More insurance will not solve our healthcare crisis

By Deborah Burger, RN and Patricia Eakin, RN 
March 18, 2008
Delaware County Daily Times   

Anyone who thinks that forcing all Americans to buy insurance policies is "universal healthcare" and the solution to our national healthcare crisis ought to listen to the voices of Pennsylvanians like Sheryl Weersing, Thornton, Pa.

"On October 31, 2006, my brother-in-law was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma/sarcoma. His doctors recommended an oral drug that was being used to give patients some time with their families to get their lives in order without being tied to IV meds. His insurance company denied the treatment and insisted that he start with a treatment that was for a stage I or II level of disease for which he had to go to the hospital and get IV therapy.

"We were so worried that he wouldn't survive until his son arrived home from the Air Force in time. He lasted just until January 13, 2007, most of that spent in pain, battling dehydration and side effects of chemo and rapid disease progression and fighting with the insurance company when he should have been able to spend peaceful time with his family getting his affairs in order."

Sheryl is one of the more than 700 people with similar stories responding to a California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee ad describing the disparity of care available to Vice President Cheney and members of Congress and the rest of us (www.cheneycare.org).
Compulsory health insurance is the crux of the healthcare debate between Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama over what is called individual mandates. She's for it, he's against it.

But selling insurance is not "universal healthcare." Especially when insurers continue to charge as much as they want and have no limits on the callous, all too routine practice of denying needed medical treatment because they don't want to spend the money.

Sen. Obama has a point that many without insurance can't afford it, especially as the economy continues to collapse and premiums now average over $12,000 per family, not including skyrocketing deductibles, co-pays and other costs that have made medical bills the leading cause of personal bankruptcy.

Insurance companies' first commitment is to guaranteeing a high rate of return to their shareholders, not making sure you get the care you need.

To insurers, health care is a commodity, like pork bellies or wood chips. They make money by increasing the number of people who pay premiums and continually raising rates and fees while containing their costs by restricting what they pay out in claims. They even have a disparaging term for claims approved, "medical loss ratio" -- not a sign they are very happy about authorizing the delivery of care.

Rewarding those same insurers with millions of more customers will not change their behavior. It merely entrenches a dysfunctional system and distorts the role of government, which should be to protect people, not act as an insurance agent.

America’s nurses know there is another approach, what is sometimes called a single-payer system, sort of an expanded and improved Medicare for all.

It guarantees everyone has quality healthcare coverage. It provides defined, uniform, and comprehensive benefits, including dental, vision, and mental health care.

It eliminates the waste and bureaucracy reflected in administrative costs of up to 30 percent for private insurers compared to just 3 percent for Medicare; the latest example being reports that the payments to private insurers for the supplemental Medicare advantage average 113 percent of the cost for comparable seniors in regular Medicare.
 
Perhaps most importantly, it takes decisions about your health out of the hands of insurance companies and their built-in economic incentive to deny care.

It’s a system essentially in place in every other Western country, and it works. A January, 2008 study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, for example, found the U.S. ranked worst among 19 industrial nations in preventable deaths. 

Surely that's the real reform all Americans deserve.

Deborah Burger, RN is a member of the Council of Presidents of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee

Patricia Eakin, RN is president of the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals/NNOC