Comments on: Is That the Sound of a Bending Cost Curve?

By: Susan Friedrichs

Susan Friedrichs — Tue, 22 May 2012 22:26:15 +0000

I work for a small consulting firm. Over the years, more and more of the costs have shifted to us, so that our insurance is basically catastrophic insurance. In addition, because of the slow down of the economy, our company faced some pretty lean times. We have been on reduced salaries for the last two years.
I will be going for my annual preventative care visit -Thanks Obama Care- and hope I stay healthy the rest of the year.

By: Kathleen Wright

Kathleen Wright — Tue, 22 May 2012 15:43:48 +0000

Thanks for the insight. I was a health policy analyst in a past life and continue to rant periodically on the health care provider monopoly. Bending that curve is our only hope for a variety of reasons that I highlight without the censorship of reason at times in the following piece…

http://schoolsretooled.com/2011/10/17/health-economics-rant/

Ironically, the Partners Healthcare team called a meeting with Gov Patrick a few days ago to warn that his pricing policy threatens to kill the Golden Goose.

By: dougfir

dougfir — Tue, 22 May 2012 12:22:33 +0000

I know I don’t visit the doctor as often as he would like precisely because he charges $195 for a routine visit. My insurance won’t pay any of it until I pay the $2000 deductible for the year. So unless we get hit with some catastrophic surgery or illness, the insurance (with it’s $300 per month premium) goes un-used.

By: Christiaan

Christiaan — Tue, 22 May 2012 11:24:55 +0000

Both likely explanation – less care because of lower incomes and because of higher prices – are bad news, and would lead to higher costs in the future because of delayed care (delayed care is typically significantly more expensive.) So if those are really the reasons, this will not be a structural adjustment, quite the opposite, it could point to a structural bending of the cost curve upwards in the future, because the higher costs of the coming delayed care may drive up prices even more, leading to costs spiraling upwards.

By: Christiaan

Christiaan — Tue, 22 May 2012 11:15:46 +0000

I don’t think this is relevant to this discussion, as this compares US health care to other countries, while what we’re talking about here is US health care now compared to US health care before 2010. The extra costs relative to other countries were true both before and after 2010, so they have no bearing on the slowdown of spending.

By: David

David — Tue, 22 May 2012 06:14:04 +0000

Here’s a very relevant article:

http://blog.academyhealth.org/hccireport/

providing evidence that our health cost problems are mostly due to the much higher prices that providers in the US charge compared to other developed countries.

By: Susie Madrak

Susie Madrak — Tue, 22 May 2012 04:51:58 +0000

I know many, many people in their fifties who have insurance and can’t afford to actually use it, if that answers your question.