Health Insurance Companies getting Nervous?

I just got a letter from my health insurance company, telling me that beginning this week the following will go into effect on my policies:

1) No cost for exams or physicals once a year
2) No out of pocket costs for generic brand prescription drugs
3) All contact lenses covered in full
4) New eye glasses every year, covered in full up to $300
and finally
5) $150 credit to my account if I don't replace my contact lenses each year.


Seems to me that they're trying to get me to believe that they really do have my best interests at heart, so I'll write my congressmen or something.

Pity that I know that they're thieving bastards, and will drop the benefits the moment congress drops the health care bill, and double pity that I don't have congressmen!

I work for the largest mover of freight on the North American Continent, so there's a lot at stake when an insurance company stands to lose nearly half a million customers, but I wonder if anyone else has gotten notices from their insurance companies yet?

My insurance company recently denied a claim for my son's prescription acne medicine. They sent me a 5 page letter explaining why coverage was denied and how I should go about appealing their decision if I were so inclined.

I agree with their decision as it seems that this topical medication only recently put on the market is a compound of two other drugs which are much less expensive if purchased separately.

I was also just informed by my insurance company that my sons upcoming oral surgery to remove his wisdom teeth is covered 100%.

The only problem I've ever had with health insurance is that our former insurance company had a monopoly in this area for years but that is rapidly coming to an end with more insurance companies competing for business.

The last letter I got from my insurance company was informing me that my premium will be increasing by 20%

I just got an audit from my insurance company, asking me to provide proof of my dependants. I had to photo copy my wedding licence and babies birth certificate and fill out a bunch of other crap.

My insurance company decided that I should've had my surgery without anesthesia

My health care advocate at work convinced them otherwise!

My insurance company is continuing to decrease benefits. OR at least raise the premiums

Hmmm..
I wonder if we're just getting the perks because we're so large, and they figure that they'll get more bang for their buck by trying to persuade us?

Because until now, I've had the same stories as the rest of you. I know that they're up to no good. I think it's a last ditch effort to sway the blue collar worker away from national health.

It's worth while to take at look at the health insurance industry in an unbiased fashion.

People ought to understand how the product of health insurance is provided to them. It must have it's weak and strong points.

Certainly the health insurance lobby among other interests has a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.

I'm also certain that I have benefited from health insurance for my entire life.

What are you saying? Not sure what you mean by this statement.

They are scared.
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association has joined the nonprofit group Families USA to spend roughly $4 million airing an updated version of the iconic "Harry and Louise" ads, but this time the couple is calling for passage of reform. The drug industry group has more advertising planned for August.
(Update- I believe it's up to 17 million now)

Also of interest.
The United States has one of the most expensive and least efficient health care systems in the industrialized world. The World Health Organization ranked the U.S. health care system?which will spend $1.7 trillion this year?37th in the world. Americans spend $5,267 per year on health insurance, while the rest of the industrialized world spends $2,193. Yet for all the money spent, the United States is the only industrialized nation in the world that does not provide health care to all its citizens: 45 million Americans don?t have insurance and 16 million lack enough insurance to cover all their medical bills. California alone has 7 million uninsured. Meanwhile, every year more Americans are finding themselves uninsured because of skyrocketing premiums and additional employee health fees.

Since 2000, health insurance premiums have climbed 73 percent, rising nearly five times higher than inflation or wages. The increase has cut into workers? paychecks and reduced the number of U.S. companies that offer medical coverage to their workers. Only 60 percent of companies covered their workers in 2005, down from 69 percent in 2000. Meanwhile, the average annual premium for a family of four in a health maintenance organizations (HMOs) is now $10,880, which is more than the total wages of a minimum wage worker. The average premium for a single worker is $4,024.

According to a study done by the Lewin Group on Kuehl?s previous single payer bill, SB-921, the single-payer health care system would increase costs by $17 billion, which would be offset by savings in the range of $25 billion due to administrative simplification and bulk purchasing of drugs and medical equipment. According to the bill, the system will be paid for by federal, state and county money already being spent on health care.

Opponents of a single-payer health care system say that if government funds health care, access would be limited by budget constraints and care would be rationed. They criticize Canada?s single payer system by saying that 1.3 million Canadians (out of a population of 26 million) are waiting for medical services and that the system is so backlogged it takes at least a month to see a physician. https://www.gtweekly.com/200509221741/good-times/archive/health-care-right-now

Dulu,
I'm saying that I have found my health insurance to be valuable and a good value.

I've had health insurance for most of my life. There were afew times when I went without it but I was younger and I didn't notice.

There was also the time when my husband lost his union job to Chinese imports and we had no insurance. The Children were covered by a state sponsored insurance program for a year until my husband got another job with insurance benefits.

I'm also eligible for health benefits through my employer but I'm able to opt out.

I realize that not everyone is as fortunate. Still, it is also true that no one goes without necessary medical care in this country.

My aunt was mentally disabled and indigent most of her life but she never went without medical care. At the end of her very troubled life, not only was she admitted to a slew of nursing facilities because of her health, but she was able to keep a studio apartment for when she inevitably discharged herself from a facility due to the fact that she could not tolerate the structure and rules of these facilities. God rest her soul.

So, I paid for your aunt and for a years worth of your children? Why, after having that experience would you not want everyone in the country to have the same advantages?

Not that I mind paying for your aunt and your children, it's the right thing to do as far as I'm concerned, but I really don't understand why you wouldn't be willing to pay out a little more to make sure that the rest of the country is as fortunate.

Doesn't that seem like the right thing to do for you as well?

Everyone in this country does have the same advantages including, from what I am lead to believe, people who show up here illegally.

Seems like we're already providing a measure of socialized healthcare.

I'm not prone to guilt trips by the way, that's not how my Mama raised me. I am, however, grateful. Thanks for helping out with my auntie.

It's right to help those who are less fortunate but it is not so right to compel that help by hook and by crook.