I’ve heard politicians asking lately if you would want a bureaucrat standing between you and your doctor. A bureaucrat is defined as “an administrator concerned with procedural correctness at the expense of people’s needs.” Doesn’t sound good, does it?

However, in the current system there are some serious obstacles to your health care. Consider these facts:

• A recent study by Dartmouth Medical School determined that one one out of every three health care dollars is wasted.
• From 2002 through 2009, the five largest insurers operating in California rejected 31.2 million claims for care.
• A study this year by the American Medical Association showed that American doctors spend up to 3 weeks per year dealing with insurance company billing red tape.
• A Commonwealth Fund study found that family health insurance premiums increased 119% between 1999 and 2008, and could increase another 94% if cost growth continues on its current course
• In 2008, seven CEOs at the top health insurance companies made a combined income of nearly $68 million dollars
• Health care lobbyists have spent $375 million lobbying against health care reform, in order to secure the status quo.

As talking heads try to convince you that a government bureaucrat is waiting to stand between you and your doctor, the truth is there’s already an insidious barrier between you and your doctor: A health insurance bureaucrat who is only concerned about denying as many claims as they can. Health insurance companies saw billions of dollars in profits last year, during a recession. How did they accomplish this feat? Mainly by canceling coverage and denying claims. The thing is, these denied claims are not just numbers on a page. They represent real people. People with real health conditions. People like 17-year-old Nataline Sarkisyan who was denied a liver transplant by Cigna. When they finally reversed their decision because of public pressure, it was too late. She died hours later. Sadly, there are too many other stories like this.

Deborah Burger, RN, co-president of California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizating Committee said, “The routine denial of care by private insurers is like the elephant in the room no one in the present national healthcare debate seems to want to talk about.” She continued, “The United States remains the only country in the industrialized world where human lives are sacrificed for private profit, a national disgrace that seems on the verge of perpetuation.”