The Real Vampires: The Healthcare Industry
The United States is home to a group of vampires. They work behind the scenes to create the environment of dread and anxiety that they feed on. Every year they become more and more engorged on the lifeblood of the American economy.
Who are these shadowy monsters? Health insurance companies. *insert horror scream*
It’s easy to think that health insurance companies are having a hard time these days.
They’ve been claiming that ever since the ACA was just a bill.
A quick Google search for “health insurance profits” will draw back the curtain and shine sun on their lies.
“Combined, the nation’s top six health insurers reported $6 billion in adjusted profits for the second quarter. That’s up more about 29 percent from the same quarter a year ago — far outpacing the overall S&P 500 health care sector’s growth of 8.5 percent for the quarter, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S data” reports MSNBC in 2017.
“Aetna, Humana and Cigna all saw adjusted earnings rise more than 45 percent from the year ago quarter, despite the fact that they continue to experience losses on Obamacare individual plans. Centene and UnitedHealth Group’s adjusted profits were up roughly 25 percent from a year ago; Anthem was the laggard, with its earnings up just 2 percent.”
Those same companies reported even higher profits in 2018.
These vampires hold the very health of the nation ransom for their profits. They push high-deductible plans by disguising them with low monthly premiums.
But the high deductible means that most of your healthcare expenses still come directly from your pocket.
This in turn makes you less likely to seek healthcare in the first place, knowing how expensive it will be. It’s entirely likely that you could go a year without ever getting to the point where your insurance company pays a single cent, despite happily sucking away at your wallet’s jugular.
Avoiding preventative care in turn escalates the cost of the care that you’ll need when something gets too bad to ignore. Routine bloodwork to monitor your cholesterol and platelets is going to be a lot less expensive in the long run than a heart surgery or treatment for a stroke.
To further protect their interests, this cabal of vampires makes deals with another group of vampires preying on the American people, the for-profit pharmaceutical companies. These two clans of the undead make deals, artificially inflating the price of critical medications.
If you were to pay for a prescription drug out of pocket, you almost always pay considerably more than the insurance company does (when you can get them to pay at all). To preview the sort of inflation that happens behind the scenes, compare the sticker price of a medication with the price that a coupon from a website like Good Rx can get you.
For an essential medication, the sticker price is approximately $160 per month. With coupons, and a little shopping around, the same medication is $7 per month.
You’d better believe that pharma company is still making a profit on that $7.
What can be done to battle this plague of nosferatu?
Vote
Demand action from your state and national representatives. Van Helsing was just a single old man. No matter how passionate and knowledgeable he was, he still needed the help of Harker, Seward, and Morris to defeat Dracula
Demand that regulatory loopholes be closed
Demand tighter restrictions be put in place so insurance providers cannot continue claiming the rising cost of healthcare (that they’ve caused) justifies raising prices
Demand reducing payouts at a rate that lets them continue to post record profits year after year
Shop around. Insurance is expensive. On purpose. Do your best to avoid falling victim to high deductible plans that save you in the short term but can ruin you with a single unforeseen illness
Being able to afford to pick and choose your plan is sadly a big ‘If’ for a lot of people.
Which brings us back around to voting. Organize. Together we are stronger, and we are better than them.