Is my understanding of health care correct?

[kimkim]

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Hi, guys!
In recent days, I have tried to read many different articles and posts to know more about the ongoing health care reform. However, I still have few questions. So could you guys please tell me if my understanding of health care so far is correct?

(1)If health care reform happens(health care insurance cost is brought down as Obama has planned), then it is the doctors who will be affected(by earning less money), and not the private insurance companies. Is this correct? For the private insurance companies, even though the price of their insurance plan might go down as a result of health care reform(which means patients will pay less money for their plan), the private insurance companies will also pay less money to doctors. So it kind of evens out for the private insurance companies, and this reform would not affect the private insurance companies much. Am I right? It would only affect doctors, right?

(2) In my opinion, this reform might even positively affect the private insurance companies. By paying less money to doctors, the insurance companies are not losing any money to begin with. But by universal health care rule(which means everyone is required to have insurance), the private insurance companies will have more customers, which means they can earn more money. So not only this reform doesn't affect the private insurance companies negatively, but it might in fact affect them positively. Am I right?

Thank you so much for your answers in advance.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

It depends on if there is a government sponsored public option and if they require every citizen to have medical coverage. What they are trying to do is to get everyone covered so they can't be denied for pre-existing conditions. So technically the doctor would still be able to charge the same rate but the government would be paying the bill (and given that there would be another umpteen million,) that's a lot of revenue. Also, if there were a government sponsored public option that was cheaper, that would give you the same benefits, there were probably be a large migration to that plan.

Let the cries of "socialist" by the masses with pitchforks and torches ensue. 😛

SOCIALIST!!!

But yah, how about we keep up the prices... Thus making the system not a cost effective one but one that maintain quality. We keep the insurance companies happy and feeling like they arent losing money. We keep doctors happy because they dont take hits in there income. We also keep the patient from being screwed over for pre-existing conditions like a yeast infection.
Thats the American way.. pay more money and hope it works better then the cheaper thing.... 😱

 

[ACSurgeon]

It depends on if there is a government sponsored public option and if they require every citizen to have medical coverage. What they are trying to do is to get everyone covered so they can't be denied for pre-existing conditions. So technically the doctor would still be able to charge the same rate but the government would be paying the bill (and given that there would be another umpteen million,) that's a lot of revenue. Also, if there were a government sponsored public option that was cheaper, that would give you the same benefits, there were probably be a large migration to that plan.

Let the cries of "socialist" by the masses with pitchforks and torches ensue. 😛

the government always pays less... so in reality the doc can bill the same, but will get paid less.

 

[Shoushu]

Hi, guys!

(2) In my opinion, this reform might even positively affect the private insurance companies. By paying less money to doctors, the insurance companies are not losing any money to begin with. But by universal health care rule(which means everyone is required to have insurance), the private insurance companies will have more customers, which means they can earn more money. So not only this reform doesn't affect the private insurance companies negatively, but it might in fact affect them positively. Am I right?

Thank you so much for your answers in advance.

I think you're right. Doctors will be the ones to get the squeeze, just like upper and poor-class don't get squeezed as hard as the American middle class. Large middle class is important to support it all.

Maybe the Public Option will affect Insurance Companies in having more customers. If we don't increase # of Doctors, and 47% of Drs say they'll quit or retire early if the Health Care Reform passes, then doctors will get lots of "customers", I mean patients, also.

 

[DoctwoB]

Hi, guys!
In recent days, I have tried to read many different articles and posts to know more about the ongoing health care reform. However, I still have few questions. So could you guys please tell me if my understanding of health care so far is correct?

(1)If health care reform happens(health care insurance cost is brought down as Obama has planned), then it is the doctors who will be affected(by earning less money), and not the private insurance companies. Is this correct? For the private insurance companies, even though the price of their insurance plan might go down as a result of health care reform(which means patients will pay less money for their plan), the private insurance companies will also pay less money to doctors. So it kind of evens out for the private insurance companies, and this reform would not affect the private insurance companies much. Am I right? It would only affect doctors, right?

(2) In my opinion, this reform might even positively affect the private insurance companies. By paying less money to doctors, the insurance companies are not losing any money to begin with. But by universal health care rule(which means everyone is required to have insurance), the private insurance companies will have more customers, which means they can earn more money. So not only this reform doesn't affect the private insurance companies negatively, but it might in fact affect them positively. Am I right?

Thank you so much for your answers in advance.

1. Depends on how coverage is increased. Increasing private insurance coverage will likely benefit doctors (larger patient pool), while increasing public coverage (medicare/medicaid) will increase the patient pool but lower reimbursements, hurting doctors who are already running an at capacity clinic.

2. Insurance companies lose because they now have to cover people with pre-existing conditions if the bill passes, which is a much higher cost to them. This is largely offset by many previously uninsured healthy people in their 20's-30's who will buy insurance but not need much medical care.

Whether or not Insurance companies pass the savings from reduced payouts to doctors (if that occurs) onto consumers or keep them as profits depends on the elasticity of supply for health insurance (high elasticity means high profits will lead to more insurers which will lead to increased competition/cost cutting leading to lower profits and increased consumer savings), the efficiency of the insurance purchasing market (increased efficiency and competition means decreased profits and more savings passed to consumers), and government regulation (gov't wouldn't be happy to see insurance co's get fat off of health care bill)

 

[7starmantis]

Its interesting where our society now gets its "authority information". We've given away the title of "expert" or "authority" so quickly haven't we? Its come to anonymous message boards per the interwebs now?

True research and self education is a thing of the past I guess.