The conventional wisdom is that Americans just love their health insurance companies.
If that’s true, the entire country must be suffering from Stockholm Syndrome.
Have we developed a psychological alliance with health insurance companies as a survival strategy?
“Maybe they’ll pay our claims if we just believe in them!”
Well, the fact is, more than likely your health insurance company sucks.
Here are three ways you can tell.
#1
Your health insurer is raking in billions in taxpayer-funded premium subsidies but denies coverage for 20% of claims.
By this measure, 7 out of 10 California insurers suck.
As reported on Covered California’s website,
in 2017 California health insurers received 33 million in-network claims,
and denied 8 million of them!
Yes, 24% of in-network claims were denied. They don’t even track out-of-network claims.
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Which California carriers denied the most claims in 2017?
Molina Healthcare denied 40% of claims received
Anthem Blue Cross denied 31% of claims received
Valley Health Plan denied 31% of claims received
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And which insurers denied the least claims?
Oscar denied only 12% of claims received
CCHP denied 16% of claims received
Sharp Health Plan denied 18% of claims received
#2
Your health insurer is buying other companies with the vast pile of money they didn’t spend on your care.
FYI, mergers and acquisitions in the healthcare sector have skyrocketed since the ACA.
For example, in March 2019:
Centene Corporation announced it would buy WellCare Health Plans for $17.3 billion.
Just months before, in December 2018,
Cigna purchased Express Scripts for $67 billion.
And just weeks before that, in November 2018,
CVS Health completed their purchase of Aetna for $69 billion.
That’s $153 billion worth of “extra money” in only 4 months.
Where do you think they get all that money?
You guessed it. By not paying your claims.
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But you can count on this – your premiums will keep going up.
Since 2017:
Covered California premiums (before subsidies) rose 34%
Individual & Family Market premiums (not subsidized) rose 31%.
#3
Your health insurer’s name is Cigna, Aetna, Anthem, Blue Cross & Blue Shield, Humana, Kaiser, or UnitedHealth.
In 2015 these health insurers ranked the lowest in customer satisfaction according to The Fiscal Times.
The lowest of the low was Cigna, followed by United Healthcare & Aetna.
Cigna was the same insurer that denied a liver transplant to 17-year old Nataline Sarkisyan of Glendale, California in 2007.
As a result of their delays, Nataline died.
Bottom line
If you think you love your health insurer, think again.
The only thing private health insurers are really good at is making us think they’re good.
They hire the best PR teams on Earth to make it look like they care about us. (They don’t)
The fact is, we don’t need them.
What we do need is Medicare for All!
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Two federal Medicare for All bills have been introduced in 2019:
H.R. 1384, Medicare for All Act of 2019 was introduced in the House of Representatives.
S.1129, Medicare for All Act of 2019 was introduced in the Senate.
Sign up to learn more about the California Medicare for All movement and the people making it happen!
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