A Broken Health Care System

We have not talked about the nation's broken health care system lately, but a recent story out of Virginia again highlights a system that seems operated more for the benefit of insurance companies than for meeting the needs of sick and/or injured citizens. This story deals with an attempt by the Virginia General Assembly - hardly the world's most august legislative body when it comes to giving a damn about average Virginia residents - to require insurance coverage to include artificial limbs. But wait, according to the insurance lobby, such limbs are luxury items and not necessary treatment. Tell that to someone who has lost a leg or an arm. Rather than offend the powerful insurance lobby, the General Assembly appears headed to capitulation - artificial limbs will only be an offered option, assuming the policy purchaser has the where with all to ask about the coverage. Here are some highlights from PR Newswire:

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Virginia's insurance lobby continues to fight hard against passage of a bill that would require insurance companies to offer coverage for artificial limbs as an option to their policyholders. The insurance industry wants to continue treating prosthetic limbs as a medical luxury while amputees demand that the costs be treated the same as other major medical expenses. . . . On Thursday in Virginia's General Assembly, Senator Fred Quayle [from Hampton Roads], one of the bill's (SB 1116) supporters recently amended the proposed legislation's language, changing it from a "required benefit" to an "offered benefit."

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"For the past two years, amputees in Virginia have been fighting for passage of a bill that requires health insurers to cover the cost of prosthetic devices and components," says Charles Coulter, an amputee activist. "There's no reason that an amputation and the requisite follow-up care, including an artificial limb, aren't covered by health insurance like every other disease, such as cancer or a heart attack. By denying amputees coverage for artificial limbs, we're denying them the opportunity to return to the life they once knew, and forcing many to quit their jobs in order to qualify for Medicaid, which does cover prosthetic devices and care."

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"The reality today is that no one ever expects to lose a limb, and as a result, few people rarely think about how to pay for a prosthesis or even know what kind of coverage they have through their insurance policy, until they need a prosthesis," Coulter said. "To deny them coverage for an artificial limb and force them to a wheelchair denies them the opportunity to reclaim the life they once knew, and that's not right."

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As always, Virginia is for sale to the lobbyists and the rights and true needs of average citizens get thrown on the trash heap. And for those who do not know, to qualify for Medicaid coverage, one must have first more or less made them self indigent and liquidated all of their assets.