How to Appeal Insurance Denials, Abolish Medical Debt, and Fight for Medicare for All

We continue to look at the U.S. health insurance industry and how patients can fight back against their providers with advocate Elisabeth Benjamin, vice president of health initiatives at the Community Service Society of New York and co-founder of the Health Care for All New York campaign. She says her advice for patients is to always appeal denials and to seek outside help when possible, including advocacy groups like hers and external review boards. She also stresses that much of the chaos of the U.S. health system is due to corporate greed. “Everyone has an incentive to charge more,” says Benjamin. “If we had Medicare for All, we wouldn’t be paying as much, and we would probably have much better health outcomes.”