[Article] Health insurers refuse to limit rescission of coverage

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http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-rescind17-2009jun17,0,3508020,full.story

Articles like these get me wondering...exactly what is the role that doctors play in altering the healthcare system? I'm a bit unclear on this, especially considering that health insurers are a separate entity from the actual treatment.

What can doctors do on a large scale to bring about changes in healthcare regulation and insurance, considering that much of this regulation is handled by non-medical personnel? Or are we supposed to leave it to the politicians and businessmen to make these changes while we just sit back?

 

[nontrdgsbuiucmd]

What can doctors do?

-petition/contact your congressperson to let them know of your interest and stance on this. Mine has an online form to fill out to request an in-person meeting, you may be surprised how accessible they are
-letters to the editor - wall street journal was full of MD letters after a recent article
-recognize that we are responsible primarily for clinical care, not determining if taxes or personal premiums should pay for a health plan that brought the patient to your office.

In personal lines insurance (home & auto) there are quite a few regulations on insurance companies; one rule in my state is that, after an initial period of 30 days, a policy can only be canceled for fraud during the 12 month policy period. It can be non-renewed after that, but it cannot be canceled during the policy period after 30 days.

A possible regulation on health insurance could require that insurance companies only be allowed to cancel a policy on the annual renewal date, and after, say, 90 days written notice so as to allow the policyholder to find other coverage. There will always be some limits to how much insurance will pay -- typically, insurance policies are capped at around $1M-$4M lifetime payouts; insurance firms are similar to blockbuster video and kroeger's market in that they don't operate to lose money, and need to pay their staff as well as their owners (shareholders, typically) in order to stay in business.

Politicians always must balance their regulations against what insurers (health in this case, my experience is more with home and auto) will do. An example on home & auto is that when Florida prevented State Farm and Allstate from raising their rates around 40% to cover future hurricanes, both firms stopped issuing new policies, stating they could not do so profitably under the current rates and state rules. Take away a firm's profit, it will stop doing business there. In my 5+ yrs experience working for the federal governement and 5+ yrs working for several corporations, you will not get lots more efficiency/choice/better products from the public sector, should the "public option" be opened up.