Health issues

My laptop computer is programmed to have CNN news as my homepage. This evening the CNN homepage led with a story about a doctor from Ohio who refused to give his patients a chicken pox shot because the insurance companies would not cover the cost of the shots. The teaser on the article said that this was an "alarming" trend.

This past weekend, my father in law, a quite serious conservative Republican, and I were discussing health care. My father in law, who has medicare and other coverage from his former employment at UCLA, to cover his medical needs, mentioned in our discussion, the need for tort reform, as part of the solution to our health care needs.

But I think the ultimate answer to our problem lies in the story about the doctor from Ohio and his decision to not offer the chicken pox inoculation because the insurance companies would not cover it. I find it difficult to assess the cause for the insurance companies' unwillingness to cover chicken pox inoculations against the lawyers trying to make doctors and hospitals live up to their responsibilities. No, the problem with chicken pox inoculations is the cost they bear in relation to what the insurance companies wish to pay. I would assert, strongly, that that is the same reason why insurance is so difficult to come by these days.

The insurance companies want to make a profit. We don't begrudge them that. The doctors wish to treat their patients and make a profit. We don't begrudge them that. The patients wish to be healed of their ailments. Their wishes are not based on profit. They just want to be healed and healthy. But when matters stand between the insurance companies and their profits, they wish to reduce the factors which reduce their profits.

If they make bad investments, like most of us, the easy answer is to raise the premiums, reduce the amount of care available and blame their problems on others. We need better regulation because the needs of the patients need to be addressed. The doctors want to help. The insurance companies should want to help. But sometimes the desire to make a profit stands in the way.

We shouldn't begrudge the insurance companies their profits. We should just make sure that their desire to make a profit doesn't stand in the way of the need for medical care and the doctor's desire to provide that care. When a doctor won't provide the inoculations which can make his patient's healthy, then someone should give. I think it should be the insurance companies.

Just my opinion.