LTE – Insurance companies need more regulation
I have an acquaintance who needs a liver transplant. He is self-employed and has been paying for insurance since the 1990s.
Recently, the insurance company sent notification that as of the end of the year, they are dropping him. He knows all too well that since his liver transplant and the drugs to maintain it for the rest of his life will be so expensive, no other company will want to take him on.
As he wrote to his state insurance commissioner, “I know that it would be simpler for the insurance companies and medical providers if I just died of liver failure, but for me, that’s not an attractive option. Neither is bankruptcy, losing my house, my retirement fund, and about everything I’ve worked for my whole life.”
We live in a society that punishes people for getting sick. Often, the insurance of working people does not cover many medical procedures or medicines that are needed to save lives, and God forbid you should get so sick you can’t work or you lose your job.
I feel as if those who have insurance now do not realize how precariously they are perched. One major illness or the loss of a job and you could lose everything. I read that over 50 percent of bankruptcies in this country are due primarily to health care costs.
At the town hall meeting in Moss Point, Rep. Gene Taylor made a valid point about insurance companies that seemed lost in all the anger. Insurance companies are not subject to anti-trust legislation.
Read more of Mary Davis’ Letter to Gulf-Live
8/30/9
Magnolia Tribune
