Unhealthy practices

Re “Health insurer tied bonuses to dropping sick policyholders,” Nov. 9

No surprise that Health Net Inc. gave out bonuses to drop sick insurance policyholders. The for-profit health insurance industry will always be the winner, as it has to be. There’s no way to plug that channel except bypassing the for-profit health insurance industry and creating a nonprofit system like Medicare, in which the risk pool is so large -- and the costs are diminished -- that the bottom line is the delivery of care. The for-profits must worry about not assuming the risk.

So why are we wedded to a broken marriage? A single-payer, nonprofit system won’t look for ways to deny care to keep its stockholders happy.

Sheila Hoff

Rancho Palos Verdes

It is disgusting how Health Net dropped a patient from her insurance in the midst of her chemotherapy, having its “senior analyst in charge of rescission reviews,” Barbara Fowler, profit from it through bonuses. How many years in medical school did Fowler study to make those decisions? Isn’t she practicing medicine without a license? In fact, doesn’t the entire medical insurance industry practice medicine without a license in making decisions to refuse care? The insurance industry should feel proud about profiting from the cancer and heart disease of people it is contracted to help.

If this is the “best medical system in the world” that is so often boasted about, then mercy help us all.

Bill D. Holder

Cypress