Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Consumers are starting to pay a larger share for high priced drugs. According to the N.Y. Times (“Co-payments“), insurance companies “…are charging patients a percentage of the cost of certain high-priced drugs, usually 20 to 33 percent, which can amount to thousands of dollars a month.” Medicare’s drug plans have introduced new fee schedules where…
David Whelan chronicles the rise (and possibly future fall) of Medicare Advantage programs in his article “Unfilled Prescription” in Forbes. Earlier laws privatizing Medicare, starting with a pilot program in 1985, were written to give insurance companies only 95% of the money otherwise spent per Medicare member. The insurers were supposed to figure out how…
Gruber (1994) shows that the costs of employer-provided health insurance benefits are passed on to employees through lower wages. But do employees with higher expected medical expenses have their wages reduced by a higher amount to reflect the additional medical costs to employers? This may not be the case if employers can not observe the…
In this blog, I have written about the Swiss (part one, part two) and Dutch healthcare system extensively. Both systems have a “regulated competition” where insurance is mandatory and insurance companies are mandated to provide a specific insurance benefit package. In the Swiss system, 85% of medical expenditures are financed by insurance premiums and 15%…
Devon M. Herrick writes an article (“Why rent…“) creating a clever analogy comparing HSAs to equity in a house. He likens traditional health insurance to renting a home, while having a Health Savings Account (HSA) is more like owning the home. Making contributions to HSAs in essence gives you “equity” towards future health care expenses.…
Many reform advocates have claimed that the federal government should mandate a package of insurance benefits that all private and public health insurers would be legally compelled to provide. Switzerland is one country in which the government defines a what the insurance benefit will be for all standard health insurers. The National Coalition on Health…
The San Diego Union Tribune has an article (“Cross-border coverage“) profiling entreprenuer Jim Arriola and his low cost health insurance plan covering medical care in both the U.S. and Mexico. His company, Sekure Healthcare, provides a limited-benefit insurance program through employers along with a discount health card program. Both can be used by Sekure members…
Yesterday, I spoke about the Swiss health care system. One of the main attributes of this system is that patients are allowed to choose from any health care plan and the health insurers can not refuse to cover them. Further, since the insurance benefit is mandated by law, there is very little quality difference between…
Doctors often complain that health insurers are squeezing their profit margins. These insurers offer the physicians access to patients as part of their network in exchange for discounted fees. Physicians can decide not to join the network and charge higher prices, but may be left with fewer patients. The bargaining power of the health insurer…
What is the cost of the last article of clothing you bought. This is easy to determine, just check your credit card statement. Which is cost of health insurance? This answer is more difficult to find. Sure, there is the price of the premium, but different insurance plans have different co-pay/co-insurance levels and different deductible…