Thursday, October 2, 2008
RANT!
Grrr! I am so stinkin' frustrated with our "health care" system. What a joke! Don't get me wrong, the next to last thing I want is a national health care program. That would take away too much control and choices from parents and individuals for their own health care. Really, we don't have health insurance. We have surgical insurance. There is little to no coverage for true health and wellness. Chiropractic care is limited for most of us on the HMO plans, if covered all, same for acupuncture and nautropathic medicine. I called my HMO today to ask if they cover the cost of birthing classes. (In some states they do.) But no, paying for a $250 class is taking money from these FOR PROFIT organizations. It's like they'd rather be stuck with a much higher bill for the drugs a woman may need because she didn't learn in a birth class other ways to deal with pain. I just get so frustrated with it. The average cost of a "normal" birth in a Minnesota hospital last year was $14,000. The cost of a home birth, including all pre-natal care, at home visits after baby is born total just under $3500. And, none of that is covered by health insurance. Midwifery is legal, home birthing is legal, it's covered in other states but not here and not by HealthPartners. It's frustrating.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
I hear ya. The hubby had an adverse reaction to generic medication so his doctor tried to put him back on the brand name medication. The insurance company refused to pay it. The alternative? Take another drug to try to counteract the negative symptoms of the generic.
Yeah, there's something wrong with this picture.
Ya, my hubby had a great insulin that worked well with his body; his health insurance decided that a different one was cheaper and quit covering the first one. Needless to say, it is NOT as good as the first one and took some adjusting to get units right for his body.
I don't disagree with your opinion with one exception - if the HMO plan you're on is through an insurance company based in MN (BCBS, Medica, HealthPartners, PreferredOne) vs. a national carrier (Humana, Aetna, Cigna), then by MN STATE LAW HMOs are NON-PROFIT! Please be careful about money comments vs. care issues.
I never knew that about MN and of course, it has piqued my curiousity... so where does the money go?
I did a bit of Googling and found a listing of revenue and expenses for Minnesota's top 100 non-profit organizations, as well as CEO salaries (here's the StarTribune link:
http://ww2.startribune.com/projects/np100/revenueView.html
It appears that profits are made by some and I am curious as to where the money goes. (Just subtract the expenses from the revenue for an actual number.) Alas, my Googling has revealed very little (it looks like it would take a bit of digging for the information; more time than I care to invest right now). I did think it made "A Good Question" for Jason DeRusha and sent it to WCCO instead.
I guess my concern is that health care seems to be more about the numbers than care of the patient. It's a lot to think about on a Saturday morning. (Perhaps a little too much!)
The link was cut off so here it is again:
http://ww2.startribune.com/projects/np100/revenueView.html
In case that doesn't work, the tail end of the link is: /revenueView.html
I *know* this will become a blog entry of it's own after a bit of research. BTW- The dfinition of "not for profit" is: "An incorporated organization in which stockholders and trustees do not share in profits. Nonprofits are usually established to accomplish some charitable, humanitarian, or educational purpose. See also 501(c)(3)."
Note that it says nothing about a foundation, or background organization or employees that can earn ridiculious profits. If a company was losing money, they wouldn't be around this long. Thanks for the stuff you found Tina!
Post a Comment