Aetna $huns our ‘miracle.’ That’s the headline in yesterday’s Daily News.
This is a story about a huge insurance company and how it operates (hint: profit motive above all) when unregulated by government: Family of Long Island boy who suffers daily seizures sues Aetna over reduced in-home nurse care – NY Daily News.
I’m not sure how Aetna cut care to a severely disabled teenager when the Affordable Care Act established controls over such insurance company denial of coverage, but my guess is that Aetna’s lawyers found a chink in the Act’s fence and are trying to sneak through.
I would think this lawsuit against Aetna will establish whether they can. And notice, in the article, that “Aetna didn’t consult a doctor before making the change, the suit contended.”
Anyway, it’s one of those disgusting insurance company stories that make most of us pine yet again for single payer, i.e., government, health insurance. One of those stories that remind us all that corporations have this kind of power in the U.S.A., power greater than our government’s power to work for us constituents.
I know I’ve said this before but the purpose of a corporation is to make a profit while the purpose of government (a very large non-profit entity) is to respond to the needs of its people. Intrinsic conflict, right there.