None of these are material financial levers that would drive down healthcare costs. Overhead and claims payments are visible in health insurance companies’ public financials. Displaying denial rates doesn’t change denial rates. More otc seems like it has potential for abuse by patients i.e., creating unsafe environments where people have carte blanche access to drugs (could see it maybe modestly lowering prices for a subset of medication) - prices on the wall? When your appendix bursts, good luck going shopping for the best price. What are you gonna do, die in the lobby while “shopping”?
This “plan” is a bad joke. While for profit health insurance has it’s inefficiencies and misaligned incentives, the answer is NOT this - it’s clearly single payer.
Don’t forget that prescription meds get applied to our deductibles, but OTC meds don’t. In other words, it’s more money from consumers’ pockets and a lower chance of insurance having to pay out.
True, hadn’t considered that. The more you read into it (there’s not much to go off of - it’s still an outline…) the more glaring gaps and inadequacy is revealed. It’s pathetic.
None of these are material financial levers that would drive down healthcare costs. Overhead and claims payments are visible in health insurance companies’ public financials. Displaying denial rates doesn’t change denial rates. More otc seems like it has potential for abuse by patients i.e., creating unsafe environments where people have carte blanche access to drugs (could see it maybe modestly lowering prices for a subset of medication) - prices on the wall? When your appendix bursts, good luck going shopping for the best price. What are you gonna do, die in the lobby while “shopping”?
This “plan” is a bad joke. While for profit health insurance has it’s inefficiencies and misaligned incentives, the answer is NOT this - it’s clearly single payer.
Don’t forget that prescription meds get applied to our deductibles, but OTC meds don’t. In other words, it’s more money from consumers’ pockets and a lower chance of insurance having to pay out.
True, hadn’t considered that. The more you read into it (there’s not much to go off of - it’s still an outline…) the more glaring gaps and inadequacy is revealed. It’s pathetic.