Great. This is why we need a public option. So that there is a true alternative to the private insurance market. Who out there honestly thinks the insurance companies are going to implement whatever be we pass in good faith? According to this story in the LA Times, they're just going to deny us various treatments.
Despite growing frustration with the way health insurers deny medical treatments, major healthcare bills pending in Congress would give patients little new power to challenge those sometimes life-and-death decisions....
By requiring insurers to cover everyone, regardless of pre-existing conditions, healthcare reform will make it more difficult for insurers to control their costs, or "bend the cost curve," by avoiding sick people.
That leaves insurers with the other big cost-containment tool: turning down requests to cover treatments.
"There are going to be a lot of denials," said insurance industry analyst Robert Laszewski, a former health insurance executive....
Experts said the legislation under consideration does not significantly enhance patient protections against insurers refusing to cover requests for treatment. Most people currently have no right to challenge health insurers' treatment decisions by suing them for damages.
