going to make us buy insurance from insurance companies that keep their anti-trust exemption?
the dementia of our “representatives” has moved to a new level.
Its not done yet growaspine..There are many steps to go..I agree that this is a bad move that was done for the benifit of congress critters that are owned my the insurance companies.But time will tell.
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:26 pmWhen trolls have nothing to add but sim0ply throw in attack words which they do not understand, it is not worth even replying to them. They have their fingers in their ears. Their brains are locked down.
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:29 pmThey are beyond redemption.
When a toll claims Bush kissed the ass of the Democrats, it is a dead giveaway that he is a moron, a person who never reads the news, who only listens to his propaganda radio stations, never fact-checks, and doesn’t want to know the truth.
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:31 pmIt looks like the whole gang of stupid trolls is making an appearance. I guess we can assume the drive-thru is closed and Mommy is at the “gentleman’s club”.
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:38 pmAwww..Bush burst the conservitive hero bubble..lol..Hey Beef..he did’nt give old Scooter a pardon either..that must realy piss you off..lol
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:38 pmI have health insurance coverage through my employer which I pay for with a weekly deduction from my paycheck. The problem is that this is a new job for me. I had pre-existing conditions before I began working at this new job. Therefore, I pay for health insurance coverage but the insurance company has denied all my claims so far.
There is a $125 payment that my medical clinic is trying to collect from me. I have already paid over $1,000 for the office visit, a blood test, and a 30 prescription for high blood pressure medication. The clinic wants another $125. I feel like going into the billing department at the clinic and screaming my head off just like the hateful, rightwing, town hall protesters.
I don’t give a damn about them any more. They don’t give a damn about us. Maybe we have to take the fight to the doctors office. Maybe we should make those bloodsuckers fight for ever nickle they try to squeeze out of us. Make life as miserable for them as they make it for us.
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:47 pmRepugs and wingnuts, you are the most uncaring,racists,fearmongering,useless,lying,BS artists,gun toting,violent,hypocrits. I am so sick and tired of you aholes getting in the way of whats best for our country.
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:57 pmPlease just fckoff and die. And take limpo,beck,and palin with you, you useless pieces of sh!t. Sorry fellow TP`rs for ranting.
delafield,
I went through a “pre-existing condition” nightmare of my own but, that wasn’t as bad as the scam at a window frame factory I worked at.
Virtually every woman or shorter person who worked in assembly for five years or so developed carpel-tunnel so? The insurer just stopped covering corrective surgery. Essentially, the insurer is benefiting from the company’s negligence in ergonomics. A few cases have been settled in closed arbitration through union channels but the practice continues.
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:02 pm@44
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:03 pmDitto
Years ago I acquired a repeatative motion injury at work. My companies medical dept. said workman’s comp would cover my out-of-pocket costs. The insurer refused because my state actually had a law, enacted to protect the big chicken processing factories, that prohibited coverage of that sort of injury. That’s what you’ll get if states can opt-out of any part of health reform…it’s easier and cheaper for an industry to corrupt the legislative process on a smaller, more local, scale.
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:13 pmsscncturn64,
No need to apologize. One can only tolerate so much animated excrement and it’s healthy to vent, within reason. Although one could reduce the list a bit with the word “xenophobic”. It elegantly defines many of the traits that you so eloquently, and appropriately, comprised.
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:15 pmI think wee’re all missing the important question here:
what is our pet troll doing trolling “liberal dating sites”?
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:16 pmI don’t like to let my mind wander there, ralph. (Shudder…)
Suffice to say that it’s probably more like preying than trolling.
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:23 pmI have been with my current employer for 11 years. In that time I have had to deal with 4 different insurance providers. Each has a slightly different list of doctors within their plan so each forced switch carries the risk of needing to change doctors. The dentist I have had for 25 years is not in the dental plan any longer. He recommended an implant for my daughter. Insurance said that procedure is not covered so I had out of pocket costs to the tune of nearly $5,000. Increasingly, insurance does not cover major medical yet that is precisely what people want insurance to cover. They are already dealing with high deductables and co-payments. One wonders what the insurance companies are doing with the high premiums given how much of the cost they simply side-step with their one-sided rules.
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:24 pmHere is a real world testament to the “rationing” of health care by the insurance companies.
My wife, a registered nurse at the time, suspended her career for a few years as we started our family. When she was ready to begin working she took a job with a major HMO working in the Rockville, MD area.
She didn’t last long. She was basically on telephone triage, where in her own words, she was responsible to see that no one ever saw a doctor.
Sound familiar?
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:24 pmpete says:
Suffice to say that it’s probably more like preying than trolling.
