Health Care Reform Proposals Do Not Address Problems For Insured

The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday examined how for "those millions of insured Americans who get lost in the U.S. health care system's giant maze," the "journey is frustrated by coverage limits, denied claims and impersonal service." Every major presidential candidate "has introduced a health care reform plan," but, for the "most part, these plans focus on providing coverage to the 45 million uninsured or reining in medical costs" and "do little to address the myriad hurdles insured patients often encounter when they seek care," the Journal reports.

The Journal profiled Barbara Calder, a former chef who has a rare genetic disorder called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, in which the connective tissue in the body disintegrates over time. According to the Journal, "although she began suspecting she had the diseases 16 months ago and had health insurance, she spent a year battling numerous roadblocks just to see a specialist who could diagnose her condition." Efforts to navigate the health care system "can be especially maddening" for patients with rare genetic diseases because few physicians "know about such diseases" and "health insurers' computer programs tend not to recognize them," the Journal reports (Carreyrou, Wall Street Journal, 11/16).


Reprinted with kind permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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