I pay around $300 per month for health insurance for myself.
I went to a doctors appointment to establish primary care and had one lab done.
I now owe $696 out of pocket. For one appointment.
What is the point of this?!
Right now, I’m sitting in a hospital room with my dad, who had open heart surgery yesterday to repair a valve.
His doctor walked in and said his insurance company tried to deny his care yesterday, she told them it was too late, he was already in surgery.
🧵1/12
Now tell me why an insurance company has to authorize a procedure that a doctor is saying is necessary?
His doctor went to medical school, is looking at my dad’s charts and tests—she knows what to do.
So why can an insurance company try to deny covering proper care?
2/12
I say it a lot because I work in progressive politics, but our healthcare system is deeply immoral.
It’s through movement work that I even learned of prior authorizations.
Let me explain what that is:
3/12
Prior authorization is a process that health plans use to control costs by requiring providers to get approval before performing a service for a patient.
Basically, health insurance companies require doctors to run treatments by them to determine if they’re willing to pay.
4/12
Before I started working in politics, I had never heard of this practice.
I cannot believe health insurance company, by plugging things into a money-maximizing algorithm, tried to deny my dad coverage for his care.
My dad’s life is priceless to me and our family.
5/12
No healthcare company has a right to deny his care so they can report higher profits to their investors next quarter. He would’ve lost years of his life if he didn’t have the procedure yesterday.
I’m not alone in feeling this way.
7/12