Doctors’ Organization Pens Open Letter to America
Here’s another perspective on the American health care crisis. A group called “Doctors Unite” has published an open letter to the American public here. Here’s a sample:
We believe the following factors have made our current healthcare system unsustainable:
- The insurance industry’s undue authority and oppressive control over healthcare processes
- Excessive and misguided government regulation
- The practice of defensive medicine in response to a harmful and costly legal environment
We, the physicians of the United States, will no longer remain silent. We will not tolerate a healthcare system where those without medical expertise or genuine interest in our patients’ health have absolute control. This letter is merely a summary of the most important problems in our current system. We believe that by partnering with the public we can start to demand real change and formulate practical solutions.
It’s short and worth a read by those interested in health care.
care4all:
The health insurance companies have played a major role in our current healthcare crisis. These companies make huge profits and their CEOs make millions, while the rest of us, patients, physicians, employers, and workers alike, face skyrocketing healthcare costs, impossible bureaucracy, and life-diminishing insurance denials.
THE FACTS: HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANY PROFITS IN 2007:
1. UnitedHealth Group—$ 4.654 BILLION. UnitedHealth Group owns Oxford, PacifiCare, IBA, AmeriChoice, Evercare, Ovations, MAMSI and Ingenix, a healthcare data company
2. WellPoint—$ 3.345 BILLION. Wellpoint owns BLUES across the US, including Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wisconsin, Empire HealthChoice Assurance, Healthy Alliance, and many others
3. Aetna Inc.—$ 1.831 BILLION
4. CIGNA Corp—$ 1.115 BILLION
5. Humana Inc.—$ 834 million
6. Coventry Health Care—$626 million. Coventry owns Altius, Carelink, Group Health Plan, HealthAmerica, OmniCare, WellPath, others
7. Health Net—$ 194 million
The huge insurance company profits—BILLIONS EACH YEAR—could be used to provide quality healthcare for millions of people. We need to get the insurance companies OUT of healthcare, so patients can receive the care they need and physicians can be paid adequately for their work.
The only way that we all will have affordable, quality care is to get the insurance companies OUT of healthcare! We can no longer tolerate a healthcare system where those without medical expertise or genuine interest in our patients’ health have absolute control, and where profits are made by denying care.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, SEE: http://www.insurancecompanyrules.org/learn_more/the_roster/
4 February 2009, 8:18 pmCorporate Greed:
CONSIDER THESE HEALTHCARE FACTS:
1.The severe shortage of primary care physicians—-due to declining reimbursements and impossible administrative hassles from health insurance companies—- seriously threatens the quality of healthcare US citizens receive now and in the future. Have you tried to find a primary care physician? Most are not taking new patients.
2.Americans are paying more for health insurance and receiving fewer and fewer benefits
3.Health insurance companies continue to raise their premiums while decreasing and denying coverage.
4.Health insurance companies deny healthcare claims on a regular basis, and change their coding schemas frequently to avoid paying legitimate claims.
5.Physicians are forced to pay huge administrative costs and employ large staffs to deal with health insurance companies
6.Health insurance companies continue make profits and to compensate their executives out of proportion to any known formula
ANNUAL COMPENSATION OF HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANY EXECUTIVES (2006 and 2007 figures):
• Ronald A. Williams, Chair/ CEO, Aetna Inc., $23,045,834
• H. Edward Hanway, Chair/ CEO, Cigna Corp, $30.16 million
• David B. Snow, Jr, Chair/ CEO, Medco Health, $21.76 million
• Michael B. MCallister, CEO, Humana Inc, $20.06 million
• Stephen J. Hemsley, CEO, UnitedHealth Group, $13,164,529
• Angela F. Braly, President/ CEO, Wellpoint, $9,094,771
• Dale B. Wolf, CEO, Coventry Health Care, $20.86 million
• Jay M. Gellert, President/ CEO, Health Net, $16.65 million
• William C. Van Faasen, Chairman, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, $3 million plus $16.4 million in retirement benefits
• Charlie Baker, President/ CEO, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, $1.5 million
• James Roosevelt, Jr., CEO, Tufts Associated Health Plans, $1.3 million
• Raymond McCaskey, CEO, Health Care Service Corp (Blue Cross Blue Shield), $10.3 million
• Daniel P. McCartney, CEO, Healthcare Services Group, Inc, $ 1,061,513
• Daniel Loepp, CEO, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, $1,657,555
• Todd S. Farha, CEO, WellCare Health Plans, $5,270,825
• Michael F. Neidorff, CEO, Centene Corp, $8,750,751
• Daniel Loepp, CEO, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, $1,657,555
• Todd S. Farha, CEO, WellCare Health Plans, $5,270,825
• Michael F. Neidorff, CEO, Centene Corp, $8,750,751
The only way that we all will have affordable, quality care is to get the insurance companies OUT of healthcare!
4 February 2009, 8:23 pmfuture generali:
First of all congratulation for such a great site. I learned a lot reading article here today. I will make sure i visit this site once a day so i can learn more.
13 February 2009, 3:44 amFARUK AYDIN, MD:
I am a pathologist. I signed out a PAP smear for patient insured with Cigna. I was paid $ 13.50, which is the maximum allowable limit set for PAP smear by Cigna. Here is my open question to CEO. Show me a service that you are paid just $13.50 and you have a liability to be sued for $1-6 million dollars ( please google PAP smear litigation to find the jury rewards for PAP smear cases).
In fact my real question that I want to hear the response in his original voice of Mr Hanway is this: Would he pay $ 13.50 to the pathologist who happens to look at his wife’s PAP smear?
How can an insurance company pay me $ 13.50 for a PAP smear. I have to pay the Hologic company that sells us the PAP smear kit $11.50: Folks, just the kit price. I have to pay the cytotechnologist, transcriptionist, billing, $ .44 for mailing, paper, copier, tax, electricity, rent ….... Who gives them such a supreme authority to set such a price for PAP smear which is considered the most dangerous specimen for pathology labs. Is this Africa, Zimbabwe? That is my question before all these healthcare reform talks. Who gave them such power. Who where when. I want to know. God bless America.
21 June 2009, 12:07 am