The Amazing Maze of US Health Care

 By Dennis Jay     July 7, 2010

Bob Harper thought he’d found a better health-insurance deal. The Oklahoma man bought coverage from an outfit called American Trade Association (ATA). The price seemed affordable, and he thought he’d save decent money while maintaining a solid healthcare safety net.

Harper’s heart then went bad. His strength fading, he urgently needed a pacemaker. But he discovered too late that ATA was fake. Trying to find legitimate health protection he was having trouble convincing insurers to cover him because of his pre-existing condition.

A Colorado man was gravely hurt in a hit-and-run accident. His hospital bills soared to $43,000 before he died. His so-called health plan, the National Trade Business Alliance, paid out just $250, the insurance department says.

More victims like these are showing up as fake health plans operate widely around the United States over the last two and a half years, exploiting people’s anxiety over finding affordable coverage amid rising premiums, mounting layoffs and general financial distress in a downturned economy.

Fraud Bureaus Report Sharp Rise in Fake Health Plans

By Debra Beaulieu

The government recovered $2.5 billion in overpayments for the Medicare trust fund last year–up from $1.9 billion in 2008–and says that the stepped-up antifraud measures in health reform will ensure even greater future success.

As Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Attorney General Eric Holder pointed out during yesterday’s news conference, the newly enacted Affordable Care Act provides an additional $300 million over the next 10 years to fight health fraud, enhances the government’s oversight of companies participating in Medicare and Medicaid and lengthens prison sentences in criminal cases.

Government boasts $2.5 billion Medicare fraud recovery, assures health reform will up success – FierceHealthcare

by Ross Clark

American healthcare makes our system look good, writes Ross Clark. But however revolutionary Barack Obama’s health reforms are, Americans will still pay through the nose

Had I a more devotional attachment to free-market economics I suppose I would be joining all those Republicans condemning Barack Obama’s health reforms. I have written enough about the failings of the NHS over the years to fill an entire symposium at a Washington think-tank.

Thank God for the NHS | The Spectator

Letter to the Editor:

Times Union, Albany, NY

In his March 24 letter decrying health care reform, English teacher William Elder invokes conservative icon Winston Churchill’s words of warning against socialism.

While Mr. Elder is correct in that Churchill was anti-socialist, he omits the fact that Churchill was also an early architect, and staunch supporter, of England’s nationalized health care.

Churchill backed universal care — Page 1 — Times Union – Albany NY

By SANDEEP JAUHAR, M.D.  March 29, 2010

“I’m tired of paying for everyone else’s stupidity,” is a comment I read on the Internet last week after the health care bill was passed. It summed up the views of many Americans worried about shelling out higher premiums and taxes to cover the uninsured. Why should we pick up the tab when so much disease in our country stems from unhealthy behavior like smoking and overeating?

In fact, the majority of Americans say it is fair to ask people with unhealthy lifestyles to pay more for health insurance. We believe in the concept of personal responsibility. You hear it in doctors’ lounges and in coffee shops, among the white collar and blue collar alike. Even President Obama has said, “We’ve got to have the American people doing something about their own care.”

But personal responsibility is a complex notion, especially when it comes to health. Individual choices always take place within a broader, messy context. When people advocate the need for personal accountability, they presuppose more control over health and sickness than really exists.

News Analysis – With or Without Health Reform, We Pay for Others’ Bad Habits – NYTimes.com