Or maybe even more like praying..
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:26 pm#52..Sounds familiar to me, could it have been Optimum Choice/MDIPA?
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:31 pmOutstandingInMyField,
Well, if you mean they are alone at the time, both would work.
However, despite my unfavorable opinion of superstitions in general, I give those who pray the benefit of the doubt about their intentions. Just to be clear, I think there are far more good, smart, people who pray than there are bad and stupid ones.
So? I’ll stick with “preying”. Considering the Reichwhiner’s tacit support of rape I think it’s safe to say there is something predatory in the “amorous thoughts” of most stupid trolls.
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:37 pmPalin and the rest of the right has been yammering about “death panels” should nationalized health care be enacted, completely ignoring facts like these, which demonstrate the obvious: we already HAVE death panels. They are case reviwers employed by health insurance companies!
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:41 pmI mean case “reviewers.”
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:41 pmpete: I just thought that in order to find a woman who would correspond with him, the poor juvenile fellow would require divine intervention.
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:45 pmI know for a fact that most Americans don’t understand the purpose of the public option. I retired from a state job as a teacher. We have a pool made up of all state employees: teachers, politicians, judges, dept. of transportation workers, social workers, etc. My monthly premium with United Healthcare is @$100/mo, $30 co-pays, $30 prescriptions, some for less, a $500/deductible. My daughter works for a large corporation with millions of employees nationwide in its’ pool. She has United Healthcare and pays $13/mo for the premium, same co-pay, same deductible.
Both my and my daughter’s insurance are with United Healthcare. The difference in monthly premiums is due to the number of people in the pool. There are probably other people who also have UHC but with higher premiums.
This is not a difficult concept to grasp. I would hope that any thinking person would want to save money. In fact, I’m thinking of getting a part time job at my daughter’s company so that I can get the same insurance with the same company for $13/mo.
I think people fighting against the public option just don’t understand that it can save them money, or they just like taking the money they could save for their kids’ education, vacations, or retirement and paying more to give insurance executives bigger bonuses. IIRC, the average insurance company executive earned @ $12,000,000, not including bonuses.
November 23rd, 2009 at 11:53 pmOutstandingInMyField,
Precisely. My point is that the things the poor stupid trolls are likely to pray for are of such a nature that they don’t really fall within the goodly nature of most prayers. Any “God” that would compel a person to have sexual relations with a stupid troll is hardly Divine, in my opinion, nor is a big bag of meth and a stack of bills.
November 24th, 2009 at 12:02 am#44 – well said. All I can add to say to the scumbag idiots is this – eat $hit and die
November 24th, 2009 at 12:07 amI just don’t find Republicans very appealing.
Quite the contrary.
November 24th, 2009 at 12:24 amBeefeater -10 says:
This comment has been voted down. Click to read.
Marie says:
When a toll claims Bush kissed the ass of the Democrats, it is a dead giveaway that he is a moron, a person who never reads the news, who only listens to his propaganda radio stations, never fact-checks, and doesn’t want to know the truth.
He didn’t just kiss it, he gave them a rim job. And Charlie Crist is doing the same dam* thing!
Oh, the whole Bush was liberal bullshit. I call bullshit, Bush was the conservative agenda taken to the extreme: deregulation, war profiteering, enriching corporate cronies…Now that Bush’s numbers were devastatingly low, CONServatives have to create the myth of the betrayed movement by their Judas, George W. Bush. Sorry. Bush was conservatism taken to its extreme. You NEVER complained about Bush’s actions while he was in office, but now since he’s so unpopular and his policies have left the country in disarray, you conservatives are trying to institute a policy of damnatio memoriae…
What next? You were all plotting during Bush’s 2 terms to get Ron Paul elected?
November 24th, 2009 at 12:34 am.
Dear Ned Helms,
We’ve been saying this for some time now.
Thank you for coming out to expose some truth.
.
November 24th, 2009 at 12:37 amHealth Insurance companies have been making “medical care decisions” for 60 years and are only hampered by states that still have the power of regulation within their borders. The health care reform bill cannot include any ability for insurance companies to cross state boundaries. CA tried to stop the abuses of Federal Banks and were unable to protect consumers from abuses. Insurance companies have required “pre-certs” for tests, surgeries etc.. for a long time. And they have increased their premiums annually, without regard to the common good. The government is the bulwark against a plutocracy, we must let it do its job against the insurance companies as it once did before de-regulation on Wall Street.
November 24th, 2009 at 1:36 amAlso spracht history. Conservative policies not only fail–they fail catastrophically.
