"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness," are the founding principles of our Republic. But this is an era when millions of Americans are all too often denied medical care so that insurance executives can reap large bonuses, stratospheric salaries and eat off gold-plated silverware on corporate jets. We all to often forget the moral responsibility to each other that Jefferson's words require.
The horror stories of denied care are everywhere. A House sub-committee heard on particularly gualing story last month. A cancer patient's surgery was delayed because the insurance company claimed that her cancer was caused by a previous bout with acne. The delay allowed the cancer to spread, and may well end up costing this woman--who was a a nurse--her life.
The corporate bureaucrats who make the decisions to rescind care frequently stand to benefit financially and professionally from their decision to shirk moral responsibility on their employer's behalf. The LA Times also reported that Blue Cross/Blue Shield tied employee performance evaluations to the number sick patients the employee dropped. United Health Care paid a $400 million fine to the New York State government for fraudelently, and systematically, under-paying claims. And, as reported by the LA Times, Health Net paid five figure bonuses to employees who exceeded cancellation goals:
"One of the state's largest health insurers set goals and paid bonuses based in part on how many individual policyholders were dropped and how much money was saved.
Woodland Hills-based Health Net Inc. avoided paying $35.5 million in medical expenses by rescinding about 1,600 policies between 2000 and 2006. During that period, it paid its senior analyst in charge of cancellations more than $20,000 in bonuses based in part on her meeting or exceeding annual targets for revoking policies, documents disclosed Thursday showed."
The result is that it's basically impossible for the 133 million Americans with chronic illnesses to get health insurance that meets their needs, and allows them to take proper care of themselves. Patients with costly illnesses cut back on career goals, cut back on purchasing goods, and eventually cut back on purchasing medications. In this sense, we have changed from a nation which lives to allow its fellow citizens to pursue life, liberty and happiness to a nation that forces its ill citizens to endure a life of illness, stagnation, and depression. And that changed in order to allow a fortunate few to grotesquely profit off of the troubles of their fellow citizens.
Real health care reform can address these problems. The bill being considered by the House of Representatives would regulate insurers through the adoption of an insurance exchange, and provide real competition to an industry that has become a quasi-monopoly by creating a solid public option.
What will happen in the Senate is more of an open question. There are many Senators who want to change our health care system for the better. West Virginia Senator Jay Rockefeller wants to use this opportunity to stop insurance industry abuses and create a strong public option:
“We have 133 million Americans living with chronic illness – insurance companies should no longer be allowed to reap profits by denying care to sick Americans,” said Senator Rockefeller. “We as a nation can no longer stand by and continue to allow this practice to occur. These medical services are not optional, and most times, they are not affordable without insurance. Our system is broken—which is why we must eliminate the ability of insurers to deny coverage for pre-existing conditions in every single market. The time for serious action is now.”
Rockefeller is the second in seniority on the Finance Committee, behind Senator Max Baucus (D-MT). Baucus froze Rockefeller out of bi-partisan negotiations on the Finance Committee. Instead Baucus listened to his cronies in the health insurance lobbyist complex, and outlined a bill that would cause millions of Americans to lose their health insurance so that Max Baucus' cronies might get a bonus. And, of course, Baucus cronies can use those bonuses to make donations to their patrons political campaign.
To Max Baucus, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness means the unlimited and unfettered pursuit of material wealth. To regular Americans struggling to be able to go to the doctor and treat their illnesses properly, Jefferson's words mean what they did in 1776--that we share a fundamental responsibility to each other as citizens. It's why 72 percent of Americans oppose the Baucus health care plan, and want the President to sign a health care bill that includes a strong, federally-run public option into law this Fall.