How Health Insurers Hurt People in Pain, Part IV: Where to go From Here

How Health Insurers Hurt People in Pain

Part IV: Where to go From Here

The questions of if, when, and how U.S. chronic pain treatment will be improved and implemented largely depend on the future of U.S. health care coverage on a whole. There have been positive developments in insurance coverage for chronic pain treatment, such as Massachusetts’ AllWays Health Partners adding treatment options and removing cost barriers (Demko and Pradhan 2019). Philadelphia has also partnered with major insurance companies to ensure that non-opioid medication assisted chronic pain treatment is available. For Original Medicare users a limited number of acupuncture treatments for low back pain were added in 2020 (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid 2020).

Public support for the passage of “Medicare for All” type programs is largely favorable, with support increasing and decreasing depending on the particular design and details of any given proposal (Kaiser Family Foundation 2020). Numerous proposals exist, from those that reflect a single-payer model such as Jaypal and Sanders’s “Medicare for all Act” (Huberfeld 2020). Other Medicare expansion and “buy-in” bills have been proposed, in addition to public option “Medicare for more” types of bills (Oberlander 2019). Medicaid buy-in plans and state-based measures have also been put on the table.

Even with all of these proposals it is difficult, and perhaps impossible, to determine what course of action is in the best interest of people living with chronic pain. On one hand, comprehensive single-payer models have the potential to make multidisciplinary pain treatment available and accessible. On the other hand, as exemplified by detrimental impacts of across-the-board Medicare opioid restrictions, a single-payer option could lead to too much government control.

What is largely agreed upon across the nation, as evidenced in approval ratings for universal health care, is that continued health care reform is a national priority (Galvin 2021, Kaiser Family Foundation 2020). Critical to this endeavor is the question of whether policymakers are going to repeat mistakes of the past or learn from them. Whatever the future entails, it is crucial that people living with chronic pain are made a priority to receive the effective and compassionate care and treatment they deserve.

Chronic pain endurers are continually left out of decision-making processes. In order to create change we must make our experiences known and advocate for reforms. Every time you tell your story makes a difference!

Other posts you might like:

• How Health Insurers Hurt People in Pain Part I: Benefit Restrictions

• How Health Insurers Hurt People in Pain Part II: Financial Gain Over Patient Wellbeing

• How Health Insurers Hurt People in Pain Part III: The For-Profit Insurance Takeover

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Sources

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. “Press Release CMS Finalizes Decision to Cover Acupuncture for Chronic Low Back Pain for Medicare Beneficiaries.” January 21, 2020. Accessed April 3, 2021. https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/press-releases/cms-finalizes-decision-cover-acupuncture-chronic-low-back-pain-medicare-beneficiaries.

 Demko, Paul, and Rachana Pradhan. “Health Plans Don't Want Patients on Opioids. So What Are They Doing for Pain?” POLITICO, February 12, 2019. https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/12/health-insurance-opioids-pain-1106969.

Galvin, G. (2021, March 23). About 7 in 10 voters favor a public health insurance option. Medicare for all remains polarizing. Retrieved April 1, 2021, from https://morningconsult.com/2021/03/24/medicare-for-all-public-option-polling/

Huberfeld, Nicole. “Is Medicare for All the Answer? Assessing the Health Reform Gestalt as the ACA Turns 10.” SSRN, March 6, 2020. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3531238.

Kaiser Family Foundation. “Public Opinion on Single-Payer, National Health Plans, and Expanding Access to Medicare Coverage.” KFF, October 16, 2020. https://www.kff.org/slideshow/public-opinion-on-single-payer-national-health-plans-and-expanding-access-to-medicare-coverage/.

Oberlander, Jonathan. “Navigating the Shifting Terrain of US Health Care Reform—Medicare for All, Single Payer, and the Public Option.” The Milbank Quarterly 97, no. 4 (2019): 939–53. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0009.12419.