Blogging Against the Politics of Fear, Racism, and Republican, Right-Wing Authoritarian Personalities. "You can't not know. You can't not care."
Robert Greenwald, from Brave New Films, exposes the terrible truth behind the corporate denial of health care to Americans that have been paying their premiums.
How can a person working for the insurance company have the final say over whether a treatment *recommended* by the patient’s *own doctor* is deemed medically necessary or “experimental”?
If you buy auto insurance, you do so because you want to have coverage in case of an accident. If you are involved in a car accident, and you have paid for coverage, you fully expect the car insurance company to pay for repairs, minus any deductibles.
What if the car insurance company refused to pay for your repairs because they looked at your tires and thought one was a little worn? What would you think if they canceled your collision coverage because the slightly worn tire was a pre-existing condition?
You might argue that you had paid your premiums faithfully on time and that if they had a problem with your car, they would have had to do some due diligence and make that determination before they accepted your money.
Accepting money is all that health insurance companies do. They let you pay your premiums, and if you need medical treatment to save your life, then, and only then, do they determine whether or not you are eligible to be covered by their insurance plan.
On his web site, SickForProfit.com, Robert Greenwald shows the activities of one specific insurer, United Health Care:
UnitedHealthcare CEO Stephen Hemsley owns $744,232,068.00 [.75 billion dollars - WH] in unexercised stock options. CIGNA’s Edward Hanway spends his holidays in a $13 million beach house in New Jersey. Meanwhile, regular Americans are routinely denied coverage for the care they need when they need it most.
Welcome to the American health insurance industry. Instead of helping policyholders attain the health security they need for their families, big insurance companies get rich by denying coverage to patients. Now they’re sending lobbyists to Washington, DC to twist the arms of lawmakers to oppose reform of the status quo. Why? Because the status quo pays.
Learn more about the glamorous lives of billionaire health insurance executives and tell us your story of being victimized by their greed. Then contribute to Brave New Films so we can continue to get the word out about the health insurance racket. Sick for Profit.
In his “Special Comment” last Monday night, Keith Olbermann revealed the money that lobbyists for the insurance industry and big “pharma” have paid to obtain the votes of our elected Representatives and Senators:
