See what VA patients have to say

During the ongoing debate over the merits of a national health care plan, it should be understood that insurance companies do not insure anyone's health; they insure your bank account. They do not provide or deny medical treatments, hospital admissions, lengths of hospital stay, any sort of surgery, or therapy, or any prescription drug.

What insurance companies (or self-insured medical plans) do provide, or deny, is money - reimbursement or payment - to those who do provide services, treatments or drugs (i.e., the doctors, hospitals and pharmacies). Too often people will say "my insurance won't let me have a physical exam", or "my insurance company is kicking me out of the hospital after only 2 days", or "my insurance won't let me have the drugs my doctor prescribed."

Medical providers such as hospitals and doctors also like to point the finger of blame at the insurance companies, saying the insurance companies won't let us do this or that. This isn't so. The insurance company (or insurance plan) may not pay for these things, but they aren't forbidding you from getting a physical exam, or from staying in the hospital as long as the doctor says it's necessary, or from getting the medical treatments you or prescription drugs you need.

It is the providers of the services who will deny treatment, or hospitalization, or prescription drugs if they are not paid. Before deciding to support a government-run national health care plan, you might want to survey the patients of any Veteran's Administration hospital as to the availability and quality of care such a plan provides.

Jerry Zacny

West Chicago