Seymour Flops
Diamond Member
Although federal law requires insurers to provide the same access to mental and physical health care, these companies have been caught, time and again, shortchanging customers with mental illness — restricting coverage and delaying or denying treatment.
These patients — whose disorders can be chronic and costly — are bad for business, industry insiders told ProPublica.
“The way to look at mental health care from an insurance perspective is: I don’t want to attract those people. I am never going to make money on them,” said Ron Howrigon, a consultant who used to manage contracts with providers for major insurers. “One way to get rid of those people or not get them is to not have a great network.”
And Obamacare allows them to do it.
Near as I can figure, the purpose of Obamacare is to make U.S. healthcare so bad that we think that single-payer, i.e. government pays for healthcare and decides who does and does not get it, must be better than this.
I found this interesting:
Todd left the network so she could treat her patient without interference. The patient could afford to pay out-of-pocket because of a small settlement after her father’s sudden death. People are more than twice as likely to pay their full bill out of pocket for visits to mental health providers than primary care physicians, according to a ProPublica analysis of federal survey data.
Of course they will pay for their own mental therapy if their insurance won't pay. Just like supposedly poor people always seem to have money for cigarettes and beer.
A lot of these Obamacare supporters who Obamacare isn't helping just need someone to talk to. That is literally the "therapy," they pay for. Someone that will listen.
