Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature currently requires accessing the site using the built-in Safari browser.
Federal officials often say that health insurance will cost consumers less than expected under President Obamas health care law. But they rarely mention one big reason: many insurers are significantly limiting the choices of doctors and hospitals available to consumers.
From California to Illinois to New Hampshire, and in many states in between, insurers are driving down premiums by restricting the number of providers who will treat patients in their new health plans.
From the NYTimes link: "Some consumer advocates and health care providers are increasingly concerned. Decades of experience with Medicaid, the program for low-income people, show that having an insurance card does not guarantee access to specialists or other providers."
The two links above show how much we don't know, so (1) it is not the end of the world as the far righty reactionaries would have us think, and (2) it is not utopia, as the lefties would have us think.
Kaiser study finds 'lower than expected' ObamaCare premiums - The Hill's Healthwatch
Report from the non-partisan Kaiser study. Now we are beginning to understand why the GOP wants to kill the Affordable Care Act. The GOP is going to look pretty silly...
From the NYTimes link: "Some consumer advocates and health care providers are increasingly concerned. Decades of experience with Medicaid, the program for low-income people, show that having an insurance card does not guarantee access to specialists or other providers."
The two links above show how much we don't know, so (1) it is not the end of the world as the far righty reactionaries would have us think, and (2) it is not utopia, as the lefties would have us think.
I'm just wondering Jake, from reading your posts it seems You want Democrats and Republicans believing pretty well the same, no striking differences really..?
From the NYTimes link: "Some consumer advocates and health care providers are increasingly concerned. Decades of experience with Medicaid, the program for low-income people, show that having an insurance card does not guarantee access to specialists or other providers."
The two links above show how much we don't know, so (1) it is not the end of the world as the far righty reactionaries would have us think, and (2) it is not utopia, as the lefties would have us think.
I'm just wondering Jake, from reading your posts it seems You want Democrats and Republicans believing pretty well the same, no striking differences really..?
Not at all. Right of center and left of center can force consensus as well as change in an orderly manner with respect for traditions and the past. The far righty reactionaries and the far lefties, if given a chance, will burn down the house.
Kaiser study finds 'lower than expected' ObamaCare premiums - The Hill's Healthwatch
Report from the non-partisan Kaiser study. Now we are beginning to understand why the GOP wants to kill the Affordable Care Act. The GOP is going to look pretty silly...
Kaiser study finds 'lower than expected' ObamaCare premiums - The Hill's Healthwatch
Report from the non-partisan Kaiser study. Now we are beginning to understand why the GOP wants to kill the Affordable Care Act. The GOP is going to look pretty silly...
True.
The right’s greatest fear is the ACA’s success.
The sad part of this is, while the law may not be perfect, it could be fixed overtime. Unfortunately, the GOP is not wlling to fix anything. They want to kill it totally. They want to throw everthing out. That is sad.
From the NYTimes link: "Some consumer advocates and health care providers are increasingly concerned. Decades of experience with Medicaid, the program for low-income people, show that having an insurance card does not guarantee access to specialists or other providers."
The two links above show how much we don't know, so (1) it is not the end of the world as the far righty reactionaries would have us think, and (2) it is not utopia, as the lefties would have us think.
Federal officials often say that health insurance will cost consumers less than expected under President Obama’s health care law. But they rarely mention one big reason: many insurers are significantly limiting the choices of doctors and hospitals available to consumers.
From California to Illinois to New Hampshire, and in many states in between, insurers are driving down premiums by restricting the number of providers who will treat patients in their new health plans.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/23/h...ms-to-come-at-cost-of-fewer-choices.html?_r=0
Yesterday, Robert Pear of the New York Times discussed an emerging concern with Obamacare’s soon-to-be-online health insurance exchanges. “Many insurers,” he writes, “are significantly limiting the choices of doctors and hospitals available to consumers” in the market. Many critics of the health law made note of the news, holding President Obama to account for his repeated promise that “if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.” But here’s the twist: it’s actually a good thing that insurers are forcing hospitals and doctors to compete on price. Indeed, these “narrow networks” may be one of Obamacare’s best features.
But hospitals and doctors will have to compete on price
Every major insurer has conducted substantial market research into consumers’ attitudes about shopping for coverage. And consistently, what insurers find is that consumers’ highest priority is price. Just as most travelers shop for airline tickets based on price, rather than the brand or the in-flight amenities, most exchange participants will shop on the basis of premiums.
So insurers will compete to offer the lowest price, by contracting with the doctors and hospitals who charge them the lowest fees for treating you. “The networks will be narrower than the networks typically offered to large groups of employees in the commercial market,” said a spokesman for Cigna.
This is, in general, a good thing. Unlike government-imposed price controls, these contracts are voluntary. If doctors don’t like the fees that insurers are talking about, they don’t have to participate. If insurers think doctors are asking too much, they can take their business elsewhere. This is the essence of market-based transactions.
Prestigious but costly academic hospitals will lose business
In particular, this phenomenon means that exchange-based insurance plans will avoid the expensive big-name academic hospitals associated with prestigious medical schools like Harvard. Those hospitals are usually the ones that charge higher prices because they know that they can.
People who really want to keep their doctor, at any price, will often have to pay higher premiums for the privilege. And people who prefer lower premiums, above all, might need to choose a different doctor. But the overall effect of this dynamic will be that hospitals and doctors will have to compete on price, just like people do in every other sector of the economy.
There are a lot of things about Obamacare that will take our health-care system in the wrong direction. But there are a few good things that we should learn from. One of them is that competition works.
