Reply #60: We have to stop letting insurance companies practice medicine

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

My landlady is also my doctor. She does cutting edge treatments for various ailments. A lot of times the treatments she suggests are not covered by insurance, even though they have been shown to cure a person or to prolong their life. She was really frustrated one day, and told me (in general terms, of course) that a patient who was seeing her needed a particular drug for her ailment. Doc was not the patient's primary care physician. That doctor had prescribed medicines for other ailments. Doc wanted to prescribe this particular drug because she knew it would not interfere with other meds the patient was taking. The insurance company said no, they would only pay for another drug, which was cheaper. Problem was that drug would interfere with the other medications that the patient was taking. Patient opted to not take any drug at all, and her symptoms are getting worse.

Whoever gets elected President needs to tell insurance companies that it isn't their business to decide on the treatment of patients.