I haven't felt this demoralized and revolted in a long time. You might feel some outrage once you read about the latest insurance industry assault on the American people.
The New York Times is reporting that many American women are facing significant additional health insurance hardships as a result of having a cesearean delivery.
I'm writing this diary listening to CNN and the intrepid Sanjay Gupta in the background interview Arlen Specter about his recurrent Hodgkins disease. Specter's advice, "Never give in". But nary a question from Dr. Gupta--just the usual breathless fawning--to the senator about survival strategies for Specter's fellow citizens who do not have his Cadillac Congressional health benefits.
This is one of those days when you don't know whether to laugh or cry.
In most states, insurance companies can do whatever they damn well please in the individual insurance market. And what they damn well please is to reject all but the healthiest among us. Now many American women who have had Caesarean deliveries are considered high risk and face either denial or higher and even more unaffordable monthly premiums.
The insurance companies do give these women an alternative, they can agree to be sterilized. Keep reading.
After Caesareans, Some See Higher Insurance Cost
When the Golden Rule Insurance Company rejected her application for health coverage last year, Peggy Robertson was mystified.
"It made me feel very helpless," she said.
"It made no sense," said Ms. Robertson, 39, who lives in Centennial, Colo. "I’m in perfect health."
She was turned down because she had given birth by Caesarean section. Having the operation once increases the odds that it will be performed again, and if she became pregnant and needed another Caesarean, Golden Rule did not want to pay for it. A letter from the company explained that if she had been sterilized after the Caesarean, or if she were over 40 and had given birth two or more years before applying, she might have qualified.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
[emphasis added]
Many more Americans will become victims of the unaffordable individual market as employers drop their group coverage due to skyrocketing costs.
With individual insurance, unlike the group coverage usually sponsored by employers, insurance companies in many states are free to pick and choose the people and conditions they cover, and base the price on a person’s medical history. Sometimes, a past Caesarean means higher premiums.
Although it is not known how many women are in Ms. Robertson’s situation, the number seems likely to increase, because the pool of people seeking individual health insurance, now about 18 million, has been growing steadily — and so has the Caesarean rate, which is at an all-time high of 31.1 percent. In 2006, more than 1.2 million Caesareans were performed in the United States, and researchers estimate that each year, half a million women giving birth have had previous Caesareans.
This is what the scum criminals at AHIP have to say. This is why we are rallying against this parasitic organization on June 19th, in San Francisco.
You can't make this stuff up.
Insurers’ rules on prior Caesareans vary by company and also by state, since the states regulate insurers, said Susan Pisano of America’s Health Insurance Plans, a trade group. Some companies ignore the surgery, she said, but others treat it like a pre-existing condition.
"Sometimes the coverage will come with a rider saying that coverage for a Caesarean delivery is excluded for a period of time," Ms. Pisano said. Sometimes, she said, applicants with prior Caesareans are charged higher premiums or deductibles.
"In many respects it works a lot like other situations where someone has a condition that will foreshadow the potential for higher costs going forward," Ms. Pisano said.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
We're being told, there is an alternative. If women are sterilized then they may be eligible for the same rates as the rest of the population.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida, which has about 300,000 members with individual coverage, used to exclude repeat Caesareans, but recently began to cover them — for a 25 percent increase in premiums for five years. Like Golden Rule, the company exempts women if they have been sterilized.
"After five years, if there is not a complication of pregnancy, another C-section, or if they get their tubes tied and are no longer in that risk situation, that rate-up goes away," said Randy M. Kammer, the vice president for regulatory affairs and public policy.
[emphasis added]
http://www.nytimes.com/...
If you aren't scared, you should be, John McBush wants to further erode the system of employer-based healthcare. If you're still lucky to have group health coverage, you have some protections. Employer-based coverage though is rapidly disappearing and McBush plans to drive a knife right through its heart.
John McCain Will Reform The Tax Code To Offer More Choices Beyond Employer-Based Health Insurance Coverage. While still having the option of employer-based coverage, every family will also have the option of receiving a direct refundable tax credit - effectively cash - of $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families to offset the cost of insurance. Families will be able to choose the insurance provider that suits them best and the money would be sent directly to the insurance provider. Those obtaining innovative insurance that costs less than the credit can deposit the remainder in expanded Health Savings Accounts.
http://www.johnmccain.com/...
Paging Dr. Gupta: Will you ask Mr. McBush, whether a Cesearean delivery is a pre-existing condition and therefore would not be covered in a McBush regime?