GOP Rep. Proud He Tried to Save Health Insurer a Few Bucks by Not Taking Son With Broken Arm to Hospital Right Away

United Healthcare Made $11 Billion in Profit Last Year

U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-MI) is really proud of his attempt to save his health insurance company a few dollars by not taking his son to the hospital right away, delaying the visit until the following day just in case the child’s arm was only sprained and not broken. Congressman Huizenga thinks all parents should exercise this discretion so the insurance companies can make more money.

“My youngest son went racing out the front door on his way to go jump on the trampoline,” Huizenga told MLive, a consortium of Michigan newspapers. “I thought he was going to get injured going to the trampoline,” the Republican representative quipped. 

“He got injured in the driveway on the way to the trampoline, fell, broke his arm, and we weren’t sure what was going on. It was in the evening, so I splinted it up, and we wrapped it up, and the decision was, ‘OK, do we go to the ER?’ We thought it was a sprain but weren’t sure. Took every precaution, and decided to go in the next morning.”

Turns out, his son did have a broken arm, Huizenga admits.

Congressman Huizenga is very concerned about protecting health insurance companies, suggesting parents should practice his sensitivity to costs, delaying treatment until it’s clearly necessary.

“There’s definitely going to be changes in the health care delivery system,” Rep. Huizenga explained to MLive. “We can’t just continue to squeeze providers to say this is how we are going to save money. It’s forcing health care providers … into some very different actions that in most people’s opinion is unhealthy.”

How unhealthy?

Take, for example, United Healthcare, one of the largest health insurance companies in the country. It made $11 billion in profit last year.

“Way too often, people pull out their insurance card and they say, ‘I don’t know the difference or cost between an X-ray or an MRI or CT Scan.’ I might make a little different decision if I did know (what) some of those costs were and those costs came back to me.”

 

Hat tip: Talking Points Memo

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