The US Health Care system is in need of a major overhaul. According to the National Coalition on Health Care, "Experts agree that our health care system is riddled with inefficiencies, excessive administrative expenses, inflated prices, poor management, and inappropriate care, waste and fraud. These problems significantly increase the cost of medical care and health insurance for employers and workers and affect the security of families."
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I have seen firsthand the impact that our current health care system has on families.
A little background:
From 2003 to 2008 as a medical provider (Psychotherapist) in Minnesota, I treated individuals and families. Part of my duties were to obtain "authorizations" for behavioral and substance abuse treatment services for my clients from their insurance companies. Many times my patients were denied the necessary services to effectively treat their conditions. The insurance representatives were very disconnected to the field of behavioral health and seemed motivated to deny or limit services as much as possible.
A glaring example of this was in treating persons whom struggled with Methamphetamine addiction. For most persons with this addiction, recovery can take between 1-3 years.....and that's if their brains are not already permanently damaged from the chemicals. However, the insurance representatives response is to allow 21 days of inpatient treatment followed by 6 weeks of aftercare counseling (often only 2-4 hours a week of help). This is not even close to enough time to help an individual with this condition, let alone, allow time for the family to heal.
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Health care is such a tough topic for me. On one hand you have good examples like this where people do not get the treatment that they need. Our system really is "riddled with inefficiencies". On the other hand, it seems like this may happen no matter what you do. If the government was running the health care system I'm not sure the outcomes would be any better, so it is hard to say what we should do.
ReplyDeleteDan, you hooked me with this post. I was a therapist when managed care was just getting started. I, too, was stunned by the lack of knowledge that insurance co. gatekeepers possessed about psychiatric and substance problems. It seemed as though their answer to everything was "group therapy."
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid that health insurance companies have become so profit-driven that they are going to "kill the goose that laid the golden egg." Ordinary citizens WITH insurance are tired of having claims for treatment denied when the treatment was deemed necessary by their health care professionals. And 40 million Americans [probably more now] are without any health care insurance at all! Something is likely to be done in Obama's administration, but the form it ultimately will take is anyone's guess. Lobbyists for the health insurance industry will be in the thick of all reform efforts...tune in, it could be quite a ride!