[kimmers]

I had to reply because there are many good things said on this post. Interesting conversation guys.
Going back to the original topic, and the Hayes assessment report, I'd like to mention a few things about my favorite insurance company (tongue in cheek), Blue Cross. Blue Cross comes by its decision to not cover ADRs by the TEC assessment, which if you look it up is a bunch of doctors who decide on treatments.
I also found with BC that when I drove through the points in my appeals about how many years ADRs have been done and what success they have had in Europe with ADRs and studies backing the treatment, BC came back with that there were not American studies going back five years after FDA-approval of the Prodisc.
Well, since it was 2007-2008, and the Prodiisc was approved in August 2006, of course there were not. And when the retired neurosurgeon, "board-certified", and supposedly independent, spoke to my doctor, that was the argument they gave to my doctor. It didn't matter that studies showed that there was less adjacent disc disease after Prodisc. How can you argue with their logic?

It basically didn't matter that my doctor was asking for a surgery that cost less, had less recovery time, less chance of adjacent disc disease, and was overall better for me, the patient.

Regarding this particular insurance, I found out the following: I had less chance of suing BC since I was from a group policy and not individual, if I sued it was going to be through federal court because our plan was governed by the ERISA laws (i.e. take at least 18 months and cost us a bundle (I was quoted 45-50K by an attorney), which I don't totally understand yet, I might be able to go to arbitration but that wasn't clear and the Dept of Managed Health Care doctors sounded like they were nuts.

The Dept, which is supposedly independent, had the audacity to suggest that I didn't have a real spine problem and that I had "multiple somatic complaints". This was because I have had running injuries. The kicker was that my doctor's office, the PA, made the mistake of saying I had a history of depression, which is false. Well, one doctor, the one who said the above, started out his report with This is a 45 year old woman with history of depression and multiple somatic complaints.

Well not to belabor things and get off my soap box, about Blue you-know-what, this really ticked me off and gave credence to my belief that the Dept is in the back pocket of the insurance companies. One of the first things I thought about was, 'How about if I was a woman who actually had depression?' I feel that was an awfully inflammatory and discrimatory comment.

You guys or gals on here know I am for single-payer healthcare and why. I think if we were left as individuals to choose our own healthcare, I would not be insured. As it stands now, i do not believe I would be insurable. I went through the uninsurable thing several years ago when I was rescinded by an insurance company. I cannot remember why, I think it was because I had gestational diabetes with a pregnancy, or I had a D & C operation. Anyway, I was dropped and my only avenue for insurance that time was through California's major risk insurance. The problem was the premiums were like Cobra, but I would not go without insurance after I got in a car accident at 24 and I did not have insurance. That cost a lot.

I was in the major risk pool for two years and then got regular employer-sponsored insurance either through my job or my spouse's. It was good insurance but it was expensive, prohibitive for some people.

So the government might screw up the insurance bit a little bit or a lot but I do not believe they could do a worse job than the insurance companies we have today. The $70, 000 plus bills we owe for medical care make that clear to me. However, I think if the state was allowed to dictate the care and people had to be insured, state governance might work. The only thing is the insurance companies need to be taken out of the equation. They have done a bang up job with their share-holder profits and left us dying by the road. Think about what oversight they have? They have powerful lobyists and I think it is shameful that supposedly one of the richest countries in the world has such abysmal healthcare.

Kimmers