By Judith L. Albert, M.D.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 20, 2019
The plight of the Manion family clearly illustrates how private, for-profit health insurance has created an inhumane health care system based on denial of care (July 14, “UPMC-Highmark Agreement Settled but Local Family Still Faces Fallout”).
The recent agreement between UPMC and Highmark will have no lasting impact on the delivery of health care in Western Pennsylvania because these insurers will continue to collect high premiums, deductibles and co-pays while finding new ways to refuse to pay for medical care.
In the Manion family’s situation, a newspaper investigation of their hospital bills was required to remove the threat of a collections agency. No one should have to put up with these bewildering and erroneous billing practices, especially when recovering from serious health problems.
If Kara Manion were over 65, she would have crossed into the safe harbor of traditional Medicare coverage, where patient choice of providers is not limited to narrow networks. We need a national single payer “Medicare for all” system that will eliminate the profit-driven private insurance system and cover all necessary medical care for everyone in order to end this insurance feud for good.
Dr. Judith Albert leads the Pittsburgh chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program.