The press is reminding us on a daily basis of the problems inherent in a health insurance system based on private insurers. And it’s not like the media has to go searching very far for examples of egregious misconduct.
And I’m an advocate of private health insurance.
Here’s the latest listing of foot-in-mouth and bullet-in-foot-itis.
1. Blue Shield of CA’s extremely aggressive ‘practice‘ of canceling policies for individuals who actually incur claims.
2. Abusive and downright fraudulent enrollment practices by Medicare private FFS (free reg req) vendors
3. While we are wallowing in the swamp that is Medicare private FFS, how about insurers’ smarmy attempt to use minority groups to slam Dems over their plans to reduce Medicare Advantage payments?
4. How about stock-option backdating to pay health plan execs even more hundreds of millions?
These are big companies run by smart people, who continue to make really bad decisions.
National health care reform is coming, folks, and right now you’re part of the problem, not part of the solution.
You are right. I’ve joked in the past that the best thing about the pharmaceutical industry is that they sometimes make the managed care industry look good. If there ever was an industry that needed to invest in public relations, it’s managed care.
I’m increasingly convinced that the industry needs to make a basic decision on how it wants to structure its competition.
So long as competition in the commercial marketplace is structured by risk selection and firms compete to get the best risk, the public will always dislike and distrust insurers, with some justification.
However, if the industry decides to compete on the basis of efficiency, customer service, and innovative products that are geared to improve health (DM, wellness programs, lifestyle incentives, etc.), then the industry will have a business model compatible with universal health care. It will also have a business model that aligns its interests with those of the public (it’s customers).
It’s win-win, but old habits die hard.