Impeding changes to our Health Care system

[BigV]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

To date there are none of these Exchanges that exist in the form propsed. None. The thought that competition will in some way lower costs is false as evident by the run away increases occuring everyday since Obamacare was first imposed on the people. So basically this whole plan is based on an unproven premise and assumption that it will work. So far no good.

Whose costs are you talking about?

One party's costs is another party's benefit.

To reduce an insurer's costs, you have lots of options, like any business. Competition is not one of them. As a for profit going concern, their reason to exist is to make money, as in profit. Reduced costs, everything else being equal, mean increased profit. Since profit is the primary motivation for the insurer, this is some incentive for them to decrease costs. But there are other ways to decrease costs, one very direct way is to reduce claims payments. This is not in my interest if it means I don't get the care I feel I'm entitled to. The aspect of the PPACA I mentioned earlier that some large base percentage of the insurer's cash flow must be dedicated to patient care will provide a check against such arithemetically easy but unfair "cost reduction" measures.

To reduce the consumer's costs, there are also a lot of options, and chief among them is competition. If two companies are vying for my business, a lower price to me is a strong factor influencing my decision. These exchanges represent a good way to present the products and information about the consumer's "costs". The insurance companies are still going to have customers, but they'll now be able to communicate their offer to the consumer, not just to the employer.