Cunad’s Queen Mary 2. Photo by Carlo Mirante/Flickr.
The Affordable Healthcare Act’s new Insurance Exchanges will encourage “Medical Tourism,” all to the benefit of the insurance companies and to the detriment of patient safety and professional medical care.
(PRWEB) 12 July 2012
James R. Goldberg, author of The American Medical Money Machine: The Destruction of Healthcare in American and The Rise of Medical Tourism is issuing a warning to patients that new regulations under Obamacare will encourage a rise in Medical Tourism or Medical Outsourcing.
In a July 12, 2012 statement released through his publisher, Homonculus Press representative Robert Marshall, Goldberg says, “there is a trending worldwide movement whereby people seeking reduced-cost medical treatments are traveling to countries enthusiastically promoting what they generally refer to as Medical Tourism. These new Insurance Exchanges are and will be selling mandatory insurance policies meaning millions of new customers will be forced to buy policies from private medical insurance companies.”
The author said, “Much can be learned from the Massachusetts model, Romneycare, where at least 100,000 people elected to not participate in the exchanges and the state government seized money from their bank accounts! Exactly where this money went remains a question, and we can see the same thing happening on a national basis. Cases are likely to be litigated for decades.”
Marshall said that Goldberg “emphasizes that his primary interest is in assuring patient safety for those who are now being forced to purchase policies from private organizations. These policies can vastly vary price and in the benefits they provide.”
“I do not come at this from a political or partisan point of view” Goldberg remarked. “Obamacare has several features which appear to be in the interest of the public, such as the requirement of insurance organizations to accept all patients, even those with preexisting conditions, but the legislation is totally silent when it comes to just how much the insurance companies can charge! The public must understand that the price to be paid for insurance for preexisting conditions is and will be determined by the insurance industry who will, if history teaches us correctly, operate with impunity.”
“With Obamacare, or whatever version of it emerges” Goldberg goes on to say, “the insurance industry has never made more money. Right now, premiums, co-pays and deductibles for patients have never been higher and reimbursement for doctors, never lower. There is ample money in the healthcare system: it simply is being hoarded or converted by the medical insurance cartel.”
As an example, the author points out Blue Shield of California and a 1999 Government Accounting Office (GAO) report titled “Improprieties by Contractors Compromised Medicare Program Integrity”. This involved the conviction of Blue Shield of California of criminal Medicare fraud. Blue Shield was subsequently removed from administering Medicare benefits in California. But don’t cry for them: shortly thereafter they were “rewarded” by the Department of Defense with the Federal Tri-Care program for active military health benefits: a multi-trillion dollar a year contract. What’s wrong with this picture?”
Goldberg believes “the awarding of this contract by the Federal Government to a firm found guilty of criminal fraud is probably illegal and should be rescinded. Meanwhile, Blue Shield of California has increased premiums by 59% for its individual policies since the passage of Obamacare. This is a precursor of things to come!”
The author and investigative journalist adds, “The insurance cartel will most likely offer a variety of policies in Insurance Exchanges mandated by the Obamacare law, with varying benefits and costs. I predict that they will offer lower cost policies which will require patients to travel overseas for unregulated and cheaper medical care. This is the likely scenario that will fuel the growth of Medical Tourism and enrich the insurance industry at the expense of patient safety.”
“According to a recent report released by the consulting firm Deloitte,” Goldberg said, “many insurance companies, including U.S.-based UnitedHealthcare Group and Cigna, are currently reimbursing medical costs incurred by their insured for foreign medical treatment, provided the foreign hospital is listed in their hospital network and approved by the Joint Commission International (JCI). I believe this will continue and expand with the implementation of the Insurance Exchange Networks.”
The JCI Goldberg has exposed, “is an offspring of the Joint Commission (JC) of Oakbrook, Illinois, the same outfit that was given the exclusive right to accredit hospitals in this country in order that they might receive Medicare benefits.”
Goldberg emphasized that “the JCI does not regulate their foreign accreditations and provides no oversight or compliance.”
Goldberg further said, “By offering foreign-based care via the new Obamacare Insurance Exchanges, we’re seeing the prospective engineering of a new means for attracting patients to purchase Medical Tourism based policies. These policies appear to offer safe and vetted benefits but a closer look is reveals a very different story.”
Marshall explains the author’s personal interest in the topic saying, “Goldberg’s young son, Joshua, died on February 24, 2006 at the epicenter for Medical Tourism, Bumrungrad Hospital, in Bangkok, Thailand. His death came under highly suspicious circumstances. After having forensic experts examine Joshua’s hospital chart, many non-standard practices and outright fabrications became apparent. The hospital would not cooperate with the investigation, and neither would the JCI.”
Goldberg delves into the activities of the insurance cartel in his book, with an in-depth study into UnitedHealthcare. Goldberg asserts that “UnitedHealthcare, also convicted of numerous Medicare fraud violations, is actively promoting offshore care and will likely play a key role in the Obama Insurance Exchange programs. I simply point out that the giants will likely dominate the Insurance Exchange concept, and that is not a good thing. UnitedHealthcare and AARP are known to be closely connected in which AARP markets, on a nearly exclusive basis, UnitedHealthcare products!”
Goldberg says “he is concerned that what is not detailed in the Obamacare legislation will be left open to the discretion of the people behind the Insurance Exchanges. It’s simple to see that this will open the doors to new fortunes for the insurance companies.”
Author Goldberg said that “Tom Daschle, former Speaker of the House and now chief lobbyist for UnitedHealthcare, was retained by Obama to steer the insurance favored legislation through the Congress and into law. The story is hardly over where a battle is brewing between big money versus morality!”
Goldberg’s explosive book on the corruption of our health care system and his cautionary tale about the evils of Medical Tourism, The American Medical Money Machine, is available on Amazon in paperback or Kindle, as well as through bookstores everywhere.
