Choice

Should Insurance be for Profit?

Our current approach to insurance reimbursement has infuriated many, as the case illustrates in the murder of United Health Care CEO Brian Thompson, or the exodus of ethical doctors who have left the practice of medicine, as well as the suffering of patients denied the care they need to survive. Does the for-profit model work in America? 

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The limited time allowed for patients puts doctors at risk of overlooking symptoms and/or facing financial stress or ruin when choosing the Hippocratic Oath. The new model also raises other issues. Is the system effectively taking patient concerns? Some practices try to deal with the pressure by only addressing one subject at a time and asking patients to have repeated visits. This bullet-hole approach causes treatment delays and does not address the combined symptomatology critical for accurate diagnosis. Needless to say, it is frustrating for patients who are lost in the maze of visits and refusal by plans they are paying for. Is Medicare doing a better job?

The level of frustration, as seen in a young man with no prior mental issues, raises the significant issues that our system has created, resulting in a shortage of doctors, misdiagnoses, delayed treatments, and the like.
Despite much press, such as Wendell Potter’s book “Deadly Spin”. As a former executive for Cigna, he describes the inside of profit pressures, Michael Moore’s documentary “Sicko,” which receive awards’, and Marion Stahl’s BestSeller “A Monster Chase,” describing the chase on Doctors rather than large hospitals as investigators fear they will elude their control with large law firms. Despite these apparent flows described to the public, we have turned a blind eye and now applaud the murder of a CEO. Will it change the fundamentally flawed system of private insurers?

Our government has made progress with imposing coverage. Shareholders were worried about the effect it will have on their investment, but Cigna’s Stock has made a steady rise in the past 10 years and doubled, United Health Care’s stock has only tripled in the past 10 years.

In conclusion, I am not suggesting we choose to have a government-run system. Would a Public Benefit Corporation without the added burden of stockholders’ interests serve us better?

References

  • Wendell Potter, Deadly Spin, An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving American, Bloomsbury Press 2011
  • Michael Moore, Sicko, Oscar-nominated 2007 film, Weinstein Company.
  • Marion Stahl, A Monster Chase, Black Elephant Publishing 2012. 
  • Elizabeth Rosenthal, An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back Penguin Books 2018.

If You Feel Thankful, Write It Down.

by Maanvi Singh

It’s Good For Your Health

Over this past year, lifestyle blogger Aileen Xu has kept a monthly gratitude list.

Sometimes it was the big stuff: “I’m grateful that my family is so understanding. I’m grateful so many people care.”

And sometimes it was life’s little blessings: “July 2018: I’m grateful for good hair after I shower.”

Read on

The Best Medicine?

By Mikkael A. Sekeres, M.D. May 3, 2018

What’s Meaningful to Our Patients

At the age of 28, my patient was already a war-weary veteran of leukemia.

When his cancer was diagnosed, we treated him with a multi-drug cocktail of chemotherapy over months, first with more intensive regimens that sidelined him from being able to work, and then with milder medicines.

His leukemia came raging back, though, so we treated him again, this time with one of the new, expensive immunotherapies that has been approved recently by the Food and Drug Administration. These are not curative, but in his case eliminated enough of the leukemia to enable him to receive a bone-marrow transplant, which did have the potential of curing him. cont