Thursday, November 19, 2015

Many Say High Deductibles Make Their Health Law Insurance All but Useless - The New York Times

Many Say High Deductibles Make Their Health Law Insurance All but Useless - The New York Times



Comment by Don McCanne

The deductibles are
out of control. The anecdotes in the full article (link above)
demonstrate that many people find that their insurance is “all but
useless” simply because they cannot afford to pay the deductibles.
Anecdotes do not constitute a scientifically valid study, but they
certainly do tell us what is happening to individuals out in the real
world.

Insurers needed to keep premiums
affordable in order to maintain a viable market of private plans. They
do that by shifting costs to patients through ever higher deductibles.
This was inevitable through the reform model selected for the misnamed
Patent Protection and Affordable Care Act. Because of the large
deductibles, actual health care is not affordable for individuals with
modest incomes and thus patients do not have the protection that they
need.

The three trillion dollars that we are
already spending on health care is enough to provide all essential
health care services for everyone. With a properly designed financing
system there is no need to erect financial barriers to care since cost
containment can be achieved through patient-friendly policies such as
those of a single payer national health program.

Without
proper reform, “degradation of health insurance” will progress. People
will face greater financial hardship because of medical bills. People
will suffer more because of forgone health care. People will die.

This isn’t right. We need an improved Medicare that includes everyone.

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