A Health Insurance Insider Offers Words of Advice
By WALECIA KONRAD
WENDELL POTTER is a 20-year health insurance veteran who served in top public relations jobs at such firms as Cigna and Humana. Now a senior analyst at the Center for Public Integrity, Mr. Potter has written “Deadly Spin,” a tell-all about practices of the health insurance industry. The book chronicles insurers’ attempts to influence legislators, policy makers and the public, as well as his own change of heart about his work.
We asked Mr. Potter what consumers can do about rising health care costs and about practices they should be wary of. His responses, below, have been edited and condensed for space.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/19/health/19patient.html?hpw=&pagewanted=print
Here is a letter to the editor of the New York Times I sent in response to the above article. Let's see if they publish it.
Here is a letter to the editor of the New York Times I sent in response to the above article. Let's see if they publish it.
The central message of the interview with health insurance industry whistleblower Wendell Potter (NYT February 19, 2011) was "caveat emptor". The interview is a reminder of a serious flaw in the recently enacted Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act - reliance on for-profit insurance companies as a mainstay in the financing of health care.
Getting a for-profit, publicly-traded financial services business to favor the interests of policy-holders and patients over the maximization of shareholder wealth is like trying to teach a zebra to climb a tree. No matter how hard one tries, it just isn't going to work. It's not in the DNA.
We will not have a truly functional health care system in America until the for-profit insurance companies are replaced by strictly regulated public utilities or public entities. That is the model that already works in most other wealthy countries.
Philip Caper, M.D.
322 Reach Rd.
Brooklin, ME 04616
207-370-2119
pcpcaper21@gmail.com
Getting a for-profit, publicly-traded financial services business to favor the interests of policy-holders and patients over the maximization of shareholder wealth is like trying to teach a zebra to climb a tree. No matter how hard one tries, it just isn't going to work. It's not in the DNA.
We will not have a truly functional health care system in America until the for-profit insurance companies are replaced by strictly regulated public utilities or public entities. That is the model that already works in most other wealthy countries.
Philip Caper, M.D.
322 Reach Rd.
Brooklin, ME 04616
207-370-2119
pcpcaper21@gmail.com
Study of Breast Biopsies Finds Surgery Used Too Extensively
By DENISE GRADY
Too many women with abnormal mammograms or other breast problems are undergoing surgical biopsies when they should be having needle biopsies, which are safer, less invasive and cheaper, new research shows.
A study in Florida found that 30 percent of the breast biopsies there from 2003 to 2008 were surgical. The rate should be 10 percent or less, according to medical guidelines.
The figures in the rest of the country are likely to be similar to Florida’s, researchers say, which would translate to more than 300,000 women a year having unnecessary surgery, at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars. Many of these women do not even have cancer: about 80 percent of breast biopsies are benign. For women who do have cancer, a surgical biopsy means two operations instead of one, and may make the cancer surgery more difficult than it would have been if a needle biopsy had been done.
Empire at the End of Decadence
By CHARLES M. BLOW
America is great in many ways, but on a whole host of measures — some of which are shown in the accompanying chart — we have become the laggards of the industrialized world. Not only are we not No. 1 — “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” — we are among the worst of the worst.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/19/opinion/19blow.html?hp=&pagewanted=print
Medicaid and New York’s Budget
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/19/opinion/19sat1.html?hp=&pagewanted=print
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House pulls plug on health law funds | |
| The House voted Friday to block funding for the health care law in several ways – starting the countdown to the defunding clash with Senate Democrats and President Barack Obama. As expected, lawmakers approved Rep. Denny Rehberg’s amendment to the continuing resolution, which bars all payments to “any employee, officer, contractor, or grantee of any department or agency” to implement the law. The Montana Republican’s amendment is aimed at the Department of Health and Human Services and the Labor Department. But they also gave unexpected victories to Steve King of Iowa, approving broader measures to deny any implementation funds in the continuing resolution and block salaries to enforce the entire law. http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=3A5214F3-F48E-400F-9131-976078DA32FA |
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