The insurance company makes all the rules when it comes to medicine. A coworker has been taking Lipitor (atorvastatin) for treatment of high cholesterol with amazing results. Our employer was forced to change health insurance because that particular health insurance provider no longer does business in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The replacement health insurance will not pay for Lipitor because this medication is apparently too expensive. A great example of bad medicine; a risky approach to health insurance coverage, my coworker’s health is now placed at risk because the new health insurance is only focused on cost savings and not the patients health (This practice is called “Death for Dollars”). Business practices like this have the potential to do more harm than good. The dilemma is obvious, doctors select the best medication for their patients, the pharmaceutical companies place an unhealthy price tag on a prescription drug because they can, and all this does is feed consumer outrage when health insurance providers refused to cover the cost of excellent medicine creating a substandard health care system. An interesting outcome from a society that demands extraordinary results, from our doctors, politicians, and citizens. Health insurance providers have placed profits over providing good health care, these strategies are profound and far-reaching, and this will create many public relation challenges, foster unwelcome criticism from citizens and politicians. Festering unwelcome criticism is the by-product from unhealthy insurance practices creating change, we cannot live with!

Pietro (Pete) Savo
Mont Vernon, New Hampshire