Questions America's Health Insurance Plans Didn't Answer
Posted on August 27th, 2008 by Jason Rosenbaum in Insurance NightmaresOn 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