Insurers shun those taking certain meds - Costs of Care - MiamiHerald.com:
"Trying to buy health insurance on your own and have gallstones? You'll automatically be denied coverage. Rheumatoid arthritis? Automatic denial. Severe acne? Probably denied. Do you take metformin, a popular drug for diabetes? Denied. Use the anti-clotting drug Plavix or Seroquel, prescribed for anti-psychotic or sleep problems? Forget about it.
"This confidential information on some insurers' practices is available on the Web -- if you know where to look.
"What's more, you can discover that if you lie to an insurer about your medical history and drug use, you will be rejected because data-mining companies sell information to insurers about your health, including detailed usage of prescription drugs.
"These issues are moving to the forefront as the Obama administration and Congress gear up for discussions about how to reform the healthcare system so that Americans won't be rejected for insurance."
No surprises here, just documenting.
But it does make an interesting contrast to a letter written to the New York times on their piece on a public insurance option by a rather alarmist (and ill informed) physician:
"The unfair competition from a public plan would destroy the private health insurance industry. The inevitable result would be the rationing and other horrors of a Canadian-style single-payer system, which most Americans neither wish nor deserve."
Rationing, in America! God forbid.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Insurers shun those taking certain meds - Costs of Care - MiamiHerald.com
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