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High Deductible Health Insurance Plans Incentivize Patients To Skip Screening Tests

Almost half of health plans in the US have deductibles of at least $1,000 according to a new study.  It’s called “cost shifting” and it’s a big part of the future of American health care.

There are two major reasons why employers are doing this.

First, higher deductible plans are cheaper, since there is less risk to insure.  Think of your car insurance – why would you make a claim for a ding on your door when it’s cheaper for you to just pay to have it fixed (or fix it yourself)?  The higher the deductible, the lower the premium, even if it means more out-of-pocket cost for you for the small stuff.

Along these same lines is the second reason.  If employees spend more of their own money on health care, maybe they’ll be smarter about how they spend it.

It sounds good – but does it work?

Yes.  And No. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at See First Blog*

Why Health Insurance Companies Hate High Deductible Plans

Joe Biden unveiled a White House study on the rise of health insurance premiums.  He pressed for consumer protections the President wants to see in any reform legislation.  Among these are a pledge to pass a law that “ends exorbitant out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles or co-pays.”  Presumably this is meant to address worries many feel over the growth of high-deductible health plans.

The St. Petersburg Times looked into it to find out what this pledge means, in practical terms.  David Axelrod at the White House pointed them to the proposed House legislation, which would create limits on out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles and co-pays of $5,000 a year for an individual, and $10,000 a year for a family.
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*This blog post was originally published at See First Blog*

Latest Interviews

IDEA Labs: Medical Students Take The Lead In Healthcare Innovation

It’s no secret that doctors are disappointed with the way that the U.S. healthcare system is evolving. Most feel helpless about improving their work conditions or solving technical problems in patient care. Fortunately one young medical student was undeterred by the mountain of disappointment carried by his senior clinician mentors…

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How To Be A Successful Patient: Young Doctors Offer Some Advice

I am proud to be a part of the American Resident Project an initiative that promotes the writing of medical students residents and new physicians as they explore ideas for transforming American health care delivery. I recently had the opportunity to interview three of the writing fellows about how to…

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Latest Book Reviews

Book Review: Is Empathy Learned By Faking It Till It’s Real?

I m often asked to do book reviews on my blog and I rarely agree to them. This is because it takes me a long time to read a book and then if I don t enjoy it I figure the author would rather me remain silent than publish my…

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The Spirit Of The Place: Samuel Shem’s New Book May Depress You

When I was in medical school I read Samuel Shem s House Of God as a right of passage. At the time I found it to be a cynical yet eerily accurate portrayal of the underbelly of academic medicine. I gained comfort from its gallows humor and it made me…

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Eat To Save Your Life: Another Half-True Diet Book

I am hesitant to review diet books because they are so often a tangled mess of fact and fiction. Teasing out their truth from falsehood is about as exhausting as delousing a long-haired elementary school student. However after being approached by the authors’ PR agency with the promise of a…

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