The Obama administration has told insurance companies that
it will delay requirements for them to disclose data on the number of people
enrolled, the number of claims denied and the costs to consumers for specific
services.
When this requirement actually does go into effect next year, what do you think its outcomes will be?Will it hurt insurers? Or even the market place as a whole due to problems with adverse selection? Will people be willing to stay in a plan if they feel like they are not proportionately benefiting from it? Or will this favor consumers? Will it keep insurance companies from profiting too much?
Also check out a summary, graphics, and more detailed analyses of the current state of the Affordable Care Act here: Is the Affordable Care Act Working? - NYT.
I think yes, it will benefit consumers. It's a little frustrating that consumers will not be immediately exposed to this data, because the whole point is that they should be able to make an informed decision with accurate information about insurance. That is the whole appeal of this mandated health care act; it still gives consumers an ability to select an insurance policy based on their best judgement. I believe that the sharing of this information corrects for the asymmetry that is inherent in the insurance industry between consumers and providers. It will be interesting to see, however, how accessible this information will be when it does come out. It's just too bad that individuals who are purchasing health care for the first time are not given these valuable resources.
ReplyDeleteThis article among many others provide reason as to why the ACA has not played out as intended. Like Bret said, this delay negatively impacts millions of consumers as they shop for insurance in the pen enrollment period. It's unfortunate that all the laws intentions with regarding information disclosure are not being met, as shown in the examples in the article. With so much trouble in putting the plan into effect, I imagine that the future of healthcare will learn from the ACA and make arrangements for much simpler, yet still affordable healthcare insurance.
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