Employer or private based insurance’s consistency is at best unreliable. Here’s proof of why Medicare for All is the only practical solution to dependable and reliable healthcare.
Medicare for All, the solution to the current healthcare con
As I am going through my emails I came across a “breaking news” email blast from the Houston Chronicle — I subscribe to many newspapers and I think if we are able to we should subscribe to as many as we can to ensure their survival. The title of the story is ominous enough, “Cigna to end contract with Memorial Hermann; 178,000 customers affected” but should not be surprising. Our healthcare system makes us a useful commodity for wealth generation for the few. But packed in the short article are several discernable realities that are not all that obvious but it is all packed in the first five paragraphs.
Cigna, the nation’s fourth-largest health insurance company, on Monday said it would terminate its contract with Houston-based Memorial Hermann hospital system in March, dropping as many as 178,000 plan members and 1,460 affiliated doctors from its network.
The move, which comes after months of negotiations over hospital billing rates, would affect anyone with an employer-sponsored Cigna plan. However, those covered under the insurer’s Medicare Advantage program for seniors will not be affected. The contract termination will take effect March 16.
“Our goal is to keep health care affordable,” said Mark Slitt, a Cigna spokesman. “To a large degree, that means having tough conversations with large hospital systems in our markets all over the country.”
Cigna’s decision to sever ties with one of the largest hospital systems in the Houston area underscores just how contentious contract negotiations between insurers and providers have become amid mounting public scrutiny over the skyrocketing cost of American health care.
In October, UnitedHealthcare shocked the Houston insurance market by announcing it was dropping the Houston Methodist hospital system from its network of providers as of Jan. 1 if an agreement could not be reached by year’s end. The move could affect as many as 100,000 people who hold employer-sponsored plans as well as the insurer’s Medicare Advantage programs for seniors. Contract talks have since stalled, a hospital spokeswoman said.
As I explain in detail in the video,
- When the titans of business are negotiating healthcare contracts, it is no different than cable companies negotiating the prices they are willing to pay for or sell access to HBO, Comedy Channel and the like. The difference is while living without HBO or Comedy Channel is just an inconvenience to our entertainment desires, living at the behest of these healthcare thugs can be fatal as they fight for how best to redistribute your hard-earned dollars among themselves.
- Those in the article who will be left temporarily hanging or those with private employer healthcare. Stability is with those where Cigna administers a government program, Medicare Advantage. Reliability in healthcare is with we-the-people where our healthcare is not brokered like a commodity.
- Cigna’s behavior is not a one-off. In fact, in order to satisfy shareholder’s need to beat the inflation rate and for executives to get their undeserved bonuses, they must raise the price you will pay for health insurance and other medical services. This is not due to inflation but for greed and redistribution upward.
The economic term “whatever the market will bear” is an evil term relative to your healthcare. Unfortunately, that is modus operandi of our health industrial complex (pharmaceuticals, hospitals, health insurance, and everything in between).
It is imperative that we counter the false narrative about our healthcare system. We must all step out of our comfort zone and engage in reality-based thinking instead of allowing the passive indoctrination well-designed by a plutocracy that is extracting the disposable income of most Americans. Medicare for all is the most practical mathematically provable solution to our healthcare crisis.