Abell's Kentucky Law Blog

Use Goes Down, Prices Go Up: The Spiraling Upward Cost of Healthcare

Although Americans reduced their use of healthcare resources in 2010, hospitals, doctors and drug companies, nonetheless, raised their prices at a rate faster than inflation. Bloomberg News reports:

Doctors, hospitals and drugmakers raised prices faster than inflation in 2010, driving U.S. health costs higher as fewer Americans sought care after the recession.

The Health Care Cost Institute released a report on healthcare costs in 2010.

Robert L. Abell
www.RobertAbellLaw.com

Does the Supreme Court Even Understand the Healthcare Reform Law?

Does the Supreme Court even understand the healthcare reform law? Has the nine-member Court and the lawyers that argued before it failed to grasp a basic point about the law's mandate for individuals to obtain health insurance?  Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar in an article, Individuals Can Comply With Obama Insurance by Buying Skimpy Insurance; Did Justices Understand?, in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune offers this observation:

A possible misunderstanding about President Barack Obama's health care overhaul could cloud Supreme Court deliberations on its fate, leaving the impression that the law's insurance requirement is more onerous than it actually is.

During the recent oral arguments some of the justices and the lawyers appearing before them seemed to be under the impression that the law does not allow most consumers to buy low-cost, stripped-down insurance to satisfy its controversial coverage requirement.

In fact, the law provides for a cheaper "bronze" plan that is broadly similar to today's so-called catastrophic coverage policies for individuals, several insurance experts said.

Robert L. Abell
www.RobertAbellLaw.com 

 

Delays Caused By Insurance Companies Harm Patients, Doctors Report

Doctors responding to a survey investigation conducted by the Toledo Blade reported that 14% of their patients had suffered "serious harm or injury" because of delays in care caused by their patients' insurance companies, see "Not What the Doctor Ordered: Delays, Denials Thwart Patients Hoping for Help."  920 doctors, including members of both the American and Ohio Medical Association, responded to the survey.  Nearly all -- 99% -- reported that insurance companies had interfered with their clinical decisions regarding treatment of their patients. 

There is often no real remedy or relief for a patient or a patient's family that is killed or seriously injured because their insurance company would not pay for the treatment and care their doctor directed.  That is because most people's medical insurance comes through their job and therefore is covered by a federal law known as ERISA (stands for Employee Retirement Income Security Act).  When an insurance company denies medical treatment in this type situation, the only remedy that the insured patient (or the insured patient's family) can recover is the cost of the treatment.  And that will occur only if the insurance company's decision is deemed "arbitrary and capricious."  If the patient dies as a result of the insurance company's arbitrary and capricious denial of the treatment, there are no damages recovered by the family, no lost income or anything but the cost of the denied treatment.  ERISA is protection for outrageous insurance company practices.

Robert L. Abell
www.RobertAbellLaw.com