Health4all

Every year more Alaskan families lose health insurance and can't afford health care. Every year more families with health insurance cannot afford to use it because of expensive out-of-pocket charges. Every year more Alaskan elders with Medicare are refused treatment by local physicians. And every year health care in Alaska continues to cost 30 percent more than down south. These problems are a reflection of the crisis across the nation. Not surprisingly, the United States ranks last in preventable deaths compared to 14 Western European nations. We have a lot to talk about.


Less expensive health care

Denali KidCare

Anchorage Neighborhood Health Center

Anchorage Project Access

Community Health Resources List

Health policy links

Kaiser Family Foundation

Families USA

Physicians for a National Health Program

Universal Health Care Action Network

Visuals

Larry Weiss

Photographer

Lawrence D. Weiss retired from UAA in 2004 as a research professor in public health. He designed and built the Master of Public Health program at UAA, and has published three books and numerous articles on public health and health policy issues. He completed a post-doctoral degree at Harvard School of Public Health in 1982, and has been in Alaska ever since. His favorite expression is "facts matter." Occasionally he can be found in a local pub drinking beer and eating pizza while engaged in passionate conversation with friends.

Archive

Why We Need Fundamental Health Care Reform #4 - 9/3/2008 12:15 pm

Why We Need Fundamental Health Care Reform #3 - 8/29/2008 2:22 pm

Why We Need Fundamental Health Care Reform #2 - 8/25/2008 4:23 pm

Why We Need Fundamental Health Care Reform #1 - 8/22/2008 5:46 pm

Great Olympians but Terrible Health Care - 8/20/2008 2:45 pm

Legislative Health Caucus August 20: Addressing the Energy Crisis for Alaskan Families - 8/15/2008 4:00 pm

More Free and Cheap Health Care And Other Services - 8/14/2008 11:39 am

Mired in the Health Care Morass - Part 2 - 8/12/2008 11:39 am

Prevention in Health Care: Perhaps Overstated But A Good Idea - 8/6/2008 10:55 pm

Stand Up For Health Care - 8/4/2008 9:18 am

Mired in the Health Care Morass - Part 1 - 7/28/2008 5:16 pm

Supersize My Order Please! - 7/25/2008 5:59 pm

Senators Against Bush to Support Health Care for Kids - 7/25/2008 5:53 pm

Free Services for the Homeless - August 1 - 7/19/2008 8:09 am

Two Health Insurance Tricks Exposed - 7/16/2008 6:20 pm

The "Reduced Shakespeare" of the History of American Medicine - 7/14/2008 3:51 pm

Senator Stevens Gets Medicare Reimbursement Increase for Alaska - 7/12/2008 8:00 am

Alaska Guide to Finding Health Insurance Coverage - 7/9/2008 4:04 pm

New Guidelines For Health Care Outside USA - 7/4/2008 8:58 am

Your Medical History Future in the Clouds - 7/4/2008 12:18 am

Rekindling Reform Looks At The Big Health Policy Picture - 6/30/2008 11:11 am

Cheap Health Insurance: You Don't Get What You Pay For - 6/28/2008 12:28 pm

full archive »

Two Health Insurance Tricks Exposed

Posted by health4all

Posted: July 16, 2008 - 6:20 pm

There are a couple of articles out of California that I think have something very important to tell us about health insurance in Alaska. The first, California Health Insurance Companies Spend $10.3 Billion On Administration And Profit, is pretty much self-explanatory. This report was released by the California Medical Association.

"This report paints in stark terms why health care costs are skyrocketing for Californians," said Dr. Richard Frankenstein, M.D., President of CMA. "Health insurance companies in California spend billions of California's health care dollars each year on administration, and for-profit insurers divert billions of dollars more to profit. Californians' health care dollars should be spent on health care, not on bureaucracy."

I can't help but wonder what the comparable figure for Alaska is... Then we have L.A. city attorney sues insurer over health policy cancellations. This is a story being repeated across the nation. Typically, a policy holder gets very ill, starts to run up a lot of bills, and suddenly the health insurer stops payments and claims the insured withheld information on their application. The "...suit accuses Blue Shield, a nonprofit company based in San Francisco, of using complex and confusing applications for coverage to trick individuals into making mistakes that can later be used against them. The suit seeks fines and penalties of more than $1 billion." City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo has uncovered 850 such cases since 2002.

Way to go, Rocky! Think we could lure him to Alaska for a couple of weeks with the promise of fishing, but really put him to work doing the oversight of the health insurance industry we desperately need here?


login or register to post comments

Search Jobs | Place an employment ad