Tag: "Uninsured"

A Tale of Two Surveys: ObamaCare Having Minimal Impact on Increasing Coverage

Two recently released surveys (both conducted in February) show that ObamaCare is having a trivial impact on health insurance coverage.

The Gallup Heathways survey concludes that the “uninsured rate continues to fall,” which is correct in a narrow sense. The uninsured rate fell to 15.9 percent from 16.3 percent in the first quarter of 2013. But this small improvement is overshadowed by the 2008 uninsured rate, which was under 15 percent. February’s improvement is likely the result of the slow recovery, not expanded ObamaCare coverage.

McKinsey’s survey, which surveys only people eligible for ObamaCare subsidies, shows that ObamaCare’s health insurance exchanges are primarily crowding out previous coverage. Only ten percent of previously uninsured respondents signed up for Obama (up from three percent in January) and only 53 percent of those paid their premiums. In sum, only five percent of uninsured respondents actually paid premiums for an ObamaCare policy. The reason? “Affordability challenges.” (See Avik Roy’s coverage here.)

Mar 13, 2014 | 15 comments | by

McKinsey: Only 14% of Enrollees Were Previously Uninsured

Of the ObamaCare sign-ups, only 27 percent had been previously uninsured in 2013. And of the 27 percent, nearly half had yet to pay a premium. (By contrast, among the 73 percent who had been previously insured, 86 percent had paid.)

Put all those percentages together, and you get two key stats. Only 19 percent of those who have paid a premium were previously uninsured. Among those that the administration is touting as sign-ups, only 14 percent are previously uninsured enrollees: approximately 472,000 people as of February 1.

Survey. HT: Avik Roy.

Mar 10, 2014 | 15 comments | by

Hits and Misses

Surgery center of Oklahoma eliminates the $100 aspirin.

Curious factoid: About 20 percent of hospice patients are discharged alive.

Is there anything wrong with distinguishing between the “deserving” and the “undeserving” poor?

Nation’s third largest for-profit hospital chain expects only 15% of uninsured patients to get ObamaCare coverage.

Oliver Wyman actuaries estimate Medicare Advantage payment cut of $65-$145 per member per month in 2014 & 2015.

Creative destruction: Closed New Jersey hospitals reopen as for-profit medical complexes.

Mar 06, 2014 | 15 comments | by

How Many People Really Have Bought Insurance in the Exchange?

Bob Laszewski:

bildeMy informal survey can’t be too precise, but I can say with pretty good confidence that based upon the drop-outs so far, about 20% of the 3.1 million people the administration has said have enrolled through January are not going to stick. That means the real number is closer to about 2.5 million.

Some of this attrition is due to people not paying their bill because they decided not to buy after all. Some to people signing-up twice and just paying once — Healthcare.gov can’t handle duplicate enrollments! Some of it may be due to people wanting coverage but they never got their invoice in all of the January administrative mess. Until the dust settles we really won’t know.

How many are newly insured verses re-enrolling?

In an earlier post I told you that published reports that put the number of reenrollments at about two-thirds of the ObamaCare exchange enrollments sounded about right given my own discussions with carriers. Two weeks later I haven’t heard anything to change that assessment.

Feb 11, 2014 | 16 comments | by

Headlines I Wish I Hadn’t Seen

UPINoBamaCareWellPoint: Surge in doctor visits prior to Jan 1 because of worries about the effects of ObamaCare.

Did Sen. Coburn lose his cancer doctor because of ObamaCare?

Julie Applebee calls out the president on his claim that 9 million people have signed up for health insurance.

39% of the uninsured: ObamaCare has made us worse off.

Jan 30, 2014 | 19 comments | by

Quote of the Day

Where are the uninsured? Did hardly any of them want coverage beginning Jan. 1?…We just created a giant new entitlement to take care of these people. Why aren’t they showing up to take advantage of it?

− Megan McArdle

Jan 22, 2014 | 14 comments | by

Exchanges Putting Only a Small Dent in the Number of Uninsured

Only 11% of consumers who bought new coverage under the law were previously uninsured, according to a McKinsey & Co. survey of consumers thought to be eligible for the health-law marketplaces. The result is based on a sampling of 4,563 consumers performed between November and January, of whom 389 had enrolled in new insurance.

One reason for people declining to purchase plans was affordability. That was cited by 52% of those who had shopped for a new plan but not purchased one in McKinsey’s most recent sampling, performed in January. Another common problem was technical challenges in buying the plans, which 30% mentioned. (WSJ)

Jan 20, 2014 | 20 comments | by

Price Transparency: What To Do And What Not To Do

I’ve written about sky-high hospital prices in this blog, especially for uninsured patients who present at emergency rooms. A related issue is price transparency. In most normal transactions, it is not hard to discover the price you will pay for a good or service. Indeed, for most ordinary items, prices are posted and we do not even spend much time negotiating.

For much of health care, this is untrue. It is usually very difficult to learn the price of a service from a doctors’ office or a hospital before receiving treatment. Doctors and hospital managers will often reply that they don’t know what the right prices are either, because charges are subject to adjudication by insurers.

When uninsured (and, increasingly, insured) patients are shocked by bills they receive after treatment, they often balk at paying inflated charges. This results in bad accounts receivable for hospitals, which I have argued is a necessary pain to cause hospitals to change.

While everyone outside the health sector agrees that more price transparency would be beneficial, others often propose solutions that increase government regulation. One example is a recent report written by the Pacific Business Group on Health (PBGH), a group of large employers in Northern California.

Read More » »

Jan 17, 2014 | 25 comments | by

Why Hospitals Are Still Gouging the Uninsured

Two recent posts have discussed out of control prices for hospitals’ services, especially in ERs. The first argued that sky-high hospital prices are the result of government interference. The second cheered the fact that consumer-driven health plans are inducing hospitals (ever so gradually) to be more upfront with patients (at least, those coming in for scheduled surgeries) about how much they will have to pay out of pocket, and agreeing on payment plans before admission.

untitledObamaCare promises to come to the rescue of uninsured patients who are charged outrageous prices by hospitals. Statutory language purports to limit hospitals’ charge to uninsured patients in the ER to “not more than the lowest amounts charged to individuals who have insurance covering such care”. Hospitals which fail to adhere to this policy risk losing their non-profit status. (The relevant text is on page 739 of the enrolled version of the bill here.)

Hospitals take threats to their non-profit status very seriously. So, since the law was passed in 2010, you might expect that the overcharging of uninsured patients has long since stopped. You would be wrong. Like everything else in ObamaCare, this has malfunctioned.

In Time magazine, Steven Brill reports that hospitals continue to levy exorbitant charges on uninsured patients presenting at ERs, and accuses the Administration of “bungling the easy stuff.” Well, the “stuff” is never “easy” when the federal government gets involved.

Read More » »

Jan 03, 2014 | 12 comments | by

Who Doesn’t Like ObamaCare?

Fifty-three percent of the uninsured disapprove of the law, the poll found, compared with 51 percent of those who have health coverage. A third of the uninsured say the law will help them personally, but about the same number think it will hurt them, with cost a leading concern. (NYT/CBS poll)

Dec 19, 2013 | 11 comments | by
« Previous Page — Next Page »