I received a letter from my health insurance provider the other day. As is the usual case, these letters tend to provide information about my account, but this one in particular angered me beyond all belief. Not content with the merely obscene profits they make driving our health care costs through the roof and serving as the nation's national health care death panel, my insurance company has decided to take a page from the mafia playbook - they've branched out into extortion.
Now, to be fair, there are caveats in the letter that mitigate the extortion from total illegality to threatening while leaving an out. But this is about as blatant an assault of fear mongering as any I have seen, including those used during the Bush reign of error. This letter falls just short of threatening to shoot my dog, burn my house, or kneecap me (although they'd have to pay the claim on the kneecapping). Below is the relevant text that represents the threat.
This letter is an urgent notification. Your medication listed below is part of the Mail Service Member SelectSM program. This program includes a limited number of fills of the medication you take on a regular basis at your retail pharmacy. As of [DATE], you are approaching your final retail fill and must take action or you may pay 100% of the cost of your medication at a retail pharmacy.1 [bold original]
In the interest of full disclosure, I'll extend two observations.
- There actually is merit to a program that provides prescription medicine through the mail. For many people getting to the pharmacy is an ordeal because of incapacity, distance, or other reasons I can't think of. For these people having their medicine delivered to their mailbox makes a lot of sense.
- The letter does provide the ability to opt out of the program. However, one must take the active steps to contact the insurance company to opt out and you are required to opt out every year. In other words, they'll keep nagging you.
The opt-out provisions are buried deeper in the letter.
If you prefer, you can choose to disenroll from mail service and continue to fill your medication at a retail pharmacy for your standard copay or cost ...
And at the bottom of the second page, in 8 point type is the end note marked in the dire paragraph.
1If you choose to disenroll from mail service you will need to confirm that decision every year, however, if you choose mail serve you only need to transfer your prescription once.
For some reason
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy floats to mind.
A good idea, and for many this actually is a good idea, sells itself. It doesn't need threats or blackmail to get people to use it. Simple advertising, or even aggressive (as in energetic) advertising is enough to get people to flock to a good service.
But this goes beyond even aggressive advertising. This letter is holding people's insurance hostage to force them to engage in the plan. Even with the opt-out, the penalty for inaction is the loss of benefits.
There is a line between aggressive advertising and extortion. My health insurance company did not simply cross that line with this letter, they pole-vaulted it. Holding one's insurance benefits hostage to force them into a program is unacceptable behavior. To me this is just one more reason why we, as a people, need to join the rest of the intelligent world, fire the health insurance companies once and for all, and replace it with a functioning system of Medicare for all.
I'm including copies of the letter, redacted for privacy, below the fold.
Page 1 of Mail Service Member Select Program Letter
Page 2 of Mail Service Member Select Program Letter