“Catherine did everything she thought she was supposed to when it came to her health. Even though she was young and healthy, she knew she should be responsible and have health coverage in case of an accident. So she bought her own insurance policy since her job didn’t offer coverage. But when she got diagnosed with breast cancer, she discovered she didn’t have the coverage she thought. In fact, it put her $100,000 in debt — a bill she works to pay off every day.”

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Prescription for Change

The arcane and complex language in health insurance contracts make them extremely confusing.  Former Cigna exec Wendell Potter described in his testimony to Congress the willful intent to mislead and confuse policy holders so that it would be easier to drop them when they became sick and started generating claims.

“We know exactly what primary care is, we know exactly why systems organized around it do a better job. It is not a secret, it is not rocket science, but we don’t do it.”

— Barbara Starfield, M.D., Focuses on Primary Care and Health Care Reform — AAFP News Now — American Academy of Family Physicians

“At this particular point in the health care debate, we’re finding that there’s not much new under the sun when it comes to false claims being made about the overhaul proposals. But just in case pretty new packaging threatens to rope unwary citizens into believing some of these misrepresentations, we stand at the ready, and it is in that spirit that we tackle the Republican National Committee’s new “Health Care Bill of Rights for Seniors.”

— RNC’s “Bill of Rights” | FactCheck.org

“All Americans should have access to affordable, dependable and quality health care. No family should face financial ruin to pay for care, and no family should suffer because of unsafe or poor quality care.”

— Consumers Union