What's the problem with penalizing people for smoking or being fat or riding a motorcycle through higher health insurance rates based on the risk of a person choosing to live a more dangerous lifestyle? Well, there are lots of problems but here, it strikes me as an interesting twist where we've gone from allowing health insurance companies to influence medical decisions (see articles regarding the costs of different cancer treatments) and have expanded that "business" decision to reflect our values as a nation...smoking, fat...unpopular. How 'bout abortion?
Certainly, abortion is arguably more controversial than smoking or being fat. While people may be anti-smoking militants or may be combating obesity one fat person at a time, abortion has more people arguing for and against it than many other medical procedures in our society. So why the silence on cost-cutting by health insurers through exclusions of coverage for abortions?
Reimbursement rates for such procedures or the morning after pill (Mifeprex) is one brand name are described by state at the pharmaceutical website :
http://www.dancolabs.com/hcp_reimburse.php3.
Be clear, I believe that health insurance companies should cover everyone regardless of risk, of claims history, of geneology. Health insurers are supposed to cover risk by pooling the dollars of their subscribers. Cost-cutting to maintain and increase their profit margins should come from a)the rates they negotiate with medical services providers b) better policing of fraudulent claims through an expansion of fraud departments that engage in continuous sampling of claims for a specific procedure or provider c) more efficient office procedures through better training of claims specialists and streamlining of claims verification, processing and reimbursement to name a few NOT from reducing their risk of having to cover people who actually might actually need medical services.
However, since the consumer has joined in the battle to preserve insurance company profits by throwing one another under whatever bus the insurance companies roll out such as the cost of smokers, the cost of fat people, the cost of diabetics....why not a public disavowment of those seeking abortion?
Currently, by state the abortion surgical procedure is covered by many health insurers as well as the cost of the office visits and prescription for the morning after pill.
Perhaps the COST of such procedures has not reached a threshold that makes it worth it to health insurers to take on such an emotional issue of personal choice, or perhaps there is another deal made with providers of or prescribers of abortion. For purposes here, this example is used to draw attention to the fact that for-profit businesses should not determine our societal values. It is not cost effective to be sick....okay, got it. If you're not rich and sick, then our societal value is that we have to let you die to preserve affordable health insurance for everyone else. Perhaps this feature of our current health services environment is worth examining. We're saying you have the freedom to choose something that might make you die from it but we won't pay for it. Why not the same standard for abortion?
This ugliness in our society has citizens turning on one another in order to please the health insurance companies. If people choose to be fat then YOU shouldn't have to pay for it, right? If people choose to be addicted, YOU shouldn't have to pay for it right? After all, it was a CHOICE. Oh, and if you CHOOSE to buy one of our insufficient products in order to save some premium dollars and then actually have a need for medical care, WE shouldn't have to pay for it, right?
At some point we have to clarify our public policy, our values regarding health services. Without such clarification we have a system that will target some and benefit others. For now, as people get their updated list of medications no longer covered by their health insurance, or get denied health insurance for the new year based on a medical event from the prior year, or are still waiting for the go ahead for surgery, take a peek at the website and see whether you'd be better off trying to get health insurance coverage for an abortion, via surgery or the morning after pill.