November 24th, 2009 at 5:28 amWhat if you don’t make enough to itemize, what good are deductions? An interestingly dumb suggestion showing a person who talks before he thinks. Most taxpayers do not itemize. Millions don’t even make enough to file!
Health care should be a right, we shouldn’t be propagandized into an unhealthy lifestyle, doctors should be working to work less by stressing wellness and using their degrees to practice medicine not getting wealthy, and profitizing illness should be banned. The health profit industry (colloquially termed health insurance) should not have the right to exist, much less enjoy a monopoly that protects them against anti-trust as they already have violated the trust of the American people.
November 24th, 2009 at 8:29 amrealdeal says:
This comment has been voted down. Click to read.
I will absolutely not defend the insurance industry, other than their right to exist.
I wonder if insurance companies are endowed with certain unalienable rights from their creator? Oh wait, we’re their creator. They have whatever rights we choose to give them. What if we collectively choose that they don’t really have a right to exist. That’s the beauty of the gift our founding fathers gave us: the right to make that choice, as a democratic sovereign nation.
November 24th, 2009 at 8:39 amDon’t engage trolls. Justification is easy. Empty frauds calling others what they are is the name of the game for them.
November 24th, 2009 at 8:55 amb.o.
focus.
focus.
you’re drifting from the yellow line!
focuuuuuus.
ah! you blinked.
:(
November 24th, 2009 at 8:59 amGood advice Chicano2nd also vote ‘em down and flag ‘em especially if they are off topic.
November 24th, 2009 at 9:01 amAah, crap, Purple State, I voted you down on accident. I am so sorry. D:
That being said, I don’t trust anyone who gets their information purely from editorials (such as Olby’s new sockpuppet Bawreck). Nor do I trust anyone who can’t understand the difference between a fascist and a socialist, much less a liberal from a conservative.
Seriously. Read something substantive. You may actually learn something. :(
November 24th, 2009 at 9:12 amhar5125
That is also great advice, especially when off-topic which they love to do!
November 24th, 2009 at 9:37 amWell, we still currently don’t have to purchase insurance, but I realize that is a few weeks away.
November 24th, 2009 at 10:05 amInsurance companies are in it for one thing, PROFIT. That is the bottom line, MONEY.
RT
November 24th, 2009 at 10:05 amWhos watching you??
Trolls…you are dismissed…take your lies and go home…
November 24th, 2009 at 10:45 amYeah, they seem to forget they trumpeted Bush as the new leader of the Christian right when he was in office. Here’s one easily found article as an example:
Religious Right Finds Its Center in Oval Office
November 24th, 2009 at 10:51 amBush Emerges as Movement’s Leader After Robertson Leaves Christian Coalition
by Dana Milbank
For the life of me I do not understand why the Dems do not mimic the Republican meme’s in reverse. It would be very easy for the Dems to keep repeating the idea that the insurance companies are coming between you and your doctor and that is what the health care bill fixes. Frank Luntz would be very busy when the reverse meme’s are used because he will have to think up new ones every week.
November 24th, 2009 at 2:19 pmExactly. Let’s keep calling the insurance companies what they are: Health Profiting Companies that use death panels to drive their profits up. Health Profiting Companies that dish out millions of payola to the bought-off Conress people in order to maintain their monopoly because they are afraid of the American way, competition in the market.
November 24th, 2009 at 3:00 pmI want to support a program to recruit and fund candidates to oppose the turncoat Democrats opposing healthcare reform.
I would rather have Republicans holding these seats than have people that side with the enemies of everyday Americans posing as their friends.
It is time for all Americans to get involved and quit letting fat cats run their lives while they rob them blind. It is obviously hard enough to get the word out without having the deception of these double agents adding to the confusion.
If blue-collar working class people can be talked into voting against their own and their children’s economic future as they have for the last thirty years, we do not need “Democrats” carrying water for health insurance companies or anyone else that sides with those who’ve sucked trillions out of our econonomy so a few can make billions. The vast amount of money that disappeared over the last thirty years came from the pockets of American workers and went into the pockets of Chinese workers, their robber baron overlords and their communist government.
Democrats are for working people. It is that simple, and to succeed we need to keep the message that simple. And when elected Democrats say that to our face and take money from our enemies in exchange for screwing us, we need to get rid of them immediately. Only then can we get the everyday Americans who’ve been tricked into supporting their economic enemies to understand how impportant it is to vote for their pocketbook and not be tricked by side issues and the double-dealing double-talk we get wtih people like Lincoln, Landrieu, Nelson, and Lieberman.
November 24th, 2009 at 11:02 pm