Health Insurers Overcharging Consumers

Health care reform is a serious need in America. The news from New York today indicates that the industry has been working to force Americans to spend more on health care than they should, with insurers intentionally reducing the amount they did cover below that which they promised to cover.

“We believe there was an industrywide scheme perpetuated by some of the nation’s largest health insurers to deceive and defraud consumers,” Mr. Cuomo said at a news conference. He said that the practice had gone on for more than a decade, potentially adding hundreds of millions of dollars to the out-of-pocket medical expenses of the nation’s consumers.
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Citing an example of what he said was a pattern of underpaying for care, Mr. Cuomo said his office had compared the prevailing market rate for a doctor visit to the amount Ingenix had calculated as usual and customary. While doctors in the metropolitan New York City area typically charged $200 for an office visit, he said, Ingenix calculated the rate at only $77. Under a typical plan, the insurer would pay 8o percent of the $77, or only $62. The patient was responsible for covering the remaining $138 balance. - The New York Times

It's pretty remarkable what an Attorney General in active pursuit of the best interests of his constituents can do. It's too bad Virginia does not have one of those. On the contrary, Attorney General McDonnell appears to be more concerned with international relations and positioning for 2009 than looking out for the interests of Virginians. Three of the five headlines on his website are statements about the 2008 Federal election, with none related to his role as Attorney General.

True reform of the healthcare system requires a nationwide initiative, and that means electing a new President and improving the Democratic majority in Congress. It would also help to elect Judy Feder, one of our country's leading healthcare policy experts, to Congress, to replace Frank Wolf, a Congressman who has done nothing to solve this problem as it grew and grew through his twenty-seven years in the House.

Either way, the current Republican leadership is doing nothing to protect us as we lose the coverage we bought and paid for due to fraud and cynicism on the part of the insurance companies. It is time for change.