Insurers Try to Dodge Reform Law

Some of you may have heard me say or write in the past that I think the fundamental problem with our healthcare system is that it's overwhelming mission is not to provide quality care and coverage to people, but rather to generate maximum profit and to do so over short time increments...a quarterly basis.

My assertion is that until those two motivations are aligned - generating a profit by covering and caring for people - we'll always have a sub-par system that degrades our overall health as a nation and costs us more and more money as we go down the tubes.

Anyway, I saw an article today that underscores my fears about the health insurance industry and their motivations. Click HERE for a story that reports on recent attempts by insurers to get out of the provision of the new health reform that bars them from denying coverage to children with pre-existing conditions.

Yes, they are trying to find a loophole in the new law so they can continue denying coverage to children with pre-existing conditions. Why? Money. Instead of, like, 24% profit, they'll make, say, 19% profit under the new law because they now have to grant coverage to sick kids whose parents want to insure them.

This is a great example of what I'm talking about. Our system is set up so insurers actively look for ways to NOT provide coverage - even to the most in need people in our society. And, they do this even when the law says they cannot. Shouldn't they be extending the coverage to sick children and spending their time (and lobbying money) on ways to deliver care that helps/cures those kids so the then cost less to everyone over the long haul?

And if that means the insurance company takes a slight dip in profit margin such that the CEO doesn't earn a big enough bonus to buy a yacht to moor in front of his or her third home over at Lake Como, Italy...that's just fine by me.

In the end, the insurers may not win this one as it appears they may back down. But, they tried. And they may try again - either on this specific provision or on others. Why? Becuase they are motivated to by the system.