HealthCareForAmericaNow

On Monday, America's Health Insurance Plans held an online forum as part of their sham "listening tour." They asked for questions to be submitted to them via email, easily allowing them to pick and choose what they answered. They controlled the medium - with a moderator choosing questions for CEO Karen Ignagni to answer - and that allowed them to control the message. Judging from what actually went on during the forum, with softball questions and no followups, the insurance industry was allowed to spin their position on health care. You can watch the forum here.

Of course, if AHIP had really wanted to talk with the public, they would have been faced with a very different situation. A full 82% of America believes we need a big change in our health care system, with large margins supporting the kinds of health care plans - with quality, affordable health care for all - that the industry opposes. (Karen Ignagni makes clear the industry's position on "reform," a pitiful tax credit that even if it would cover the full cost of health care, would still leave working families paying out of pocket costs for a year until the IRS sent them their end-of-the-year check.)

But it's clear AHIP doesn't actually want to listen to the public, even though they claim they want input. Because if they really wanted to listen to the public, they would have been asked real questions.

On Monday, we asked our members to write America's Health Insurance Plans with questions. The response was overwhelming. In under three hours, over 1,700 questions were sent to AHIP. The full list is here, but I've pulled out some of the best ones - ones AHIP would have had to answer if it were really listening.

When comparisons are made between American private-insurance health plans and the national health care plans provided in all other western democracies (e.g. Canada, Europe), one of the glaring differences is the hugely larger percent of healthcare dollars spent on administrative costs in the US. Would the US healthcare industry ever commit to making the radical changes necessary to get administrative costs more in line with what such costs amount to (percentage wise) in the rest of the western world?

–John Valiulis

Would you consider changing your business model to put people's health decisions back in the hands of their doctors rather than an insurance clerk?

–Ann Barnes

Via NBC:

More than 45 million people in the U.S. have no health insurance. So, where do they go when they're sick or hurt?

Many leave and head out of the country where they can afford to pay for the care they need on a trip becoming known as medical tourism.

A torn bicep caused searing pain, and a dilemma for Stephen Hoyle. He could not afford the surgery to fix it.

"We are one of America's 20 million uninsured families, and started looking at costs approaching $20,000," Hoyle said.

Hoyle was priced out of the U.S. Health Care System, so he flew to Costa Rica, where medical costs are dramatically lower.

Hoyle joined an estimated 500,000 Americans traveling out of the U.S. every year for some type of medical care. Care they can't afford here.

It's simply amazing that it is cheaper to fly thousands of miles to a foreign country than to have a medical procedure here at home. It speaks to the incredible amount of waste and bloat in the private health care system that sick Americans routinely subject themselves to long trips in foreign lands because their country couldn't provide them quality, affordable coverage. And it's more than just health tourism. As Holly from Aurora, IL told us, the health care crisis in America is forcing hard working people to contemplate leaving the country they love:

$217 million per hour.

That's how much Americans spend on health care according to testimony in front of Congress' Joint Economic Committee by experts from the American Human Development Project.

24 hours a day. 365 days a year. For a total of almost $2 trillion spent every year, 16% of our GDP - more than any other nation on earth. And for what?

According to the World Health Organization, America ranks 37th in the world for best health care systems, behind countries we'd expect like France, Japan, and Norway, and also countries that might surprise you, like Colombia, Saudi Arabia, and Chile. And it's not just our health care. According to the American Human Development Project:

As if Karen Ignagni's slippery answers to tough questions weren't proof enough, as if AHIP's history as a front group for the insurance industry weren't convincing, we have this, via Chris Fates at the Politico:

The progressive group Health Care for America Now on Thursday launched another jab at the insurance industry’s health care reform campaign. The new YouTube ad mocks the listening tour launched this week by America’s Health Insurance Plans.

The video spot highlights the fact that calls to the campaign’s 800 number go straight to voice mail. A frustrated caller leaves a message saying, in part, “If you really want to listen, pick up the phone.”

