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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: i-node who wrote (523566)	10/26/2009 1:58:21 PM
From: Brumar89	Respond to of 1583374

Liberals love their "ruthless capitalist exploiter" myths. Wish Grisham would write some novels about greedy trial lawyers being exposed for driving up medical costs, preventing life-saving drugs from being developed, persecuting doctors, killing jobs, etc all in the name of profit and greed. You know, a John Edwards type.

To: i-node who wrote (523566)	10/26/2009 2:05:16 PM
From: bentway	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1583374

Victims Of 'Health Insurance Bureaucracy' Speak Out Lawmakers See Need to Reform Health Insurance Claim Delays, Denials abcnews.go.com ( Sick and dying people aren't up for the fight. We'll ALL be there, one day. ) Erinn Ackley still remembers her father's words as he struggled with an aggressive form of cancer in 2006. Bill Ackley had health insurance through his job as a public school teacher. But as his life hung in the balance, his insurance company questioned the necessity of a potentially life-saving treatment doctors prescribed and, for a time, refused to pay. After months of appeals to overcome the "bureaucratic roadblocks," Ackley finally received approval for the treatment he sought. But to his daughter Erinn, the delay just might have cost her father his life. "Dad was finally transplanted 126 days after the first transplant request [but] he never returned home," said Ackley. "He passed away at the age of 57, leaving a grieving widow and daughter, and only one grandchild born 17 months later, that he will never play with." "When a loved one is going through a life or death struggle, you can hear the clock ticking every minute," she said. Ackley's story was one of several accounts shared with members of the House Oversight and Reform Committee on Wednesday of the often heart-wrenching struggles some Americans face in dealing with the "private health insurance bureaucracy." "We're always more informed when we hear about personal experience," said subcommittee Chairman Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio. At the hearing, lawmakers of both parties agreed that delays – or denials – of coverage like the one faced by Ackley are unjustifiable and have become too common. "Every single American would agree that what you went through was wrong," said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. "Americans hate being told what to do, and this idea that someone is going to get between them and their doctor doesn't sit well." The story of Mark Gendernalik's infant daughter, Sidney, was among the emotional testimony before the committee regarding insurers' attempts to avoid costly payouts. "They were trying to exhaust us," said Gendernalik, the father of twin girls from Los Angeles, Calif., of the repeated delays and denials for an expensive treatment Sydney needed for a rare infant spasms syndrome that can lead to irreversible mental retardation. "After six days of being inpatient, doctors said we have to discharge you, we can't get a response from your insurance groups," he said, choking up. "I spend so much time fighting to get care. I feel like medical manager for my daughter, not her daddy… I need you people to let me be her daddy," he implored members of the committee. "We are disenfranchised now… all I want to do now is go home and be a dad." Similar scenarios have been the target of state insurance regulators around the country in recent years, resulting in a number of cases against insurers for wrongfully delaying or denying claims. PacifiCare, a subsidiary of United HealthCare which also insured Gendernalik, paid a hefty settlement in California in 2008 for improperly denying 130,000 claims, among other violations. "Commercial plans will always, always, compete to avoid sick people, even in a regular marketplace," said Karen Pollitz, director of the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute. "There has never been a more deadly time for patients in terms of insurance practices," testified Dr. Linda Peeno, a former review physician for Humana insurance in Louisville, Kentucky. ABC News' Vija Udenans contributed to this report.

To: i-node who wrote (523566)	10/26/2009 2:07:06 PM
From: bentway	1 Recommendation Respond to of 1583374

"There has never been a more deadly time for patients in terms of insurance practices," testified Dr. Linda Peeno, a former review physician for Humana insurance in Louisville, Kentucky.

To: i-node who wrote (523566)	10/26/2009 2:21:31 PM
From: Tenchusatsu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1583374

Hey Inode, take a look at this article. See how many factors will ever be addressed by the Democrats' health care legislation: Healthcare system wastes up to $800 billion a year news.yahoo.com Relisting the factors in descending order of how much impact each one has: 1) Unnecessary care such as the overuse of antibiotics and lab tests to protect against malpractice exposure makes up 37 percent of healthcare waste or $200 to $300 billion a year. 2) Fraud makes up 22 percent of healthcare waste, or up to $200 billion a year in fraudulent Medicare claims, kickbacks for referrals for unnecessary services and other scams. 3) Administrative inefficiency and redundant paperwork account for 18 percent of healthcare waste. 4) Medical mistakes account for $50 billion to $100 billion in unnecessary spending each year, or 11 percent of the total. 5) A paper-based system that discourages sharing of medical records accounts for 6 percent of annual overspending. 6) Preventable conditions such as uncontrolled diabetes cost $30 billion to $50 billion a year. Tenchusatsu