THEIR RULES, OUR PAIN
Real stories of people trampled by the insurance companies
“My husband has Parkinson's and is under the care of a nationally-respected doctor at Duke. His health insurance recently denied coverage for two of his medications, arguing at one time that they duplicated one another and at another time that they were incompatible with each other.
The doctor disagreed and sent the insurer a letter, and then their own form, stating this and requesting an override. It has taken his doctor, his nurse, me and my husband, and a health advocate more than a month to clear up this mess. And we wonder why health care is so expensive when doctors have to spend their time dealing with insurance bureaucracies that shouldn't be making these decisions in the first place.”
Insurance companies routinely interfere with how doctors practice medicine.
Learn more in this week's Foul Play.
Read other stories in the "Their Rules, Our Pain" archive.
LATEST SCORECARD
Fifty-eight percent of primary care doctors in the U.S. report their patients often have difficulty paying for medications and care, and half of U.S. doctors spend substantial time dealing with restrictions insurance companies place on their patients’ care, according to the 2009 Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Survey.
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Families saw their premiums for job-based health insurance rise to an average of $13,375 annually in 2009, with workers paying an average share of $3,515 and employers paying $9,860.
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