What Do People Think About When Choosing Health Insurance Plans?
Here is a discussion I had with Tess Vigeland of Los Angeles Public Radio about the psychology of choosing health plans.
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In a recent Forbes post, I wrote about geographical variation in healthcare expenses, and pointed out that a lot of this variation occurs after people leave hospitals. That’s when people end up in nursing homes, rehabilitation facilities and the like. Well it turns out, not only is there great variation in these expenses, but these…
Q: Much of the debate around health care reform has centered on whether the government or the individual will control health care decisions. Is that a valid argument? Most medical decisions are between clinicians and their patients, and will continue to be that way as the federal health reform law is implemented. Medicare bureaucrats aren’t…
The problem with the FDA is that if often requires so much proof of safety and effectiveness that the time it takes to bring a new product to market can grow by 3, 4, or even more years. FDA delays into the time that companies have to exclusively produce and sell their products. In recognition…
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They take our money, and hand it over to hospitals and doctors, while keeping a good portion for themselves. What a waste, huh? Well, yes and no. To see a really illuminating discussion of health insurance companies, and what they really do, see this blog http://michaelbrownmd.blogspot.com/2010/02/health-insurance-does-not-earn-its.html by Michael Brown– the Chief Information Officer at Harvard…
In the previous two posts, I show that out of pocket costs are rising given the increasing prevalence of high deductible insurance plans. That means that even though you have insurance, you are going to be paying for your own care until you reach the deductible. Here is a picture showing that out-of-pocket costs are…