You heard that right. AHIP's new listening tour lists an 800 number as a contact, and that 800 number goes directly to voicemail. Here's the original video:

As Fates notes, he got the same message when we called in. And AHIP didn't return his request for a comment. Big surprise.

The health insurance industry wants to seem like it's listening to you, but they are only looking out for one thing: Their bottom line.

It didn't take long for AHIP's fake campaign to come crumbling down.

UPDATE:

Slate's Timothy Nash ads this:

Trivia point: The same phone number was previously used in a lobby campaign by the Poker Players Alliance, whose chairman is former Sen. Alfonse D'Amato of New York, aka "Senator Pothole." The alliance, which represents the online gaming industry, fought unsuccessfully against a bill restricting online poker.

In a stunning example of how insurance industry practices are part of the problem, a 19-year-old Florida woman was denied the brain surgery she needed and then told she was not covered under the plan her parents paid into.

From TampaBay10.com:

Caitlin needs immediate surgery for her condition, and she was hours away from getting it.

The problem? Her insurance company, Aetna. They approved the operation 15 minutes too late. Caitlin lost the operating room to another patient and had to be rescheduled.

Then, the company came back with an even bigger shocker. They told her they would not cover her brain surgery at all, that her benefits ran out.

The family would now have to foot the bill at a staggering $113,000. Tampa General Hospital was requiring $55,000 down, and the rest after the operation.

Read more on TampaBay10.com.

This is exactly why it is so important that we don't trust the insurance companies on health care reform. We have to make sure that Congress is ready to pass real reform in 2009.

If you are in Columbus, Ohio tomorrow, come on out to help us stop the insurers from thwarting real reform. More details here.

At Netroots Nation yesterday, we ran into Melody Townsel, who has a horrifying story of her ordeal with her health insurance company that she kindly shared with us. Watch it:

You heard that right. Townsel's insurance company declined to cover her daughter's hospital bills because of her daughter's "attempted suicide." Her daughter was two years old. Only after five appeals did Townsel force her insurance company to provide the coverage she deserved from the start.

It doesn't take much to realize the silliness of the insurance company's argument. These kinds of stories - more common than many realize - illustrate how badly our health care system is broken. Insurance companies have an incentive to deny coverage and boost their profits whenever they can, even if their reasoning defies logic. Though the insurance industry claims it's in the business of making people healthy, they routinely deny coverage at every turn. And it's all perfectly legal and acceptable.

This is wrong.

Hard working people in America should have a right to health care, health care that covers their illnesses and doesn't make excuses to boost profits. Quality, affordable health care should be a right in America. That's what Health Care for America Now is fighting for. With your help, we'll make stories like Townsel's a thing of the past.

In response to dramatic increases in healthcare costs, many employers have reduced benefits for workers and their families, or have shifted costs to their employees through increased employee contributions, co-pays and deductibles. Some employers have been forced to eliminate benefits entirely, leaving workers and their families without coverage. Some employees may never recover from the financial devastation of a major injury or illness.

In most of the country, American employers have no legal obligation to provide health care benefits to employee and their families. Instead, they provide health care benefits to attract and compensate employees, and to make up for the lack of government- sponsored health care for American workers. Limited coverage under Medicaid is available for the poorest of the poor, and Medicare is available for seniors, but most American workers and their families who have coverage receive employer-provided health care. Other industrialized countries provide government-sponsored health care for workers and their families, but American workers must obtain health care benefits from their employers, obtain coverage on their own, or go without coverage.

Health care costs have risen dramatically during recent years, with premium costs rising three times faster than wages or inflation. The average premium for family health insurance
coverage today is more than $12,000—a number which could double by 2016 without significant reform.

Larger employers have responded by reducing health care benefits for employees and their families, or have shifted health care costs to employees through increased employee contributions for premiums, higher co-payments and deductibles, and increased premium costs for family coverage.