We must act now President Elect Obama...

United Health Care, the nation’s largest Managed Care Company announced in the NY Times on Dec. 2^nd a new product called Continuity. This product is being sold to protect your right to individual health insurance coverage. Of course if President Bush or President Elect Obama understood what this was, they will immediately level the playing field and make all health insurance sold in America, guaranteed issue from your employer or individually. This garbage is a marketing insult to intelligence and a blow to the lack of action from Congress regarding health reform. 

In my book, “The War on Medical Terrorism”, you can  become educated on the U.S.  health insurance industry and its value proposition. What a farce. This product should never exist because the U.S. government already recognizes the need for every state in America to guarantee issue of individual insurance policies especially in light of the recent high unemployment numbers and our current economic crisis. Americans should always have the right to purchase protection from catastrophic financial disaster due to bad health, if they can afford it. However, as you will find in my book, due to the naivete and lack of responsiveness from the U.S. government, Congress must be convinced that legislation of this type can wait.  I am embarrassed by our inability to act on legislation that would guarantee Americans the right to purchase health insurance protection if they could afford it, instead of adding  profits for a valueless product. 

The fact that this product hasn't any viability is the fault of Congress to enact any useful health insurance reform in the past 50 years. Group insurance, which is usually a guaranteed issue product, will not protect the two million Americans who are now out of work and whose COBRA benefits exhaust after 18 months. If they are not working at a company that makes health insurance benefits available to their employees, this economic crisis will result in many more hardship than is necessary. 

My prediction is that United Healthcare will be the first health insurance company in America who will be begging our government for money based upon their financial collapse, which will prove to have nothing to do with the health risk they bear in selling health insurance policies. It is greed and poor management and lack of leadership that will kill this company and endangers the strength of our entire health care system. They will take many others with them. Is anybody aware of this? Of course not, which is why we are where we are. United Healthcare’s coming inability to pay claims on a timely basis is increasing. Do you know anything about this company and what got them in to this position anyway?

The service provided by American health insurance companies has deteriorated to levels of abomination. If you have health insurance and have been sick, you might understand that the provider side or care suppliers will come through for you regardless of your coverage and the underlying insurance carrier, despite their attempts to keep you from getting the medical services you need by not paying for them. If you provide a service that someone needs and you do it ethically and honestly to the best of your ability, most of the time you deserve to be compensated for it. This United Health Care company invention or product  called Continuity shows the arrogance of the health insurance industry and its strong hold on cherry-picking risk. American citizens should not have to be the insurer of last resort.

 

When the U.S. government, under the directive of President Elect Obama, creates a government alternative to corporate health insurance, Americans should benefit from this competition… not suffer from it. What are we waiting for? There is a tremendous opportunity in this particularly difficult economic crisis to respond with great strength and humanity to our health care crisis. America needs to focus on herself first. It isn't isolationism, just an executable plan for the future. Be bullish on America. The world still depends on us. American capitalism has been the economic machine of prosperity that saved the world numerous times from economic disaster. But when economic woes affect America, the world suffers with us. 

The U.S. dollar will be and deserves to be the strongest currency in the world. Every world leader either knows this or is afraid to admit it. Don’t lose faith in America. We will survive and lead the world back to more stable times but cannot and must not ignore our immediate needs at home. The U.S. health care crisis has the potential to dwarf our current economic crisis. We must act now President Elect Obama. I know you can do it.