Another example of why capitalism and healthcare don’t mix.

aetna

I made, what I think, was a pretty rational argument for a Single Payer Healthcare system. There are plenty of quantifiable reasons to go that direction – outcomes, costs, efficiency, etc. But when the corporations work over the public as negotiation leverage, it affirms my belief that capitalism and healthcare are a bad mix

Our family had Aetna insurance last year. Near the end of the summer we received a letter from Aetna telling us they were dropping coverage in our market. This left just one insurance company to cover us. Just one.

In the process, we had to change doctors for our son. The new insurer wouldn’t cover the current doctor. He’d been with the same pediatrician for about 10 years. Without going into detail, it was good to have a doctor who knew him as well as his medical history. Now that connection is severed, because of insurance.

The Threat
When it’s proposed merger with Humana as challenged by the DOJ, Aetna threatened to drop our county along with 16 others. Throughout the conversations with the DOJ, Aetna was clear that if not approved, they would dump us. As soon as the DOJ filed it’s challenge, Aetna dumped the people it was covering.

Aetna went further, minimizing the paper trail by directing employees to have conversations via phone and not email, and classifying basic business correspondence as protected under client-attorney privilege.

It’s good business. That’s the problem.
The thing is, while I think CEO Bertolini doesn’t care about customers, he doesn’t have to. Its business, and that is the crux of the problem.

As a CEO, his obligation is not and never will be to the customers (patients). It is to the shareholders. Customers are just a conduit to put money in the pockets of the shareholders. That is the way businesses are and should be run. And that is exactly why it is bad for patients.

Paul Ryan justified the elimination of the ACA by citing Aetna’s decision to pull out of the exchange… It’s bad for businesses.

I’ll see Ryan’s position, and raise him.

Aetna’s decision shows why we need to replace health insurance. Its bad for Americans.

Choose your constituency Mr Ryan.

Profit motivated health insurance is good for business.
A Single Pay System is good for Americans.

Who do you work for?