Chelee
10-21-2010, 03:11 PM
Private Health Insurers Step Up Their Efforts To Ration Health Care
Oct. 20 2010 - 3:17 pm | 561 views | 3 recommendations | 10 comments (http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2010/10/20/private-health-insurers-step-up-their-efforts-to-ration-health-care/#post_comments)
By RICK UNGAR
With all the worry about the federal government heading down a path towards rationing health care in the United States, many Americans choose to ignore that it is not government who is rationing care – but rather the private health insurance companies who are deciding what we may or may not have when we get sick.
If you doubted it before, take a good, hard look at where we are heading.
The New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/health/policy/20cancer.html?hpw) reports that two of the largest health insurers in the nation, United Healthcare and Aetna, are tightening their oversight over the treatment of cancer by offering physicians extra money to avoid newer, less proven treatments. Additionally, a number of regional insurers in states including California, Washington and Pennsylvania, are negotiating to clamp down on what oncologists can offer their patients.
http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2010/10/20/private-health-insurers-step-up-their-efforts-to-ration-health-care/ (http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2010/10/20/private-health-insurers-step-up-their-efforts-to-ration-health-care/)
Chelee
Oct. 20 2010 - 3:17 pm | 561 views | 3 recommendations | 10 comments (http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2010/10/20/private-health-insurers-step-up-their-efforts-to-ration-health-care/#post_comments)
By RICK UNGAR
With all the worry about the federal government heading down a path towards rationing health care in the United States, many Americans choose to ignore that it is not government who is rationing care – but rather the private health insurance companies who are deciding what we may or may not have when we get sick.
If you doubted it before, take a good, hard look at where we are heading.
The New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/health/policy/20cancer.html?hpw) reports that two of the largest health insurers in the nation, United Healthcare and Aetna, are tightening their oversight over the treatment of cancer by offering physicians extra money to avoid newer, less proven treatments. Additionally, a number of regional insurers in states including California, Washington and Pennsylvania, are negotiating to clamp down on what oncologists can offer their patients.
http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2010/10/20/private-health-insurers-step-up-their-efforts-to-ration-health-care/ (http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2010/10/20/private-health-insurers-step-up-their-efforts-to-ration-health-care/)
Chelee