As someone who's dealt with denial of claims, medical necessity arguments, ect, I'll say "I don't agree with murder, however I also understand how the system/process could drive someone to do it"
The rest of the developed world rations healthcare via provider shortages.
The United States rations healthcare through a third party payor system. At best an insurer should be a speed bump to escalating healthcare costs, battling the hospital systems / pharma companies over what they can charge. When they get into rationing care via pre-approvals, delays, and arbitrary determinations of medical necessity, the only thing surprising about this is it hasn't happened sooner.
My last arugment with Anthem/BCBS was over them determining a proedure was not medically necessary if you were a resident of South Carolina, however they would provide coverage in most surrounding states. They didn't care what one of the 60 or so experts in that field of medicine said, even though said expert had a subspecialty fellowship.
As for the Anesthesia headline, the unsurprising part is Medicare made this change a few months ago and it was accepted, but when Anthem does it they are bad.
My only comments are they need to battle prices, but get out of the business of rationing care and let doctors be doctors.
