Bill Moyers and Wendell Potter - Profits Before Patients

With all the talk about health care in the news lately, I thought it relevant for everyone to watch Bill Moyers’ interview with Wendell Potter, a health insurance insider and former executive for Cigna.

Seriously, everyone should watch it. It’s eye-opening, to say the least. Now I’m not surprised at all why Aetna (my health/dental insurance provider) recently rejected two claims from my dentist for cavity filling work. Yeah, my teeth suck, but under my dental policy, Aetna is supposed to cover 100% of cavity filling costs. I guess those greedy bean-counters just didn’t want to take a medical loss by paying what they agreed to pay, all in the name of making their stock go up a fraction of a percent. I’m sure the person who actually denied the claims will get a nice, fat bonus this year. Sheesh. Now I have to sit and wonder if my dentist will come after me for reimbursement.

For a few years I actually didn’t have any health insurance at all. Yes, I was nervous about not having coverage (I actually lost sleep about it), but there wasn’t much I could do. Health benefits were not provided automatically through my work, and choosing to opt into the health insurance plan at work would have eaten about a third of my entire salary. Ouch! The life of a doctoral student with a teaching assistant position in the Arts is not known for its lucrativeness. And no, before anyone gets all high-and-mighty on me, I did not cost the taxpayers an extra penny because I didn’t go to the doctor or hospital for any reason during that time.

It wasn’t until late 2008 that I finally bit the bullet and found a pretty cheap (but high-deductible) Aetna plan to cover me and not cause me fall behind on any other bills. Finally, I was insured and could rest a little easier at night. Or, at least I could until I saw those denial notices start rolling in from Aetna and then found this video. Think your health insurance company has your interests at heart? Think that just because you have health insurance, you’re actually covered for treatment? Think again.

I know that it’s an extremely complicated and volatile issue, but the more I learn about the disaster that is the USA health care industry, the more I think that a public option, or even universal health care, is an absolute necessity. Of course, one typical argument against a public/universal policy is that it would put a government bureaucrat between you and your doctor. Okay, that’s a valid point, but as it stands now (and as Potter explains), you already have a corporate bureaucrat with dollar signs in his eyes standing between you and your doctor.

When it comes to making potentially life-saving decisions about my health care, if I have to choose between the government and a corporation motivated by profit, I choose the government. In this case, I call it a lesser evil.