A REAL insurance Scam

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According to an excerpt from the September 14 Pentagon fact sheet on Guantanamo Bay Facility... "Detainees receive medical, dental, psychiatric, and optometric care at U.S. taxpayers' expense. In 2005, there were 35 teeth cleanings, 91 cavities filled, and 174 pairs of glasses issued."

Medical and Dental? Psychiatric Help? Eyeglasses, for gods sake? Jeez... My insurance company doesn't consider my eyes or my teeth to be part of my body.

Over forty percent of Americans get by with NO health insurance at all while detainees get glasses and tooth cleanings - a fact that certainly implies that our government secretly does understand what would constitute a reasonable level of medical care. They just allow the insurance industry to provide less.

The insurance company's sole obligation is profit for their shareholders. They have no legal obligation whatsoever to "Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons." , as the New Testament so aptly states. They suffer our health care only to the extent that their rules and the laws don't let them weasel out of returning money we've paid them.

We the insured, have to get a bureaucrats blessing for our doctor's orders to be covered — although my doctor graduated medical school, while the paper-pusher at Biginsurance Corporation, who may not even have a GED, denies my claim. I got tested for sleep apnea, which is covered, but when I was diagnosed with it, the machine to treat apnea isn't covered. Thanks.

Let us be clear. It is NOT the health care system that is broken. I get regular health services from the network of facilities run by Lourdes here in Binghamton. The care is very good to excellent. What is wrong is the idiotic notion that free-market capitalism creates a stake in keeping you alive. Particularly under a system that rewards corporate doctors in charge of paying your claims for spending less money, calling such paid claims a 'medical loss'.

Just ask Doctor Linda Pino, former Medical Reviewer at the Humana company. Dr. Pino admits denying claims for life-saving and necessary surgery. That patient died for lack of healthcare. Under other circumstances she would have been tried for suca a crime, but since this was a health insurance company, she - and every other claim denier - remains unaccountable for the deaths of people who paid dearly for what they thought was coverage. While the insurance company profited handsomely.

Medical treatment won't change if you remove the insurance companies that soak up billions of dollars while refusing to accept your doctor's word that you need a procedure. Medical decisions should be between you and your physician... there shouldn't be a bureaucracy in that mix. Removing insurance companies will make the process simpler and less expensive.

Oh, if you don't think that the gub'ment can manage simple bill paying, think about social security or the military — every one of our troops is getting paid pretty regularly.