Betrayed by the Health Insurance Industry

How the Recent Health Insurance Crisis Stirs up Anxiety and Rage (Vol. 5; Issue 42)

No one doubts that attentive, loving parents benefit children. Kids born with severe medical conditions, in particular, fare better if reared by warmhearted, competent caregivers. These caregivers will shower their child with affection and seek the best medical treatment available. Overall, good parents advocate for their children in every way.

Albeit an imperfect analogy, an effective government should care for its citizens in a similar manner. An effective government ideally protects its citizens. It provides for basic needs. It ensures safety. It also promotes the well-being of its citizens through offering public health services, educational programs, and the like.

The Trump administration does the exact opposite. It neglects, and even abuses, the American citizens. The American health insurance situation, brought to the fore by the month-long government shutdown, offers a particularly poignant example, but countless other examples exist: Trump will soon end an EPA program requiring the reporting of annual greenhouse gas emissions. He demolished the east wing of the White House in preparation for building a “grand ballroom” without bothering with the legally required public review process. These are but two recent examples.

But again, and in the interest of focus, the health insurance emergency deserves center stage. As October draws to a close, many Americans face sharp increases in their health insurance premiums. The Affordable Health Care Act (AHCA) includes a provision for health insurance subsidies for the economically disadvantaged. The Congressional standoff, leading to the government shutdown, is mostly about these subsidies. Trump and most Republicans want to stop them; the Democrats want to maintain them.

In case you think the fears overblown, consider the anxiety-triggering findings posted at healthcare.gov. It lists information from 28 state marketplaces, showing that:

Without the help from the AHCA, a family of four making $130,000 in Maine would face an increase of $16,100 in annual premiums. A 60-year-old couple making $85,000 per year could face an increase of $23,700 in annual premiums. In Nevada, a similar couple could pay an additional $18,100 in annual premiums, while in Minnesota, the cost might be $15,500 more, and in Maryland, an additional $13,700. These are not left-wing exaggerations; they appear on a federal government website.

Imagine the likely emotional reaction triggered in individuals simply thinking about these increases. It would terrify. The Maine family would have to pay 12 percent of their income just for the increase. The 60-year-old couple would have to pay an additional 27 percent. These are outrageous numbers. Many may end up forgoing insurance altogether; others may obtain less expensive policies that cover only catastrophic situations.

Of all the possible politicians to cite, the right-wing fanatic Marjorie Taylor Greene legitimizes the use of the word, “crisis.” She wrote in a social media post last week:

I’m absolutely disgusted that health insurance premiums will DOUBLE if the tax credits expire this year. Not a single Republican in leadership talked to us about this or has given us a plan to help Americans deal with their health insurance premiums DOUBLING.

Health coverage for American citizens should have been a right of citizenship from the get-go. Unlike any other major industrialized nation, we Americans lack this privilege. Our government provides free public education through high school; it offers police and firefighting services. For reasons having to do ONLY with profit, health coverage has not been considered a “right” like these other benefits. How ironic that some complain of “socialism” if governments provide health care coverage or services. Why would these benefits be any different from education, law enforcement, or fire protection?

It makes no sense.

It is this literally corrupt, even perverse system that naturally elicits anxiety among American citizens. What is more important than health? Health care costs remain the number one cause of bankruptcies. The more Americans risk going without it, the more likelihood of unnecessary deaths, pandemics, and overloads of (already-strained) government health care systems like county or VA hospitals.

The health insurance system, as it exists, is no longer about spreading risk. The idea of insurance, namely that everyone pitches in a bit to help the group as a whole, is no longer practiced in America. In its modern form, health insurance is based, instead, on profit for insurance company executives.

In confirmation, here is what the CEOs of major health insurance companies earned in 2024:

Andrew Witty, of UnitedHealth Group: $26.3 million.

Joseph Zubretsky, of Molina Healthcare: $21.9 million.

David Cordani, of Cigna: $23.3 million.

Gail Boudreaux, of Elevance Health: $20 million.

Karen Lynch, of CVS Health: $21 million.

Sarah London, of Centene: $20.6 million.

These outrageous salaries illustrate the “squeeze” on the provision of health care in the US. They show how the health insurance industry resembles a typical Mafia extortion racket. Much like a Mafia soldier who insists your 7-11 store needs “protection,” these massive businesses offer us “protection.” Most physicians and hospitals are now part of major corporations. These entities, in turn, depend on insurance reimbursement. Physicians and hospitals earn less than ever before. Patients face denials or delays in provision of treatment. These result in cost savings that fill the pockets of insurance company executives.

The serious psychological question is:

Why is nothing being done to change it?

Have we all been lulled into sleep by complacency? Or was the anesthesia delivered through propaganda spewed by these major corporations?

I described the various solutions in a 2017 essay that you can see here.

Several of them retain the idea of insurance, such as the Medicare-For-All proposal. They are, therefore, anything but socialist. They would all guarantee health care as part of citizenship.

Unless or until a more humanitarian and egalitarian system is in place, many Americans will feel fearful about access to health care. They will worry that their premiums or copays will bankrupt them. Ripple effects will spread through the American populace as a whole.

On another layer, the all-powerful force of denial apparently maintains the status quo. We are bursting with distress and agitation. Yet, somehow, we remain unable to organize in a way that convinces leaders to change the system. Many of the physicians I know, including ones in my practice and ones I consult for my own health care, believe the current system is near its breaking point. And, again, the degree of pure corruption is staggering. It is as if we Americans are lifted into the air by our feet until all of our coins drop onto the ground to fund the ridiculous salaries of health insurance administrators.

One wonders just when the still more powerful unconscious pressure of the angst and the anger will burst forth into the consciousnesses of American citizens. It simmers under repressed layers of our body-minds. Will those CEO salaries, when contrasted with the premium increases many Americans will soon face, sufficiently awaken us? Who knows. The slumber seems to stubbornly persist. Perhaps the No Kings protests, as they grow in intensity, will help usher in the reform we citizens need. In any event, and regardless of what happens, it seems an undeniable fact that health care should be a right of citizenship—equally important to education, fire protection, and law enforcement services—if not more so.

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