When High-Deductible Plans Are The Norm For Employers, Even People With Insurance Can’t Afford To Get Sick
The thinking has been that requiring workers to shoulder more of the cost of care will also encourage them to cut back on unnecessary spending. But it didn't work out that way.
Bloomberg:
Sky-High Deductibles Broke The U.S. Health Insurance System
Today, 39 percent of large employers offer only high-deductible plans, up from 7 percent in 2009, according to a survey by the National Business Group on Health. Half of all workers now have health insurance with a deductible of at least $1,000 for an individual, up from 22 percent in 2009, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation. About 41 percent say they can’t pay a $400 emergency expense without borrowing or selling something, according to the Federal Reserve. The bottom line: People like the Jordans simply can’t afford to get sick. (Tozzi and Tracer, 6/26)
In other national health care news —
The Hill:
Defying Predictions, ObamaCare Insurers See Boom Times Ahead
Health insurers are finding success in ObamaCare this year and are planning to expand their offerings in many states, defying expert’s predictions. Insurance startup Oscar Health filed to sell ObamaCare plans in Florida, Arizona and Michigan for the first time, and will enter new markets in Ohio, Tennessee and Texas. (Weixel, 6/26)
The Wall Street Journal:
New CDC Director Targets Opioids, Suicide And Pandemics
The nation’s rapidly rising suicide rate is a tragedy, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is doing more to address two of the most common ways people take their lives: substance abuse and firearms, the agency’s new director said in his first interview in the role. “It should bring people to have pause,” Robert Redfield said of the suicide rate, in an interview that also touched on his goals for ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the U.S., improving immunization rates and strengthening public-health systems in countries where epidemics are a risk. (McKay, 6/25)
The Wall Street Journal:
GE To Spin Off Health-Care Business In Latest Revamp
General Electric Co. plans to spin off its health-care business and unload its ownership in oil-services company Baker Hughes, people familiar with the matter said, betting that the once-sprawling conglomerate can reverse a painful slump by further shrinking. The moves are the conclusion of a yearlong strategic review by CEO John Flannery that has been tumultuous for GE employees and investors. The onetime industrial bellwether has slashed its dividend and has already set plans to shed numerous businesses. Its shares have tumbled by half in the past year, erasing more than $100 billion in wealth. (Gryta, 6/26)
California Healthline:
Unlocked And Loaded: Families Confront Dementia And Guns
With a bullet in her gut, her voice choked with pain, Dee Hill pleaded with the 911 dispatcher for help. “My husband accidentally shot me,” Hill, 75, of The Dalles, Ore., groaned on the May 16, 2015, call. “In the stomach, and he can’t talk, please …” Less than four feet away, Hill’s husband, Darrell Hill, a former local police chief and two-term county sheriff, sat in his wheelchair with a discharged Glock handgun on the table in front of him, unaware that he’d nearly killed his wife of almost 57 years. (Aleccia and Bailey, 6/26)
Stat:
How Scientists Want To Use Sewers To Track The Spread Of Opioids
Today, science has made possible what [Victor] Hugo could not have fathomed in his day: water-sampling robots placed at strategic points in a sewer system and capable of delivering ever-more precise information about a community’s health.As the country confronts an opioid crisis that kills more than 60,000 American each year, one Cambridge, Mass.-based company is hoping that it can use that kind of technology to measure traces of the drugs in sewers. Doing so, according to the firm, Biobot Analytics, could help to reveal remarkably detailed patterns of drug use — and give communities a powerful tool to detect emerging public health threats. (Chen, 6/26)