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Imagine the following exchange on the phone:
"Is this 911?"
"Yes."
"I have an armed intruder in my house. Please send the police right away. I'm afraid he's going to kill us all."
"I'm sorry. From our database, I see the household you are calling from has nobody in it who is employed and therefore you are insured by our Basic Blue plan. With Basic Blue, once you have paid $5000 out of pocket for assault rifles and private police protection, we could send out the police for a checkup on matters for a modest $50 copay. Bye." (Click.)
Or imagine this scenario, which might hit a bit closer to home:
"Is this 911?"
"Yes."
"I have an armed intruder in my house. Please send the police right away. I'm afraid he's going to kill us all."
"I see from our database that your employment provides you with our Best Blue police coverage. Best Blue is a wonderful protection plan. We will be able to send an officer out just as soon as we receive your credit card number for your $10 copay. Also, once the officer arrives--assuming your credit card payment is approved--he will be able to use his revolver to stop the intruder but not his shotgun. You'd have to pay the full cost of shotgun coverage yourself. With the Best Blue plan, the officer can pursue a suspect on foot free of charge to you, but if the officer needs to pursue in his cruiser, you would have to foot (I'm so sorry for the pun) that bill yourself. Also, we would not be able to provide you with the aerial support that we provide our Gold members but, don't worry, almost nobody needs that kind of service. And finally, as it states on page 28 of your coverage manual, Best Blue coverage does assume you are at least a Brown Belt in Karate, so that statistically you would be able to fend off intruders half of the time by yourself . . ."
In the two scenarios above I did not add the likely fact that you might have remained on hold for anywhere from 2-30 minutes with your insurance company prior to actually being able to have a conversation with someone.
Sounds pretty bizarre, right? On the one hand it does, but on the other hand it is our everyday reality with respect to health insurance. Health insurers often do whatever they can to deny payment for treatment or set up as many roadblocks as possible for seeking authorization for care.
We are all be expected to have health insurance here in the US—even though 30 million of us don’t under Obama’s health care plan, which is nothing less than a travesty— but we Americans accept this same level of ridiculousness all of the time with respect to our health care coverage. Doctors, health care practices, and hospitals are so used to it that instead of protesting this status quo, for the most part they do what they can to make sure that, within our current system, they can stay afloat and possibly even turn a profit.
Why all of this nonsense? Because the simplest, fairest and most ethical—as well as least costly option--for health coverage, namely single payer national health insurance, is not the law of the land. Just like the right to police protection, road maintenance, and basic education (among many others), access to health care should be a fundamental right that is non-negotiable. It shouldn’t hinge upon whether you signed certain forms during an “enrollment window” at your place of employment, married someone with the right kind of job, or got born to rich parents.
