President-Obama-will-seek-to-reduce-taxes-for-middle-class

[EdwardBaiamonte]

Health care is inherently local. Massachusetts General Hospital isn't competing with San Francisco General Hospital.l.

too stupid and liberal by 10000%. I have a friend from Maine who went to PA to save $1200 on a CAT scan. People now travel all over the world for expensive surgeries!!

Liberalism is based in pure ignorance. Thank you for proving it once again.

 

[9thIDdoc]

If you're talking specifically about narrow network options, those are plans that keep premiums lower than their competitors by not contracting with high-priced providers. Which means if a provider is charging four times what a competitor is (say, for a scan) then they likely won't be allowed in network and they'll lose prospective customers. Which, again, puts downward pressure on provider pricing.

The problem with that is that most healthcare services are not equal. Scans themselves are meaningless without someone to interpret what they reveal and those who interpret them are not equal in expertise. Would you rather stake your well-being on the opinions of a highly trained expert or the guess of 8th grade dropout (exaggeration) ?
"scan A" may well be worth 4 times what is being charged for "scan B" because of how the information obtained is handled. What is the difference in the value of X-rays if a spot of cancer is missed?

 

[Greenbeard]

too stupid and liberal by 10000%. I have a friend from Maine who went to PA to save $1200 on a CAT scan. People now travel all over the world for expensive surgeries!!

The fact that you know an idiot doesn't change the facts, nor is it particularly surprising. People get care where they are, they aren't dumb enough to drive four states over for a scan. And health professionals and facilities price their services based on local market dynamics. That's because out-of-state and international business, even for major, world-famous facilities (MGH is an example of one), is only a sliver of their actual overall business.

 

[Greenbeard]

The problem with that is that most healthcare services are not equal. Scans themselves are meaningless without someone to interpret what they reveal and those who interpret them are not equal in expertise. Would you rather stake your well-being on the opinions of a highly trained expert or the guess of 8th grade dropout (exaggeration) ?
"scan A" may well be worth 4 times what is being charged for "scan B" because of how the information obtained is handled. What is the difference in the value of X-rays if a spot of cancer is missed?

There certainly are differences in quality and value across health care providers, but prices generally don't reflect them. In other words, there's very little correlation between having the highest prices and having demonstrably higher-quality care than competitors. Insurers--led, oddly enough, by Medicare at this point--are starting to bake quality outcomes into their payments to health care providers. So that higher reimbursement does actually start to reflect better/higher quality health care delivery.

As for whether narrow networks are cutting out higher quality providers, the data says they're not. McKinsey did a study of exchange plans last summer and found that narrow network plans have access to the same level of quality providers as anybody else:

There is no meaningful performance difference between broad and narrowed exchange networks based on Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) hospital metrics such as the composite value-based purchase score as well as its three sub-components (outcome, patient experience, and clinical process scores).

That comports with similar research that looked specifically at the rise of narrow networks in Massachusetts.

 

[9thIDdoc]

"As for whether narrow networks are cutting out higher quality providers, the data says they're not"

Really? What data? Insurance companies have a vested interest in providing payment for the cheapest services without regard for quality. I'm skeptical of the data that comes from studies they sponsor.

 

[Greenbeard]

"As for whether narrow networks are cutting out higher quality providers, the data says they're not"

Really? What data? Insurance companies have a vested interest in providing payment for the cheapest services without regard for quality. I'm skeptical of the data that comes from studies they sponsor.

Hospital quality data is collected from hospitals by the federal government and made publicly available on the Hospital Compare website. What McKinsey did was use that data to assess the quality of hospitals participating in narrow networks vs. the quality of hospitals participating in broader networks. The result, which isn't all that surprising, is that there was no appreciable quality difference. Luckily, exchanges will increasingly be looping quality data into their product displays to give shoppers the information they need to make their decisions.

Price and quality are rarely correlated in the American health care system.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

too stupid and liberal by 10000%. I have a friend from Maine who went to PA to save $1200 on a CAT scan. People now travel all over the world for expensive surgeries!!

The fact that you know an idiot doesn't change the facts.

got it, a person who travels 3 hours to save $1200 is an idiot to a liberal!!

see why we must be positive that liberalism is based in pure ignorance? What other conclusion is possible?

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

. People get care where they are, they aren't dumb enough to drive four states over for a scan.

perfect proof that liberalism is based in pure ignorance!! What other conclusion is possible??

Although the exact market size of the medical tourism market is difficult to predict, recent Frost & Sullivan research predicts the market at around $50 billion to $65 billion dollars in 2014, growing at approximately 20 percent.

Asia is and has been a popular destination for elective and cosmetic procedures, but in recent years, this trend has expanded to include more complex procedures. An increasing pool of patients are opting to have heart and orthopedic procedures performed in countries like Singapore and India.
Medical Tourism Gets a Facelift... and Perhaps a Pacemaker - Forbes

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

And health professionals and facilities price their services based on local market dynamics.

too stupid?? liberals made capitalist competition illegal in health care in the USA in 1946 through McCarrun Ferguson. There are no local market dynamics when you have crony socialism or the absense of Republican capitalism.

Do you understand??

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

Price and quality are rarely correlated in the American health care system.

and they wern't in the USSR either. If we had Republican capitalism prices would be 20% of what they are now and quality would be a matter of life and death to health care providers.

Do you get it now??

 

[Conservative65]

I guess you think those of us paying income taxes don't pay those payroll, property, and other taxes. You're the stupid asshole is you think those of us who pay both pay far more than some lowlife leech.

ACTUALLY, the poorer pay a higher percentage in state and local taxes and fees than the rest, twice as much as the richest, angry white dupe.

How is the Manchurian muslim going to accomplish this feat, by a UNCONSTITUTIONAL Executive Order, as ALL financial bills come from Republiican controlled Congress?

There are signs some adult GOPers may understand what compromise is...

Well for the last 4 years there was NO SUCH FUCKING THING OUT OF YOU SUBVERSIVE DIMWITS!

Dems tried to compromise EVERYWHERE. Finally Pubs allowed some in the budget a few weeks ago.You'd think a typical jobs act was a commie plot. Mindless obstruction for 4 years.

Only if you define compromise as do it my way.

 

[francoHFW]

You're deeply misinformed. Even ACA is a Pub plan. Finally now some Pubs are going back to SOME give and take, not just SERIOUSLY destructive phony crises and shutdowns and total "no compromise, un-AmericanTP GOP" (TIME) obstruction.