I'd like to comment on another article from Ms. Harrop that was in our paper today, "Plenty of room for feds in health care". Kudos to Ms. Harrop on points rarely raised about health care costs. Managed care appears to be managing the "cost savings" for their own managers, not for customers or providers.

I've been on UHC's provider panel for 10 years and haven't seen a raise that entire time. In fact, reimbursement rates are down from those we received from UHC's predecessors in the mid 80's. I'm talking about a decrease in reimbursement of 50%! Yet our expenses are probably up 60% from 20 years ago while reimbursement is frozen. We are trapped in the system and watching CEO's collect millions every year while thousands of people have no health insurance coverage. What exactly is managed care managing? How do we bring this to the public, and Presidential candidates" attention?

Lori O'Dell McCollum, Ph.D.