(CBS 5) - By next week, some 250,000 people in the Bay Area who have UnitedHealthcare insurance -- and 650,000 more statewide -- may have to find a new doctor or end up paying a lot more in out-of-pocket expenses because of a contract dispute involving doctors and United HealthCare Services, Inc.
Some doctors are sending out Dear John letters telling patients thier relationship may be over if they are covered by UnitedHealthcare.
The provider is going to cut the amount it pays doctors.
These cuts in reimbursement from the insurance companies are not in workers' interests. Interestingly, I held UHC until my job, alongside about 500 other Fortune500 jobs, were out-sourced, and in many cases, off-shored; and would have been directly impacted by this insurance change. I was very pleased to find I could continue with my most of my current heathcare providers under my new plan, but I did have to drop some physical therapy that I can't as easily afford and had found beneficial.
If firms offer healthcare to workers as a lure, and a benefit for on-going employment, it's seen as a market mechanism that should be self correcting. If that is the case, then why did I face routinely higher health care copays, out-of-pocket expenses, and lower reimbursement rates? Did my value as an employee go down or my productivity change during that period? No. So it's not a very self-correcting market after all. If it was, then my employer wouldn't have sought to pass on higher and higher percentages of the total premium - perhaps this drove the outsourcing decision, so even if it's a good market in theory, we have to ask if it's appropriate to place families' healthcare in the balance of such a delicate global equation.
Single payer healthcare is due. We, as workers and families, can't bear the cost in lives and quality of living that these health insurance boards are demanding so that they may cut doctors' payments to increase profits. It's time to stop rewarding behaviors by insurance companies that undermine the healthcare system by forcing doctors to turn away current patients who will no doubt suffer as a result. Some may not obtain appropriate care at all after being turned away, become sick, and possibly die. Is this acceptable?
Add in pressure from the bottom line specialists running the major healthcare, hospital, and health insurance companies, and you have a recipe that leaves the interests of the patient out. UHC is taking this action as a result of merger with PacifiCare, another insurance giant, which reimburses doctors at 30-40% lower rates than UHC. This 30-40% must look like tons of gravy to the board, but to me it looks like blood.
As an employee or patient, my first concern should not be the profitablity or strategic corporate plans of my providers. I am fortunate that I don't have any family members depending on my current plan, which is more costly than my previous UHC policy; but for those that do, these costs and disruptions are even more impacting.
Democrats, will you stand up and fight to protect the workers and their families from the avarice of corporate boards? This is an opportunity to make a compact with American workers on a vitally important issue of life and death.