By Jay Brock, M.D.
The (Fredericksburg, Va.) Free Lance-Star, Letters, July 29, 2021
There may be better examples of how dysfunctional our health insurance system is, but the difficulties of 15,000 Fredericksburg-area patients covered by health insurance giant Cigna who are in the unenviable position of having to change providers due to a contract dispute between Cigna and Mary Washington Healthcare [“Firefighters rally to get health care access back,” July 17] is certainly an apt one.
The problem? Our health insurance system is based on our for-profit health insurance industry, which is an exceptionally expensive—and entirely unnecessary—middleman that provides no care to anyone, but whose financial health, given our twisted system, must be protected at all costs. Even at the expense of the health of those 15,000 “covered lives.”
The solution? An entirely new health insurance system, one where the health of the patient, not the financial health of an insurance company, is paramount. American healthcare experts have for decades recommended switching to single payer Medicare for All health insurance to replace the current dysfunctional system that is directly responsible for the healthcare chaos now affecting those 15,000 folks.
But don’t look to our legislators in Congress to change much. Pleas to Representatives Wittman and Spanberger and Senators Kaine and Warner to prevent health insurance dilemmas like this one by supporting such a new system—one that puts patients first—have fallen on deaf ears: these four have so far failed to support any real health insurance reform, preferring instead to perpetuate the current system.
We can and must do better than that.