I put much of the blame for our current confusion and chaos in healthcare squarely on the back of the Insurance Industry.
I am a RN and have watched, like many others out there, as Insurance companies made the decisions regarding which provider a patient could see, and making frequent changes in the list of allowable providers. ( As well as restricting medications and increasing co pays out of sight for non formulary drugs for example)
We were very concerned about the standard of health care we would receive once on Medicare. Fortunately we have been very impressed and pleased with the standard of care we receive at TV on UHC Villages Advantage plan.
We have also been able to see the specialists we have selected thus far as they have all accepted our Medicare Advantage Plan.
My father was a MD and I remember the day he walked in after work and said that the Insurance Companies had a choke hold on Doctors, Hospitals and patients. He passed away before it got really ugly.
I personally am still praying for a single payer system for all, a Medicare for all. If all the young healthy people in our country were put into the same system the cost for all would go down. WE are the ones who create the highest costs in the healthcare system. But as long as the Insurance Companies can control our health care it will be a series of changes, cuts, buyouts and profits are the name of the game.
The fact that a few Insurance companies can band together, through buy outs and mergers, and excluding other companies patients, will make having predictable convenient and dependable healthcare very difficult. It hurts us all, the providers and the patients.
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