Sickening . . .

All the more reason to expand Medicare and/or pass a robust public health care option, or even better yet, a single payer program like most of the modern, industrialized and civilized countries of the world have.

These leech-like insurance companies serve no socially or morally redeeming purpose what-so-fucking-ever. It's stories like this one, of which I tire of reading about every single day, that has me believing that the sole purpose for the existence of health care insurance corporations appears to be enriching the few at the expense of the quality of life and financial health of the many.

By MAURA LERNER, Star Tribune
Last update: October 25, 2009 - 11:10 AM


Mary Lloyd's husband was lying in the intensive care unit of an Arizona hospital when she got a good look at their new health insurance card for the first time.

Then she got the shock of her life. The card read: "This is NOT an insurance card."

For the retired couple from East Bethel, it was the beginning of a financial nightmare that left them with at least $50,000 in unpaid medical bills. They discovered that the new "health plan," they signed up for in January, for $499 a month, wouldn't pay for any of his medical care.

----k