Cover Our Care! End Health Care Denials

By Mindy Holcomb, WV CAG Healthcare Organizer

Health care advocates protesting care denials at UnitedHealthcare are detained by police on July 15, 2024, in Minnetonka, Minnesota. Photo by David Berding/Getty Images for People’s Action Institute

The events surrounding the killing of the CEO of United Health have brought a great deal of public and media attention to the issue around the role of the health insurance industry in the American healthcare system. To be clear, WV Citizen Action stands firmly against gun violence.  We have an epidemic of both gun violence and denials of care that are impacting Americans each and every day. Congress should act immediately!

Unfortunately, research shows that virtually every family in the U.S. has experienced the outrage of having a doctor prescribe a treatment or medication only to have an insurance company get in the way. The data shows that these companies deny care through claims denial or preauthorization denial more than 248 million times per year. It is a crisis that touches people of every race, gender, and kind of community across the political spectrum. At the same time, health insurance companies deny these claims and make billions of profits yearly. 

To make things worse, corporations have too much power in this country and are blocking political progress that would improve the lives of millions of Americans. They control the appeals process, which they make so convoluted and time-consuming that fewer than 1% are ever appealed.

The health insurance industry is not designed to help patients. They do not lower patient costs, manage care for patients, or ensure they receive appropriate care. It is a FOR PROFIT industry whose primary focus is maximizing profits for shareholders. It is well past time for change — this system does not work! Even when pressured, insurance companies refuse to make changes to benefit patients. They refuse to do anything that will affect their bottom line and use AI to deny claims further and increase profits. People are suffering and dying. We must have a change that puts people over profit.

How are we at WV CAG and our national partners meeting this moment? We see and feel the anger people are feeling. They see that the structures around them do not deal with the problems they face. We want to unite people to channel this private pain into advocating for constructive policy change in a nonviolent, powerful way. Our Care Over Cost program meets this challenge. We uplift the stories of people denied or delayed care or lost someone due to denials and combine them with other powerful stories from around the nation. These stories put into stark relief the situation our healthcare system leaves patients in. 

How do we do this? WV CAG can use these stories in a variety of ways. We use social media, letters to the editor from affected individuals and their families, individuals sharing stories with lawmakers, and more. No one can silence us when we band together and speak out as one voice working toward the same goal. The moment for change is happening now, we need to move while the public attention is on this issue and demand action from our lawmakers.

We are proud of our work and will continue to do so. If your insurance company has denied you care, please share your story with us. If you have lost someone you care about due to a lack of healthcare, we stand in solidarity with you and invite you to join us in working together for change. 

Please reach out and contact our Healthcare Organizer, Mindy Holcomb, at mindy@wvcag.org or visit careovercost.org.