Insurance and preventive care - they won't pay to prevent anything!

Well, it still should not be up to insurance companies. They don't know 'medically necessary' from a hole in the ground, only a doctor would. Now a doctor might not be into using experimental treatments or something such as massage - but I have to say that I reopened a claim once from a car accident and I DID get chiropractic and massage care covered. My doctor wanted to do that first and if it didn't work, then he wanted me to go get physical therapy. The chiro and massage did the job and I slowly weaned off both and got the range of motion in my neck back despite working a 12 hour shift job on my feet on concrete. I did have to see an idependent doctor chosen by the insurance who examined me and did some tests, and I had to consult my regular doctor too who performed the same exam and tests and they both submitted their findings to the ins co - who happened to discover that the results were the same and both doctors recommended the same treatments. Fortunately I had kept ALL the info from when I had been in the car accident, including all the paperwork from the ER and the followups with my doctor so they were able to look at that and determine the claim needed to be reopened. I was actually a bit surprised, if my doctor had recommended physical therapy first, HIS office would have made a killing, and ins co are more likely to pay for recommended phys therapy than massage and chiro. I don't necessarily think that everybody is always out to get you, at least not doctors. I have billed and collected from insurance companies though and they will do ANYTHING to get out of paying anything.

If insurance does not pay for all the costs, or most of them, what is even the point of paying the money for the insurance in the first place? A lot of plans are only catastrophic, meaning that you pay a significant premium (sometimes more than $300 per month for a family) but you have a deductible of something like $1500. This means that on top of paying say $300 per month for the insurance, the insurance pays for NOTHING until you have paid at least $1500 per year towards medical bills! For a family who never gets sick or injured, this is ridiculous. Even having a deductible of $500 would be too much for me, I go see the doctor like once a year. For me, I need a plan that is reasonable (less than $100 a month for a family) and a small copay ($20 or less for a dr visit) and no deductible. Dental care I have found goes from excellent to poor as far as insurance. The plan we have right now is excellent, it pays 100% for preventive type care except for perio maintenance, 90% for most basic services, and 80% for major services, 50% or up to a certain cap for ortho. Some dental insurances pay almost nothing, so people cannot even afford preventive care, and by the time they manage to go in because something is terribly wrong, nothing can be done.