Flexible health insurance

Friday, Sept. 18, 2009 | 2:05 a.m.

Every effort should be made to improve the quality of life of people who find it difficult to speak because of Lou Gehrig’s disease, autism, strokes or other ailments. They shouldn’t be made to suffer additional indignities simply because of restrictive policies enforced by Medicare and private health insurers.

Yet that is precisely what is happening when they attempt to get insurers to pay for relatively inexpensive communication devices, including iPhones with text-to-speech software and mini-laptop computers known as netbooks.

As reported Tuesday by The New York Times, they are often forced to spend thousands of dollars on specially designed computers that are approved by Medicare and private insurers when other technological devices can offer greater communication capabilities at a fraction of the price.

The reason Medicare and insurers restrict their coverage to clunky, more expensive computers for speech-impaired people is that those devices are strictly medical in nature. That is not the case, they argue, for iPhones and netbooks because those devices can also be used for video games, Web browsing and other nonmedical purposes.

This is truly absurd thinking.

At a time when President Barack Obama and enlightened members of Congress have identified runaway medical costs as a national crisis that should be addressed immediately, Medicare and private insurers should adopt coverage policies that are flexible enough to give consumers the greatest quality of care at the lowest cost.

In the case of people with speech impediments, the ability to use iPhones and other devices that are widely available to the general public can also remove the stigma of being forced to use specialty computers.

Who cares if stroke victims can use less-expensive communication devices for something other than a medical purpose? The fact that they are using devices they are comfortable with that allow them to communicate effectively is all that really matters.

This is but one of many examples of how health care needlessly gobbles up money. What is needed is a strong dose of common sense.