ObamaCare: replacing employer-based insurance w/ subsidized health plans
A new study by McKinsey suggests that as many as 78 million Americans could lose employer health coverage, and some will end up with tax-funded subsidies for politically defined health plans.
The Road to Socialized Medicine Is Paved With Preexisting Conditions – Part 3
Yaron Brook & Don Watkins of the Ayn Rand Institute write: [W]ithout exception, the actual problems they point to are not caused by the market, but by government intervention–and the outcomes they denounce which are a product of the market are not really problems at all. Take the preexisting condition “crisis.” On the one hand, […]
The Road to Socialized Medicine Is Paved With Preexisting Conditions
Imagine that you live in a world with no medical insurance, you take the risk to start the first insurance company, and competition springs up. Then a customer walks in to your office and wants you to sell him insurance. He has pre-existing conditions, but expects that you sell him a policy at the same price as more healthy people. Yaron Brook and Dan Watkins explain the absurd implications of this at Forbes.com: The Road to Socialized Medicine Is Paved With Preexisting Conditions.
ObamaCare forces insurers to withdraw from markets
“The impact of new rules on health insurance is causing people throughout the country to ‘lose the coverage they have now’ and to have many fewer options. …This leaves customers with fewer options of affordable coverage in an increasingly non-competitive market.” reports Grace-Marie Turner. Read the short paper summarizing the instances so far.
A Radically Different Approach to Health Insurance
John Goodman of the National Center for Policy Analysis writes: [B]efore the current era, the most common form of health insurance — other than Blue Cross plans — was indemnity insurance with a fee schedule. A typical benefit consisted of so many dollars a day for each day in the hospital. Since the benefit was […]
Workers, not employers, bear the (full) cost of health benefits
Many workers believe they pay one part of their health insurance premium, and their employer pays the rest. But that’s not how it works. Really, you pay the full cost of your health benefits.
Mandated medical loss ratios promote bad customer service
Arnold Kling points out how mandating a minimum medical loss ratio promotes poor customer service. Quoting Uwe Reinhart: The recently passed Affordable Care Act requires heath insurance issuers to use at least some minimum fraction of revenue from the premiums it receives on medical services. Kling writes: A big cost component for health insurance companies […]
Health care innovation: good and bad
John Goodman of the National Center for Policy Analysis has an excellent column abut health care innovation. He summarizes: Wherever there is third-party payment [insurance, a health plan, Medicare, Medicaid], the goal of innovation is to produce more products that qualify for reimbursement, even if the effects on patient outcomes are only marginal. Wherever there […]
What abortion costs can tell us about medical care costs
Note: This post is not about the proper legal status of abortion or whether it is moral. It’s about medical care costs and how patients pay for it. Readers can appreciate the content of this post regardless of their position on legal abortion.
Politicians like to talk about how to keep medical care costs in check, […]
Pay your doctor cash, get better treatment
Jay Parkinson, M.D. writes:
If we really want to find out how to damn near perfectly manage any medical problem as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible, we should be studying how doctors manage the medical problems of the cash-paying doctors they see in their own practice.
Dr. Parkinson relates his experience […]
Utah’s voluntary health insurance exchange
From the Texas Policy Foundation:
State governments will face many new challenges and responsibilities under the recently passed federal health care legislation – one of the first being the creation of a state health insurance exchange. Massachusetts‘ state-subsidized exchange was the model for President Obama’s plan, and the Bay State is now grappling with surging premiums […]
Ten Small-Scale Reforms For Pre-existing (Chronic) Conditions
Instead of more political meddling in insurance markets like guaranteed issue and community rating, the following free-market-oriented reforms would help alleviate the problems with pre-existing conditions. From John Goodman at the Health Affairs Blog:
Encourage Portable Insurance.
Allow Special Health Savings Accounts for the Chronically Ill.
Allow Special Needs Health Insurance.
Allow Health Status Insurance.
Allow Self-Insurance for Changes […]
