Obamacare’s 7 million enrollees will change health insurance forever
Obamacare advisor Ezekiel Emanuel says that Obamacare is ending the health insurance industry as we know it.
Ezra Klein: How does Obamacare change the health insurance industry?
Zeke: The Affordable Care Act is going to change how we buy insurance. Instead of insurers selling it to companies, they're going to sell it to individuals. Individuals are going to be looking for value. They want a low premium, low deductible with a high quality program. That is going to force the insurers to not just take the premium and pay doctors, but to actually get into the business of how care is provided to make sure people are kept healthy - and not use a lot of unnecessary services or services that could have been avoided.
The places that really have transformed their care and focused on keeping people healthy, keeping them out of the hospital – those places can cut about 20% off the cost. That's a lot of money.
Similarly, providers are going to come in, and they're going to say, "Hey, I can offer insurance too, and I can take care of the whole patient, and I can do it cheaper than the insurance company." You're going to have this big competition between providers which are now offering insurance, insurance companies that are now contracting or owning hospitals and doctors, and I think that's going to make the whole system more efficient.
It'll be more of a keep-patients-healthy health-care system rather than what we've had, which is a sick-care system.
Ezra: Why hasn't the system focused on health on its own? Why isn't it profitable for hospitals to keep people healthy at an affordable price?
(More here.)
Ezra Klein: How does Obamacare change the health insurance industry?
Zeke: The Affordable Care Act is going to change how we buy insurance. Instead of insurers selling it to companies, they're going to sell it to individuals. Individuals are going to be looking for value. They want a low premium, low deductible with a high quality program. That is going to force the insurers to not just take the premium and pay doctors, but to actually get into the business of how care is provided to make sure people are kept healthy - and not use a lot of unnecessary services or services that could have been avoided.
The places that really have transformed their care and focused on keeping people healthy, keeping them out of the hospital – those places can cut about 20% off the cost. That's a lot of money.
Similarly, providers are going to come in, and they're going to say, "Hey, I can offer insurance too, and I can take care of the whole patient, and I can do it cheaper than the insurance company." You're going to have this big competition between providers which are now offering insurance, insurance companies that are now contracting or owning hospitals and doctors, and I think that's going to make the whole system more efficient.
It'll be more of a keep-patients-healthy health-care system rather than what we've had, which is a sick-care system.
Ezra: Why hasn't the system focused on health on its own? Why isn't it profitable for hospitals to keep people healthy at an affordable price?
(More here.)
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