I wrote this letter to my Representative.

To the Honorable Bob Filner:

I am writing regarding health care reform. I do not have time to read the 1000+ page proposal but I want to air my concerns over the current system in the hope that these concerns may be addressed.

I am currently covered through health insurance offered by my employer, and for that I am both fortunate and grateful. However, this health plan is a mess and I am concerned that the health care industry lobbyists are framing the debate in terms of private vs. public coverage and not in terms of how health care is actually administered to the American people.

I have an autistic son. We have gone through all the administrative processes to cover his care by a specialist who is not part of my insurance network. We have a letter from my insurance company authorizing this care. Despite this letter, we receive a rejection notice every time the specialist submits a claim. We literally spend hours resolving these rejections and it is emotionally devastating: it’s hard enough to raise an autistic son without having to constantly fight our insurance company.

Insurance companies claim that they are “controlling costs” by reviewing claims to be sure that treatment is both authorized and necessary. I agree with this sentiment, yet in practice health care insurance companies simply deny coverage and bank on the fact that many people don’t have the resources or tenacity to fight for their coverage. This is borderline criminal.

The monthly combined payment for our plan (employer + employee) is somewhere in the neighborhood of $1500, not including deductibles. Even with our son’s ongoing treatment, we pay far less into this plan than we get out of it. I understand that that is the nature of insurance, but I am concerned that our premiums and deductibles are lining the pockets of lobbyists and anti-reform pundits rather than taking care of their customers’ legitimate health care needs. It seems to me that insurance companies care more for their shareholders than their customers. Doctors are bound by the Hippocratic oath and I think insurance companies would do well to do the same.

I am flabbergasted by people who are afraid that the government is trying to step in and “make health care decisions.” In my opinion, bureaucracy is the same whether it is private or public. All large institutions, even when they are private businesses, suffer the same bureaucratic inefficiencies. Dealing with government agencies is no more or less vexing than dealing with my insurance company. Furthermore, I believe health care decisions are to be made in consultation with my doctor, and when an insurance company steps in and reviews these decisions, the insurer violates doctor/patient confidentiality.

Recently on NPR, Steve Inskeep interviewed Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele about health care reform. Mr. Steele argued that a government-run system would be plagued by inefficiency and would be a drain on resources. He compared it to Amtrak and USPS. What he failed to understand is that Amtrak and USPS offer services that are deemed socially important enough to keep running, even if they operate under a loss. That is one of the purposes of government: to step in when an unprofitable venture has a social value. I implore you and your colleagues to consider health care a venture whose social value far outweighs monetary profit and loss.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 at 11:47 and is filed under Exploring Autistic Culture, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.