Do We Already Have A Death Panel?

In the recent months of health care debate there have been a number of arguments against, what many would regard as, “socialized” health care. When journalists picked up on the “death panel” story many American’s were shocked by the idea that their lives might be left in someone else’s hands. However, as Aaron Glantz shows in his Sept. 10th article for NewAmericaMedia.org entitled “Why Insurance Companies Deny Health Care”, the so-called “death panel” may have been present in the health care industry for years already.
Glantz interviews Wendell Potter, a former head of corporate communications for Cigna Corporation, where he worked for 15 years and often served as the chief spokesperson for the company. Potter details the Wall St. side of health care as he explains terms like “medical loss ratio”, which refers to the fraction of revenue from a plan’s premium that goes to pay for medical services. Potter goes on to explain how the medical loss ratio often influences, if not dictates, the stock prices of these large health care providers. Later in the article, Potter explains that although most consumers would see the rejection of their transplant or surgery as denial of care, the health care industry attempts to maintain that their denial of 31.2 millions claims in the State of California from June of 2002 to this year is simply denial of coverage to the patient. However, we have seen that denial of coverage can result in anything from debt to death for the patient. Denying someone with insurance the right to treatment is wrong, but Potter shows how it is difficult for a public traded company to not cut corners in order to cut costs.
The over-arching theme of the Glantz article is to disprove the death panel argument while illuminating one of the health care industry’s dirtier secrets.

“Why Insurance Companies Deny Health Care” by Aaron Glantz can be found here:
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=33655d70ff9cd7509f16bfd2bfbafa9f