Most people are tired of insurance companies not doing what we pay them to do; pay for appropriate care when it’s needed. We need them in an emergency and are going to visit an Emergency Room or other walk-in facility if we are in distress. It should be as simple as getting the care you need when its needed. According to a NY Times investigative opinion guest essay from a former Cigna executive who left after a meeting, he attended had marketing executives devise a plan to increase deductibles and cost-sharing for medical services, We are now paying more than ever for healthcare because of what this idea has done to the cash flow of hospitals, health care providers and how the predatory ideas such as tiers have shifted costs to patient seeking the best care for their problem. The idea is that low costs allow patients to visit doctors more often, and this would act as a deterrent to overusing medical services. This is not the first time someone from Cigna admitted they were on the inside of a bad idea that was motivated by corporate greed. Examples of Cigna executives affecting our healthcare over the years. Wendell Potter, a former Cigna executive was behind the Harry and Louise commercials on television when President Clinton attempted to move the USA over to a national healthcare system. The time was right back then, but the industry released these commercials designed as FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt). He admitted that his job was to deceive America about social health systems such as Canada’s which took care of its residents who never were bankrupted by extreme costs and succeeded. His job was to enhance shareholder value which is in conflict with delivering appropriate healthcare to their insured. He and a well-financed campaign from the insurance industry convinced the public they would be better served by private insurance carriers by lying. Pro Publica in an investigative report had shown Cigna and Aetna too had been denying medically necessary care for patients in need. In the case of Cigna, they used nurses in the Philippines to make hasty medical decisions on behalf of patients to increase profitability. The pursuit of profits at the expense of patients who pay for this insurance is in conflict with the mission of health insurance. A previous Cigna Executive comes clean about how they were the reason we pay so much in deductibles and copayments for health insurance. Cigna hiring ASHN, a middleman to worsen chiropractic coverage through denials, poor provider reimbursement, and abusive tactics. Our office left this network after four months and then serviced patients through Cigna out of network. ASHN which was eventually sued for 11 million for these practices continued to deny care and abuse both patients and doctors out of network. They hired this company after their previous middleman, Orthonet in 1995 failed to pay their doctors according to fee schedule because they never told Cigna they ran out of money. I know this because I blew the whistle on them and saved their HMO network back then. They fixed the problems but network doctors were never reimbursed for the back pay. As a healthcare provider, the system has devolved over the past 30 years. Moving to a Clinton-like plan may have been the answer. Imagine having cradle-to-grave insurance without worrying about being insured if you lost your job, had an illness, and had to stop working for a while. Today, costs are clearly out of control. Expansion of Medicare would be an easy way to slowly move to a better system that has one set of rules, and few hoops to jump through. It would have prevented the corporatization of healthcare as we see it now and likely, more doctors would still have private practices. The lies continue with the yearly press releases of higher costs being passed on to us without any accountability for where the money is going or any good faith reduction of drug or other healthcare costs. Worse, the model is not about keeping us healthy. It is about making us ill for years through recommendations such as a food pyramid that created fewer healthy Americans, more diabetics, and more people with weight problems. While I am not sure how to fix the problem, we can begin by simplifying how we are insured, reducing the cost of care this way, and considering a better-fed public as a type of healthcare keeping you out of harm’s way. The medical insurers are making things worse with tiers and other methods to increase shareholder value instead of improving your health. If you are wondering if Medicare is a bad idea, ask people insured under Medicare and Medicare Advantage which is better. In other words, jump back into a system that values profits for shareholders over patients or Medicare, which is not perfect but is designed for patients. Americans deserve better. Let your representatives know it.