Humana's no better. I had the misfortune to require their services for a few years now. The copays are ridiculous, even on their "good" plans, and of course, just like anyone else, they like denying claims. Every time I needed a new medication, we went through several rounds of denials before the doc got on the phone and chewed their consultant doctor's ass until he approved it. They create these protocols in the way they do to make it easy to deny expensive therapies.
I think your last line is key. They bleed their patients dry while positing billions in profit. Morally, we think of healthcare as a non-profit concept. We need the business acumen to keep the system running efficiently. We need the brain in the system, but we also need the heart - and it's tough to design a system that relies on people choosing to be decent and moral people. You can't legislate that, and it's very tough to run a business like that.
Humana's no better. I had the misfortune to require their services for a few years now. The copays are ridiculous, even on their "good" plans, and of course, just like anyone else, they like denying claims. Every time I needed a new medication, we went through several rounds of denials before the doc got on the phone and chewed their consultant doctor's ass until he approved it. They create these protocols in the way they do to make it easy to deny expensive therapies.
I think your last line is key. They bleed their patients dry while positing billions in profit. Morally, we think of healthcare as a non-profit concept. We need the business acumen to keep the system running efficiently. We need the brain in the system, but we also need the heart - and it's tough to design a system that relies on people choosing to be decent and moral people. You can't legislate that, and it's very tough to run a business like that.