Die easy, please

Whenever I hear or see some idiot claiming that the NHS is unaffordable and we need to revert to an insurance based system I remember a visit to Florida.

First I met some pensioners who had to ask their doctors which was the most important drug for them as they could not afford all their prescriptions, which ran to $100’s a month each. Then I met the doctor who showed me the filing cabinets full of endless letters between him and insurance companies, who claimed his patients were not covered when they were, who argued over which drug to use, who always wanted the cheapest treatment, in the end he used to write to them and say “I’m the doctor and you are not”.

But it was both a tragedy and an immensely expensive waste of time and money, which is why when I saw at the weekend the claim that in America they employ more pen pushers in insurance companies that Doctors, I could easily believe it.

It all explains why Americans have shorter life expectancy that Europeans despite spending at least 50% more on health. It is an awful system.

Today I woke to the news that the British health insurer Bupa is being fined $23 million for “unconscionable conduct” in Australia, it tried to save money by denying legitimate claims for treatment from patient for 5 years.

Frankly we should not be surprised, health insurers in the US pride themselves on delaying, disputing and denying treatment, making money is far more important than saving people’s lives. That is capitalism after all and it is why the health insurance companies spend a fortune lobbying against “socialist medicine” and cutting state care; it is how they stay very very profitable.

They have a powerful interest in you dying, quickly and cheaply.

Jonty’s Jottings

From Jonty Bloom Media Ltd

Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.