Reply #43: Will insurance companies still pick your doctors ... [View All]

or can you see any doctor you damn well please? Can they still deny payment for a test/treatment that your doctor recommends? Can they still deny payment for medication prescribed by your doctor and force you to choose a medication from their "approved" list? Will you still have to deal with referrals before seeing a specialist and pre-approval before tests, treatment or emergency room coverage?

As long as the insurance companies get to decide which doctors you see, which tests you have, which treatment you get and which medications you take, people will still have to "fight" with them just to get their "mandatory" coverage.

Limiting premium payments to a percentage of income doesn't really help if a family's expenses are not considered. A childless couple making $30,000 a year doesn't have the same expenses as a couple making the same money while raising 2 children. They'll both pay the same percentage based on their income, but it will be a greater burden on the couple with children.

Once again, we'll have a tiered system: one for the people who can afford the best coverage, another for people who can't afford any coverage and a third for the people who are stuck in the middle of those two groups ... and that group in the middle is going to have the same financial burden they have now.

Democrats need to stop thinking about health insurance OPTIONS and start thinking about health care RIGHTS!