Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Profitability can be a mask for what is truly inside. As many of my fellow clasmates have already pointed out, just because they are profitable, it doesn't mean their healthcare is good. Some may choose profitability as a mark of a lot of people purchasing their policies (therefore they must be a good healthcare provider), but others think of profitability as scamming patients out of their money to pay for unnecessary tests, procedures, and salaries. As long as the healthcare is good, by all means, profit away. But we need to ask these companies what exactly are they profiting from and what kind of profits is the consumer getting. I like Nicole's idea of having a report card for each healthcare provider. Regardless of whether or not they profit, they should be able to show consumers what they are offering and how well they stand next to other companies. There is no way the providers are going to show us what they are spending their profits on (which may be a very big sign of what kind of a business they are running), but we should at least be able to see where exactly they are making their money from.
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1 comment:

  1. Amish DFebruary 18, 2010 at 3:30 AM

    When health insurers' profits are rising while they are covering less people, this is a major problem for our country. While any business is generally seen as to make profit, the concept of healthcare conflicts here for me because I feel it is an essential right for each person residing in the United States. It is difficult to balance the free market economy ideals of America with providing all people with equal access to affordable health care. Careful examination must be done of each health insurance company in order to assess whether it makes effort to provide the quality of care that the values of their plan seem to indicate. The government would need to standardize or put out a blue print of what a model health care coverage plan should be in order for consumers to be able to compare profits of health insurance companies with quality of care as well as prices of the plans.

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