Coverage Denied: How Health Insurers Drive Inequality in the United StatesWhen Americans awoke on December 4, 2024 to the shocking news of the murder of UnitedHealthcare C.E.O. Brian Thompson, nationwide discussion centered on delays and denials experienced at the hands of primarily private health insurers. In Coverage Denied: How Health Insurers Drive Inequality in the United States, I probe the causes and consequences of health insurers' coverage denials -- often through the mechanism of prior authorization -- by drawing on a nationwide survey of 1,340 U.S. adults, administrative data from several states, and 111 interviews with patients, physicians, health insurance lawyers, former health insurance executives, and others. Combining data analysis and storytelling, Coverage Denied shows how this health insurance practice can upend patients' health and economic lives, deepening patients and physicians' experience of administrative burden and, in turn, inequity. Available April 23, 2026, and available for pre-order at Cambridge University Press, Amazon, and Powell's. Praise for Coverage Denied: "Miranda Yaver has produced a deeply disturbing interrogation of America’s deeply dysfunctional health care system. Brilliantly researched, with stories that will enrage you, Coverage Denied is an essential read for anyone who wants to understand why America’s health insurance bureaucracy can be so arbitrary and heartless – and why it doesn’t have to be that way." -- Jonathan Cohn - author of The Ten Year War: Obamacare and the Unfinished Crusade for Universal Coverage "Infuriating and original, urgent and expert, Coverage Denied lays bare the power of private health insurers to decide who gets care – and who does not. Combining path-breaking survey research, compelling stories, and a keen understanding of America’s distinctive policy landscape, Miranda Yaver has written the book on insurance coverage denials, why they cause so much hardship and inequality, and how they must be fixed." -- Jacob S. Hacker - Stanley Resor Professor of Political Science, Yale University, and author of The Great Risk Shift: The New Economic Insecurity and the Decline of the American Dream "Why is it so hard for Americans to access health care? Miranda Yaver’s essential new book documents the growing use of health insurance denials – as a form of administrative burden – to pad the profits of health insurance companies by preventing access to life-saving health care. This is a must-read for policymakers, scholars, and anyone who interacts with the American health care system." -- Pamela Herd - Carol Kakalec Kohn Professor of Social Policy, University of Michigan, and author of Administrative Burden: Policymaking by Other Means |
Chapter Listing:
Preface 1. The Political Origins of Coverage Denials 2. Causes and Types of Coverage Denials 3. Whose Coverage Is Denied? 4. Prescriptions are a Headache 5. Coverage Denials and Cost Shifting to Patients 6. Navigating Red Tape in Modern Medicine 7. Who Wins and Loses Appeals 8. The Special Difficulties of Mental Health 9. A Path Forward Op-eds and Other Media Related to Coverage Denied: NPR Morning Edition, December 11, 2024 Houston Matters, December 16, 2024 "This Nightmare Delay and Denial Shows Why Patients Need a Bill of Rights." The Hill, January 13, 2025 "Why Appealing an Insurance Denial is So Overwhelming." STATNews, January 23, 2025 "How Rising Health Care Claim Denials Are Hurting Americans." CNBC Digital, February 23, 2025 "My $30,000 Health Insurance Claim Was Denied. Then I Tweeted About It." The Guardian, February 26, 2025 "The Full Costs of Our Health Insurance Maze." Roosevelt Forward's Fireside Stacks, March 13, 2025 "Dr. Oz's New Plan to Root Our Medicare `Waste' Is Actually a Recipe for Disaster." MSNBC, September 7, 2025 "How a 1974 Law Made AI-Powered Insurance Denials All But Impossible to Fight." Roosevelt Forward's Fireside Stacks, October 23, 2025 "No Jargon" podcast. Scholars Strategy Network podcast. December 2, 2025. "The State of Denial: How Insurance Companies Impact Health Care Today." Interviewed on CBS Sunday Morning. |