Medical insurance company exec turns against the American system he was a part of

2 Responses to Medical insurance company exec turns against the American system he was a part of

1. Lulu | Sunday, July 12, 2009 at 5:56 am | Reply

   It was a good interview and his comments were insightful. However, and realize this partly stems from the fact that I have spent my entire adult career in the insurance industry (although not health insurance) the press seems to focus on only one aspect of this crisis – the evil insurance industry.

   I am a huge proponent of health care reform and public health care options. But the discussion regarding the necessity of reform tends to overlook the other contributors to this mess – pharma and medical device/equipment providers as well as the medical service providers /healthcare delivery system.

   Hospitals order unnessecary procedures because they need to pay for the latest MRI equipment that provides limited improvement over the equipment they bought two years ago. They charge outrageous prices to fund their continual expansion and focus expansion on specialties not based on community need, but on where the money is. Drs. prescribe drugs based on the benefit they receive from a particular pharma company. They have expectations of how much they should be compensated based not on their ability but on what society owes them because of their exaulted position and the reverence it commands. They make medical decisions based not on what is in the patient’s best interest and most cost effective but on which procedure is least likely to leave them vulnerable to second guessing and liability exposure

   • Lulu | Sunday, July 12, 2009 at 5:59 am | Reply

     Sorry Bernie – I didn’t mean to hit the submit button. I hadn’t ended it, edited or cleaned it up at all. You got my initial ravings, not the well thought out, organized and considerably briefer response I intended to leave. At this point, I think I will just shut up.