Monday, August 05, 2013
I don't think you want the public to understand.
A survey on public understanding of health insurance makes some good points and some bad points.
The first survey was designed, in part, to uncover how well the insurance holders understand four basic traditional health insurance concepts — deductible, copay, co-insurance and out-of-pocket maximum — as well as how well they believe they understand them. Analysis of responses revealed that while insured Americans felt confident about their own understanding of these concepts, their actual understanding was much lower; only 14 percent of all respondents accurately understood all four concepts.Well, I'm typical there. I couldn't specify the exact difference between deductible, co-pay and co-insurance. I do understand the out-of-pocket max. In practice the first three mean pretty much the same thing: you pay directly.
The first survey also found that only 11 percent of respondents presented with a traditional insurance plan incorporating all four of these elements were able to compute the cost of a four-day hospital stay when given the information that should have enabled them to do so.Not a valid point. You can't compute the cost. Over the last 30 years I've used insurance for an ER visit 5 times. Each time I've seen that there is no mathematical connection between the initial bill and what you finally pay. Basically the hospital starts with a bill of $INFINITY.00 and the insurer uses its muscle and political power to negotiate a far more sensible amount, then decides (perhaps mathematically, perhaps not) how much of that amount you'll pay. It's all about bullying and muscle, zero about arithmetic. If nothing else, insurance is worthwhile because the insurer is a bully on your side! You can't exert that kind of force on your own.
Finally, the survey revealed that a simplified insurance plan that eliminated deductibles and copays — the two least well understood elements of insurance plan design — would appeal to consumers.Wouldn't appeal to me for damn sure. I've got a high-deductible individual policy that suits me just fine, costs about $300 a month. If the public doesn't understand the choices, it's mainly because of secrecy by the insurers. Until I went directly to Group Health and applied, there was no public info to indicate that an affordable plan was available. I was scared shitless. Based on stuff I'd read online, I assumed the best possible price for an individual would be $1200 a month, which I couldn't begin to afford. ¶ 3:58 PM
