Abbett.org
Good healthcare cheap
I read this and was bummed: the state's cap on Harvard Pilgrim's rate increases have been overturned.
What I find surprising (well, maybe I should stop being surprised by hypocrisy) is that the the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans doesn't want Government dictating their prices, but they're happy to advocate for Government to dictate what health providers can charge.
As I see it, the insurers need to man up if they don't want to be overtaken by a single-payer system. Blue Cross and Harvard Pilgrim should stop whining and just drop Partners.
They don't because there's an insidious behavioral economics problem beneath it all.
We in eastern Massachusetts think it's our right to get the Very Best Healthcare (however that's measured), so our insurers are scared to lose business by not including Man's Greatest Hospitals in their networks.
Of course, we have no evidence that MGH, Brigham, etc., are any better at treating routine issues than suburban non-Partners facilities (if you can find one anymore).
There's a design challenge in here.
How can we make it visible to healthcare consumers that they can get a full suite of good healthcare services at much lower prices completely outside the Partners cartel?
How can we make such data relevant to individual patients' lives and patterns of care?
How do we start before hospitals actually publish comprehensive performance metrics?
