Thursday, November 29, 2018

To Bring Down Healthcare Costs, Look at Insurer Abuses

One recommendation for the new Congress and administration is to bring more accountability to the healthcare system after years of government overreach and broken promises.

Insurers typically do this by increasing premiums or deductibles for patients, saddling consumers with higher out-of-pocket costs for routine care.

A recent Bloomberg expose highlighted the effects that these increases have on the average family, profiling families whose monthly costs for mother and daughter increased to "$1,060 from $750 - an additional $3,720 per year" for their family plans, forcing the family to take out loans and lines of credit to pay off their bills.

Insurers' work to reduce care and increase costs to patients extends beyond plans all the way to hospitalizations.

Multiple "Mega mergers" between insurers and pharmacy benefit managers promise to completely alter the healthcare landscape.

Multiple studies have found that consolidation in healthcare markets, including in the health insurance market, drives up consumer prices.

The new Congress has an opportunity to transform our healthcare system by introducing market forces and transparency to bring down wasteful spending and increasing costs.


https://www.redstate.com/california_yankee/2018/11/29/bring-healthcare-costs-look-insurer-abuses/

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