And it’s also bad science and bad philosophy.
Insurance works on probabilities. They pick the most likely outcome based on old population studies (not current ones - so they lag behind epidemics). This means that if you have a pet alligator, and it bit off your toe, insurance would disbelieve you and would say the accident was most likely from a vehicle or tool, and then wouldn’t treat you for salmonella or other concerns from an alligator bite because that’s unlikely to occur in the general population. Even though that’s literally what happened here.
So the way they practice medicine is stupid and bad. It should also be illegal, because to practice medicine you’re by law suppose to have a doctor patient relationship. I’ve never met the doctors at my insurance company. So how can they prescribe (including deny) treatment for me?
Further, I have privacy concerns with insurance companies as well. I don’t want them to have all my medical information. I don’t want them to code my information in a way that benefits their insurance system but isn’t accurate to my actual diagnosis.
I want to go into a doctor and actually be treated by that fucking doctor.
Remember when they said socialized healthcare stops you from seeing the doctor you want? Well our current system, in all its justice, let’s me see the doctor I want, pay her, and then I can’t get the treatments she recommends because they aren’t approved by an anonymous third doctor at my insurance I didnt choose and never met. Lol. Fml.
I don’t want them to code my information in a way that benefits their insurance system but isn’t accurate to my actual diagnosis.
My fiancee has been dealing with this for like 2 years. She got a relatively simple bloodwork panel done, and the NP who ordered it fucked up the code/paperwork for it by labeling it as something more expensive than it actually was, which resulted in the insurance not covering it, which resulted in a $1k bill for what should have been a $20 test.
The bill was sent to collections, and they were told that the bill was erroneous because the NP fucked up the paperwork. They’re still calling 2 years later. They don’t seem to get the hint that my fiancee is disabled, has no wages, and no way to pay it*, and therefore they ain’t getting shit.
* Fortunately it is within my means to pay for it for her, but she has no wages for them to garnish, they can’t mess with her credit score over it, and so they have no pathway to do any harm for failure to pay. So fuck em.