It’s NOT “Your” Health Plan

The Story Behind the Killing of United Healthcare’s CEO
Unmasking our Health Insurance

It’s NOT “Your” Health Plan

In our last post we showed that what we have been led to believe is health “insurance” doesn’t come close to meeting the legal definition of insurance, and is far better described as a “plan.” In this post, we intend to show that we don’t even own the plan as we would if it were insurance. In fact, in almost all cases a plan is owned by an employer. The exception is where an individual can’t access an employer’s plan and has to purchase one from an insurance company. In which case the insurance company owns the plan. The point being that no matter how we get our nongovernment health plan, we most definitely don’t owe it.

“Individuals with health insurance do not own or control” their plans “in the same way that they own and control auto insurance, homeowners’ or life insurance. For most Americans their employer owns the policy” (Edwin J. Feulner, as President of The Heritage Foundation). “Until you pointed it out, I would have thought I owned my plan” (Judge Harry J. Farmer). Now add to these quotes the Cornel Law School definition for ownership, i.e., “Ownership is the legal right to use, possess and give away a thing” and we have all we need to show that we don’t own what we are led to believe is “OUR” very own healthcare plan.

Why is this so important? Why should we be concerned over who owns our plan? Because ownership is the key to getting the care and coverage we think we have been promised.

However, If you don’t own a thing, you really don’t have a right to “use” it or “possess” it. Which means the care and coverage that we have been led to believe will be there when we need it, isn’t ours. Worse yet, our so-called insurance company knows it isn’t ours, freeing them to run us in circles while they delay and deny the very care and coverage we need and believe we are owed. Unfortunately, it’s a realization that only dawns on us when we are at our weakest and feeling betrayed — when the care our doctor says we need is denied, and the coverage we need to pay the bill disappears behind a process we aren’t meant to understand and destined to lose. The result for all too many is a sense of betrayal driven off anger and a realization that there is no place to turn to for help. Furthermore, it’s a trap that is devastating far too many both medically and financially.

Too extreme you say. Not when 80 percent of the nation’s hospital bills have been reported to be in error and over 50 percent of family bankruptcies are caused by a healthcare bill.

To own something, you need to have a bill of sale, a contract, policy, or some form of proof that demonstrates ownership. We have nothing close to this for health insurance or our plan. All we have is an attractive brochure describing the care and coverage that is supposedly available from a plan we are led to believe is ours. However, much like a brochure describing membership in the YMCA, it doesn’t provide ownership. If the Y decides to close the pool for a month, we would have to accept it because we wouldn’t have any ownership in the pool or the Y. Similarly, if our health plan decides to deny the care and coverage we have been led to expect and need, we will lack the ownership needed to pursue the denial in court.

Of course, no one is going to explain that small point of law, when we can be left to wither and die in an appeal system designed by the insurance industry for the benefit of the insurance industry.

Thirty years ago, the U. S. Supreme Court gave the healthcare insurance companies the right to deny coverage. Add to that the fact that we don’t own our plan and the picture becomes ever-so clear. The care and coverage we need and believe we have been promised is increasingly taking a back seat to the bottom line demanded by the investment community, and the bonus expectations of insurance company management.

All told, it’s an ugly story of excesses and greed within the American Healthcare System that promises to be the far bigger story behind the shooting death of Brian Thomas. Because, unlike all the other businesses in the country, the health insurance companies are pursuing their ever-greater profits and bonuses at the very real and direct expense of the American people.

Go to www.killAbill.com for more on the story behind the shooting of Brian Thomas.

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