Health Insurance is in the details

Examples of issues that do not ever seem to be addressed.

I had an ear infection and I went to the local clinic. The doctor prescribed a bottle of ear drops that lasted for three days. The tiny-tiny-tiny bottle smaller than my thumb cost $132. On my follow up visit, I asked the doctor, "Why does the pharmaceutical company charge so much?" Without hesitation, she replied, "Because they can."

A close friend of mind hurt her head in an accident. The doctor recommended an MRI at a cost of $1,900. The person had not met her insurance deductible yet and did not have the $1,900 so she declined the test. She could not afford it. Fortunately, she seems to have recovered. But what if she had not recovered and due to not getting the MRI test, she was admitted to the hospital a few days later with serious head injuries that could have been prevented by earlier treatment. Who is the loser? Of course she is, but so is the insurance company which might have had to pay tens of thousands of dollars for treatment that could have been prevented.

Does the insurance company truly care? No. Why should they? Because if they have to pay out more than they planned, they can simply raise their rates to the rest of us. The insurance companies have no incentive to act economically. Think I am wrong? Then someone show me a health insurance premium that has ever decreased from year to year. The insurance companies blame their increased premiums on the increased costs of medical care, which by the way they influence. And the fox told the farmer. "It is your fault. You put the chickens in the chicken coop, not me."

And now the biggest insurance scam ever played on the America citizen. You work for a large company and your total premiums paid by you and your employer are $500 per month. You quit and apply for individual insurance. The insurance company says you must now pay $700 per month for an individual policy because you are not part of a group. This situation must cause insurance company executives to roll over laughing at their desks. Why? Because you are still part of the same group you were in before you quit--that group is the total number of insured people the insurance company covers. The insurance company computes its risk based on the total number of people it insures not the number of people in your former company and certainly not you, by yourself.  The next time you talk to your insurance representative ask them about this issue and watch them fumble around with a non-answer. And why can do this? Because they can?

I do not have the answer. I am not experienced enough. But I do believe that allowing insurance companies to operate in any state without red tape would make it more competitive. I am searching for an iPhone app to solve this problem.