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Practices in Health Care and Disability Insurance: Delay, Diminish, Deny, and Blame |
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Written by Peter Phillips and Bridget Thornton With Funding by JushtHealth
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This study examines
the historical circumstances that brought about our private health and
disability insurance system in the US. We look at the organizational
structures of private-for-profit and "non-profit" insurance companies
that dominate the health care industry and the strategies these firms
use to delay, diminish, and deny payment for health care and disability
benefits for people across the country.
We discuss the impact of delays
and denials on patients and disabled individuals and the ways insurance
companies deliberately create psychological doubt and self-blame among
those who are legitimately entitled to benefits. We summarize the
results of twenty extensive interviews with people who have experienced
major difficulties in receiving payments of benefits and for heath care
service they expected from their insurance providers.
We further
examine the general lack of regulation, enforcement of existing laws
and government motivation to meet the health and disability needs of
all Americans, and the socio-economic power of the health insurance
industry to dominate health care policy.
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