The patient is crashing
It's hard to believe that you can't make money in the insurance business – it's like saying your casino isn't profitable – but apparently that's the case with the Providence health care organization, which is ending its medical insurance plans at the end of the year. This leaves about 420,000 Oregonians looking for other options.
For a lot of them, it's going to be mean a forced transition to a new doctor. And good luck finding one!
Is it just me, or does it feel like all the health care systems in Oregon are falling apart? We're told that Legacy is going under, OHSU is in trouble, and they both have so many issues that a merger of the two couldn't be pulled off. Now Providence won't sell you health insurance. What gives?
And where is the state government? We have the Oregon Health Authority, currently run by the wiz kid doc with the über-rich husband, but I guess that agency is concerned only with people who are too poor to afford a doctor. What about the rest of us, who can afford a doctor but have to undergo a constant ordeal to sign up with one and keep them? It seems as though nobody's looking out for us in Salem.
Over the summer, when they're asking for your vote, tell them about it.
Our entire “health system” is in the shredder and probably 3/4 through the machine!
ReplyDeleteThe docs are leaving the system for retirement or greener pastures with way less hassle, shorter hours, reduced insurance costs and more consistent wages.
Adding a greedy middle man between you and your doctor is reaching peak greed. The more than ironic "affordable" care act really put this issue on steroids- as they wrote the freak'n bill. And the other big fat obese issue affecting our healthcare system is way too many horribly unhealthy people are taking far too much of the available resources.
ReplyDeleteOh-yeah. And did you see Dr. Hathi's guest article in the NYT (also reported on The O), where she she was expressing her complete and utter surprise that getting proper care after a health issue - a difficult birth, in her case - is a problem for Oregonians-?
ReplyDeleteI wrote her an email, and while expressing my genuine concern for what she's gone through, I suggested that it's a problem that she was caught by surprise about the situation - and only after it affected her personally.
And then I invited her to come to my community & meet with folks who have been living-this for years.
I probably won't hear from her. Ya think-?
Not to worry, I’m sure this proposal that is working its way through the usual rubber stamp process will solve the problem.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.hcao.org/path-to-single-payer