If You Like Your Doctor, Too Bad…
The New York Times featured an article in yesterday’s paper noting how insurers are testing new plans with more limited provider networks, which the piece notes “could come as a surprise to many who remember the repeated assurances from President Obama and other officials that consumers would retain a variety of health care choices.” The move comes as insurers attempt to battle rising costs – which, according to the Administration’s own actuaries, passage of the health care bill only accelerated – and means that “more Americans will be asked to pay higher prices for the privilege of choosing or keeping their own doctors if they are outside the new networks.”
Once again, it’s worth comparing the rhetoric to the reality. When speaking to the American Medical Association last June, President Obama promised that “No matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise: If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period. If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away. No matter what.” But the Times article reports that passage of the health care law has encouraged insurance companies and employers to drop physicians from their plans to stem skyrocketing costs:
Even large employers, worried that the new law will result in higher prices for care as government programs pay less, are reconsidering their earlier stance. When Cigna informally asked some of its clients about their interest in these plans before the legislation passed, very few were receptive. But that has changed, said David Guilmette, a senior executive for the insurer.
It’s also worth pointing out that Donald Berwick, the President’s controversial new Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, generally approves of these types of restrictions on individuals choosing their own doctor. In his book New Rules, here’s what Dr. Berwick, a former HMO executive himself, said of the need to control costs by restricting patients’ choice of physicians:
We must emphasize a culture of parsimony in day-to-day medical practice, and managed care does this.…If an organization is to be held responsible for the quality and costs of the care it delivers, then it must be able to exercise responsibility for the choice of physicians on whom it will rely to deliver that care. Networks should not be opened.
Any way you slice it, the Times article is clear – another broken promise, and less choice for patients, as a result of the Administration’s health “reform” initiative.