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In case you were wondering what insurance companies will do if the ACA ends, let’s take a look at an easy, life-saving, cost-saving measure that the two biggest insurers are doing away with just as COVID case counts go up and flu season starts. (A thread)
Insurers ( @AnthemInc and @UHC) move this week to stop waiving telehealth copays https://www.statnews.com/2020/09/29/united-healthcare-anthem-telemedicine-coverage-insurers/ via @statnews
Copay waivers encouraged patients to use telehealth services, keeping them out of doctor’s offices and likely avoiding more exposures. So now people will be forced back into in person visits, or they just won’t go to the doctor at all.
$50 copay may not seem like much, but to some folks it is. Especially in these difficult times. Meanwhile, in 2018 @UHC’s CEO earned $18.1 million in total compensation (316 times the median salary of a company employee)...
...while @AnthemInc’s CEO earned $14.1 million. https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/payer/health-insurance-ceos-took-home-a-hefty-pay-day-2018-how-does-compare-to-their-employees
Here’s the secret: insurance companies don’t make money by paying claims. That means the more “costly” folks they can drop off their plans, or the more they make patients chip in, the more $$$ they rake in.
Our system is broken and no, the ACA is not perfect. But it extended benefits to so many more folks who didn’t have them, or couldn’t access/afford them due to preexisting conditions, and it forced insurers to cover them (apparently without hurting the bottom line)
This election is about healthcare, more than maybe anything else. The lives of so many people depend on it. The pandemic has made that crystal clear. #VoteHealth
