Practice Management

The Third Wave practice of law has many, many advantages, but health insurance is not one of them.  I would say that it is the bane of our existence, but the truth of the matter is that it is becoming the bane of everyone existence in life.  I already pay a ton of money for the worst kind of coverage, and it is likely to get worse.  When a system is so broken that it benefit nobody but the shareholders and management of health insurance companies and drug companies, it is time for drastic change.  It is enough to make one want socialized medicine.

Now, The New York Times is reporting that co-payments for drug coverage either has or is about to go way up.  Health Insurance companies are rapidly adopting a new pricing system for very expensive drugs, asking patients to pay hundreds and even thousands of dollars for prescriptions that may save lives or slow the progress of serious diseases.

With the new pricing system, insurers abandoned the traditional arrangement that has patients pay a fixed amount, like $10, $20 or $30 for a prescription, no matter what the drug?s actual cost. Instead, they are charging patients a percentage of the cost of certain high-priced drugs, usually 20 to 33 percent, which can amount to thousands of dollars a month.

The system means that the burden of expensive health care can now affect insured people, such as self-employed lawyers and small firms as well.

The new pricing commonly affects people dealing with multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, hemophilia, hepatitis C and cancer, to name a few.

The result is that patients may have to spend more for a drug than they pay for their mortgages, more, in some cases, than their monthly incomes.

The new system sticks seriously ill people with huge bills, said James Robinson, a health economist at the University of California, Berkeley. ?It is very unfortunate social policy,? Dr. Robinson said. ?The more the sick person pays, the less the healthy person pays.?

Traditionally, the idea of insurance was to spread the costs of paying for the sick.

?This is an erosion of the traditional concept of insurance,? said Dan Mendelson of Avalere Health, a research organization in Washington. ?Those beneficiaries who bear the burden of illness are also bearing the burden of cost.?

Sooner of later, if the government will not or cannot act, the time might come for solos to ban together in establishing a law firm large enough to negotiate group health care coverage.