Fight back against health insurance companies

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To the editor:

Last October, Michael Napientek had excruciating back pain and required surgery. No fool, Michael had the procedure pre-authorized first. Then in April, his insurance administrator, a division of UnitedHealthcare, denied the claim. Michael and his wife, Sandy, would need to pay the $148,000 surgery bill themselves. Only after their story was picked up by the Chicago Tribune did United Healthcare agree to pay the claim.

The Napienteks are not alone with their health care troubles. A recent study in the American Journal of Medicine noted that “using a conservative definition, 62.1 percent of all bankruptcies in 2007 were medical ... Most medical debtors were well-educated, owned homes and had middle-class occupations.”

This is the state of health care in our country today. Patients are denied coverage. Middle-class families go bankrupt. And 46 million Americans go without health insurance, forcing them into emergency rooms where they drive up health care costs for everyone. Indeed, health premiums have surged 78 percent for family coverage since 2001, while wages have increased just 19 percent. A third of U.S. firms now don’t offer health coverage. And as health care costs rise, more employers drop coverage every day.

Our current health care system is good for some folks, though. UnitedHealth Group, the parent of UnitedHealthcare, just reported second-quarter profits more than double compared to last year. For all 428 publicly traded health insurance companies, profits were up 428 percent from 2000 to 2007. Health insurance CEOs are also doing fine. The CEO of UnitedHealth Group made $324 million over a recent five-year period, while the CEOs of 23 top health insurance companies made a combined $1.4 billion over that same period. 

Now, we could keep paying higher premiums every year until our company finally drops its health coverage, all the while hoping nothing serious happens to our health. Or, we could fight back.

While insurance companies now enjoy monopolies in 94 percent of U.S. markets, the health care reform bill in the U.S. House would eliminate these monopolies. It would create a public agency, similar to Medicare, to compete with private insurers. The increased competition would force down premiums and increase the quality of health care. It’s known as the “public option,” and it’s good news for everyone except insurance companies. They are spending millions to defeat it, and that’s why we need to fight back.

It couldn’t be easier. Just log on the Internet and search for “Health Care for America Now.” Let’s get started!

Rich Neubauer
Sycamore