Tag: medical insurance

Why All Americans Still Can’t Get Free Coronavirus Treatment

Access to COVID-19 treatment is key to helping Americans combat the disease, as well as containing its spread. To their credit, on March 29, Humana and CIGNA—the fourth- and fifth-largest health insurers—under massive public pressure, waived “all COVID-19 costs” for all of their members. But, tens of millions of other Americans continue to face powerful financial barriers to care. Our corporate health care system is not designed to ensure everyone gets needed care, much less to protect the public health.

Over the last month, as the novel coronavirus laid siege on the US, the largest health insurers did nothing to reduce barriers to COVID-19 care. Instead, their web sites advised their members to practice good hygiene and suggested they visit the CDC online for more information. News reports revealed that Americans were loath to seek care for fear of the cost. And, that remains the case for most of the 87 million uninsured and underinsured in this country.

Today, United Healthcare, the largest health insurer in the country, waived all cost-sharing for its members. But, Anthem, the second-largest health insurer, does not appear to have waived costs for treatment. Aetna, the third-largest health insurer, has only waived some costs for some of its members. Continue reading.

Meaningful Protection From Surprise Medical Bills

Credit: mensatic via Morguefile

Many Americans purchase health insurance under the impression that doing so will protect them from exorbitant, one-time costs associated with medical care. Insured patients pay premiums every month rather than having to worry about paying a large medical expense at once. In some instances, however, insured patients visit their doctors and receive a costly, unexpected bill. This is a consequence of the current structure of health insurance and provider networks, wherein insurers and health care providers negotiate to accept discounted payments as payments in full for services in exchange for sending patients to those providers. When patients visit out-of-network providers—those who haven’t agreed to these discounts—they can lose the benefit of their insurance. The provider may charge them the entire, nondiscounted price for a service—and insurance may not cover any of the bill.

Even when their insurance covers part of the bill, patients are often left to pay the difference between the insurer’s payment and the high, nondiscounted price that the provider charges. This practice is called balance billing—or surprise billing, when the bill is unexpected—and it’s a practice that Americans want addressed. A 2018 Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that two-thirds of Americans are worried about receiving an unexpected medical bill. Solving this problem has garnered bipartisan support, and members of Congress from both sides of the aisle have introduced legislation on the topic. Some state governments have attempted to address the issue, but federal law and state inaction has left many patients still exposed to this harm. Continue reading “Meaningful Protection From Surprise Medical Bills”

ACA sign-ups spike at open enrollment’s start

The following article by Juliet Eilperin and Colby Itkowitz was posted on the Washington Post website November 7, 2017:

This post has been updated.

Credit: healthcare.gov

The number of consumers signing up for plans under the Affordable Care Act has surged during the first few days of open enrollment compared with past years, according to federal and state officials.

More than 200,000 Americans chose a plan on Nov. 1, the day open enrollment began, according to one Trump administration official. That’s more than double the number of consumers who signed up on the first day of enrollment last year. More than 1 million people visited HeathCare.gov, the official federal website, the official said, amounting to roughly a 33 percent increase in traffic compared with 2016. Continue reading “ACA sign-ups spike at open enrollment’s start”

Sanders and Klobuchar book CNN debate with Cassidy and Graham

The following article by David Weigel was posted on the Washington Post website September 21, 2017:

U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) speaks as Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) and Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) listen. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

The chief sponsors of the GOP’s 11th-hour effort to curtail the Affordable Care Act will debate two of their Senate opponents, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), on Monday night — an arrangement that surprised some of Sanders’s Democratic colleagues, who learned about the debate when host network CNN blasted out a news release.

According to Sanders spokesman Josh Miller-Lewis, CNN came to the senator with the idea earlier in the week, and Sanders signed on without hesitation. Continue reading “Sanders and Klobuchar book CNN debate with Cassidy and Graham”