Obamacare is Scary and the Tolling of the Bells

[TexasTowelie]

By Dr. Brian Carr
President, Behavioral Health Associates, Lubbock, Texas, 1991-Present
Chairman, City of Lubbock Board of Health, 2013
Submitted on August 26, 2013 - 10:21pm

For 25 years I have dealt with health insurance carriers in my private practice as a psychologist. I’ve played the shell game of “clean claim forms” where the carrier rejects a claim for vague or outright incorrect reason. “No pre-authorization obtained” is cited even when I have used the authorization number provided. Sometimes the claim is simply not paid and, when I set on the phone and finally get to a representative I am told “we don’t know what happened just file it again”. It is a maddening system that most people would describe as unworkable.

Tom Hunter spent nine years working for a variety of health insurance companies programming claim systems. In a recent article he described how his unique experience taught him a lot about how health care is delivered in the United States. Pre-ACA healthcare delivery was a cash cow, a gravy train for all the health care providers, including doctors, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and device manufacturers.

Mr. Hunter noted that before the Affordable Care Act, the gravy train did not stop with providers — the green gravy that is premium dollars was liberally spread over insurance companies too, leading to things like United Health Care’s Stephen Helmsley taking home nearly a $1 billion salary during one year. He described the practice of not performing focused underwriting at the time a policy was issued but instead waiting until a large claim is made and then finding minor errors in the application and denying all policy claims and dropping the person’s coverage. People who had pre-existing conditions were never accepted in the first place so, in reality only healthy people (who don’t get sick) have been able to obtain coverage.

A Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: March 2013 found that the majority of Americans remain unsure how the implementation of Obamacare will affect them. While most of the law’s individual provisions remain popular, many of the most well-liked elements are the least well-known among the public. The Extreme Right recognizes that, once the program is implemented, that citizens will begin to understand the benefits and this will be a costly defeat for those who oppose the Act.

Wendell Potter, former health insurance executive, notes that the clock is ticking against those who want to overturn Obamacare. Because supporters of the law have been outspent by hundreds of millions of dollars already — with much of that cash coming from insurance companies and their business pals worried about shrinking profit margins — it’s little wonder that opinion surveys continue to show that more Americans oppose the law than support it.

What has already happened with Obamacare? How about:

*71 Million Kids & Adults With Private Insurance Have Received No-Cost Preventive Care.

*Discrimination By Insurance Companies For Children With Pre-Existing Conditions Was Banned.

*Consumers Received $1.1 Billion in Rebates From Their Insurance Companies.

*3.1 Million More Young Adults Have Health Insurance Through Their Parent’s Plan.

*Seniors Have Saved More Than $6.1 Billion on Their Prescription Drugs Since 2010

For the doubtless “usual suspect” posters to this blog will you please offer a specific example of where the act is bad. In tribute to BillyWayne please cite sources so that we can know you just didn’t parrot the talking points offered by Cruz or the other pundits. I have found that when one challenges back on the specifics of the law that the opposition fades or hides behind distortions or outright lies.

So, everybody get in line and start the debate. Even James Clark might chime in since he doesn’t have to appear in public to do so.

TAGS:

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http://lubbockonline.com/interact/blog-post/dr-brian-carr/2013-08-26/obamacare-scary-and-tolling-bells

Cross-posted in Texas Group.

[freshwest]

1. I love this guy. Haven't been through Lubbock proper since 1997. Good medical there.

Texas is lucky to have him there.

[TexasTowelie]

2. We are in complete agreement. I've become a big fan of Dr. Carr's blogs

and his ability to respond to Republican talking points, particularly those of Dr. Donald May (aka Mr. Conservative). His style ranges from persuasive, to informative, to satire, to outright humor. I wish that I had such a wide range of writing skills in my repertoire.

There are times when I wonder whether the Obama administration follows columns by the writers outside the Beltway and the major publications because they need to make a better effort in promoting the messages that are part of their overall agenda. I'm actually surprised at how well the liberals around Lubbock are able to promote their POV in comparison to the same rhetoric heard from the right-wing. There are some comments that appear on the blogs in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal that are indicative of great minds among their readership. They demonstrate that the cream rises to the top after the milk is churned.