JustHealth

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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The Executive Director of JustHealth, John Metz, was recently featured in an ABC-TV news broadcast about our health care crisis.   

Fifty percent or more of bankruptcies in the U.S. are caused by medical bills. The majority of those involve people who have health insurance. The ones with health insurance generally have larger unpaid medical bills than the uninsured. How can this be?

The ABC-TV Story 

If you've ever been stuck with a medical bill you thought your insurance was going to pay but didn't, you can count yourself among millions in the same boat.

And it's a boat that's sinking fast.

It's estimated that nearly 60 percent of all bankruptcies are because of medical bills. 

But what if the bill should have been paid by your insurance...but wasn't? 

Or the hospital charged you a rate virtually no one pays, all because you didn't know what you were entitled to? 

Most of the one-million Americans who went bankrupt because of medical bills last year were middle class homeowners who had medical insurance. ( View Video of Interview or Read More of transcript. You can also GET HELP NOW. )

Are Your Records Getting Faxed to Random People? 

Getting unwanted faxes is one thing. But what if these faxes contained personal medical information about someone else.

It doesn't happen to all of us, but it did happen to Susan Peacock of Phoenix.

The most recent fax she received showed a man's complete medical records, including his conditions like diabetes and tobacco addiction.

"I'm receiving faxes that don't belong to me," Susan said.

Everything from illnesses to treatment plans, it's all right here before her eyes.

Susan says she consistently gets private medical records faxed to her business involving different people.

She takes pictures of people for a living, and doesn't examine their health. But she says the medical facility doesn't seem to care.

"They say oh, we'll take care of it," she told ABC15. (Link to Article)

JustHealth has never advertised. Yet, people (consumers / patients and healthcare providers) have come to us almost every day since 1995, for assistance with problems they are having with our healthcare system. These folks are referred to us by government agencies, professional organizations, TV stations, local and national newspapers, individual doctors, other healthcare providers, lawyers (both plaintiffs' lawyers and lawyers that represent insurance companies), other people we have helped, their friends, and total strangers who have faced or are facing their own problems with our healthcare system.  

[Note: Continuously updated new stories about the healthcare system are availalbe toward the bottom of the page, in Latest News, and from the Stories menu button.]