No insurance for you!

I thought the government finally cracked down on this years ago. But after Newt and little George erased 60 years of progress, I guess the country is back to the sepsis and bedbug days.

It seems that in today's America, not a single decision is made about anything unless an insurance company approves it. This is worse than merely annoying. It can be deadly. Everyone remembers about a year ago when a young person died because she was denied life-saving medical treatment by her insurer. This happens more than you realize.

Insurers actually have more power than doctors in making medical decisions.

Sadly, this trend continues unchecked.

Now it's been revealed that health insurance companies secretly blacklist patients with certain conditions or who take certain medications.

If you have gallstones, for instance, you'll be denied coverage automatically. If you take certain diabetes drugs, you'll be denied as well. If you have asthma or if you're even slightly overweight, odds are you'll be denied too.

Suppose you get the bright idea to fib a little and tell your insurer that you don't have these conditions or don't take these drugs. Well, that probably won't work. That's becuz insurers hire data-mining companies who will sell them all your health information.

Isn't your health data supposed to be confidential? I thought there were laws to protect you from having your health history blabbed everywhere.

Several of these data miners have been accused by the Federal Trade Commission of violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act by not letting folks see the data about them.

Insurers have their own confidential, secret documents that they use as a guide to deny coverage.

This scandal is a key reason why insurers can't be part of any serious health care reform. In the meantime though, we should pass laws barring insurers from denying coverage in this manner.

America's greed-driven health care system is broken.

(Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/323/story/973158.html)