It's really hard to fathom the extent healthcare provider's go to undermine themselves. My wife works for a "non-profit" provider, and from the way I understand it – a biased but educated opinion – the waste within is so sizable it's ridiculous. While streamlining process would reduce cost, there is little being done to eliminate personnel that does little more than collect a check. I appreciate people need an income, but eliminating incompetent employees could eventually streamline processes, reducing costs and increasing efficiency, leading to reduced expense for healthcare coverage.
Additionally, if the time spent trying to rip-off consumers was instead spent trying to improve the system, the saved time and money might greatly reduce coverage costs exceeding the money saved by insurance companies, instead of wasting funds trying to screw the patient. Let alone taxpayer dollars spent employing government employees manipulated by lobbyists.
Instead, we see corruption and incompetency tied directly to those that could benefit, potentially passing along savings in the form of affordable coverage or expanded coverage to more people that need it. Almost daily we are treated to news articles outlining the business practices of both private businesses and government agencies only causing more problems, not offering any solutions. Today's incompetency updates are reflected in articles in the NY Times, "A Rip-off by Health Insurers?", and the Seattle Times, "Drug benefit snags unwary." A brief sampling:
"Mr. Cuomo has announced his intention to sue UnitedHealth, Ingenix and three other subsidiaries, and has subpoenaed data from 16 other health insurers. Whatever that investigation unearths, it is already clear that the system for calculating “reasonable and customary” charges ought to be reformed by making it truly independent and objective. No consumer can reasonably trust numbers generated by a company whose loyalties and financial interests lie with the health insurers." NY Times
"the system enrolled her daughter in 14 Part D plans in all, one after another, despite her repeated "cease and desist" letters. It ultimately took a desperate plea to U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott's office to halt the enrollments." Seattle Times
The time and money spent trying to screw the patient, or the time and money spent in courts and paying government employees/attorneys or the insurance company paying attorneys to defend them, is all so unnecessary. A penny saved is a penny earned. Let alone a life saved.