Daily News Updates - Health Insurance News

Myth Buster 101, Pt.5 – (3) Will Consumer-driven get it?

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3) “Myth:   Consumer-driven health plans will reduce costs by giving people more control over their health care choices and encouraging high quality and appropriate use of care.”

“Fact: Consumer-driven health plans will not control costs. In fact, they will expose people to high deductibles and cost-sharing payments and discourage consumers from seeking important services, like prevention.”

Mr. Kazanjian goes on to explain, here, some of the many areas where preventive care would save, both the consumer and the health insurance companies the much more costly expense of treatment of latter care. These are things like “smoking, obesity, and health problems that could be prevented,” as Mr. Kazanjian lists. He points out that about 70% of medical care expenses are tied up in these latter treatments, which could have been prevented. Though the conservatives would have us believe that the capitalistic market-driven health insurance market will be encourage “individuals to use preventive services,” this is simply not founded. First, the hapless victims simply don’t have adequate insight in what is best to do. The health insurance plans they can afford suggest a distorted view on what is important, based heavily on cost considerations. The “Center’s” findings show that most of them don’t get the proper perspective in order to “differentiate necessary from unnecessary care.” The trend is for most consumers to spend less at the detriment of ‘under-investing’ in preventive care. This is because consumers are actually discouraged from spending more than they ‘have to’. That is the capitalism that they understand. They are not shrewd investors by nature. Proactive preventive care is not their lifestyle. It’s been shown that, even a $10 co-pay greatly diminishes the likelihood of seniors getting regular mammograms. It’s also indicated that a significant group of Americans are actually deterred away from getting preventive care due to ‘cost sharing’. This significant group is comprised of “low-income families, people with chronic disease, or families with children with special needs.”

 Continued…