Insurance costs are astronomical, and not affordable for most Americans. Despite this, patients and providers often have to fight to get insurance companies to do what they agreed to do when the policy was issued - pay for medical care.

• Prior authorization must be abolished. Healthcare providers are well qualified to recommend the best treatment for their patients. This should be all that is required for an insurance company to pay for said treatment. Insurance companies have been allowed to practice medicine without a license for far too long. Prior authorization wastes time for providers and staff, and delays needed treatment for patients. The only ones who benefit are the insurance companies who make billions in the business of keeping Americans sick.

• Formularies must go. A formulary is a list of drugs an insurance company will pay for based on a particular medical condition. Often these formularies list drugs or doses that are no longer considered effective, or not the best treatment for that condition. Formularies are entirely focused on saving the insurance company money. Healthcare providers should be able to recommend the best treatment for their patients, regardless of the insurance company's financial concerns.

• Pharmacy benefit managers should be outlawed. These organizations (like CVS Caremark, ExpressScripts, OptumRx) are destructive, unnecessary middlemen that increase insurance company profits, impede healthy competition between pharmacies, put independently owned pharmacies out of business, increase the cost of medications, and cause headaches for patients and providers. They also own pharmacies, creating a huge conflict of interest, and United Healthcare owns a bank (Optum Bank)! - this is utterly ridiculous.

• Cap prescription drug prices. If a drug is necessary, it should be affordable to obtain, and insurance should cover it without a fight. In Medicare for All, prescriptions will be covered. Until then, a cap on drug prices must be instituted.

• Insurance companies must make all contracts and publications clear and easy to understand. If a healthcare provider who's been practicing for 14 years (like Ashley) sometimes has trouble figuring out what the insurance company will cover, how do they expect someone with no medical training to understand?

• Insurance companies must reimburse providers at a fair rate for the services they are providing. Reimbursements have dropped to the point that providers are often unable to financially sustain their private practices. This leads to loss of jobs for staff, the inability for providers to offer certain services, greedy corporate takeover of privately owned practices, and ultimately lack of access for patients.

• Protect laws that prevent insurance companies from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions.