Most businesses strive to deliver a great experience for their customers. But there are some businesses that don’t work this way. User experience is at the heart of so many discussions around health insurance in our country.
Even Republican voters seemed to disagree with certain conservative ideology on health care. The Hill-HarrisX survey found that 26 percent of GOP voters said they wanted the government to stop paying for health care, while a total of 53 percent favored some form of universal government-provided insurance. Twenty-one percent said they want to keep the current health care system in place. — thehill.com/...
The current user experience offered by American health insurance is terrible. People find themselves battling with insurance companies. They battle over which doctor they can go to, how much will be reimbursed, what treatments are authorized, how costly the medication will be.
As if that isn’t enough, we also worry about our employer or the insurance company modifying the plan next year and removing a feature we need. Doctors and hospitals hate their user experience too. They have to battle insurance companies for reimbursement and deal with twenty different systems and rules. One of our doctors doesn’t accept our insurance now because it became too onerous to deal with our insurance company.
Why is this? Our private health insurance system contains natural incentives that create this frustrating experience. Every patient or doctor who gives up fighting for reimbursement means a dollar or thousands for the health insurance company. Every patient who decides not to go to the doctor because the co-pay means they can’t buy a gift for their child’s birthday is another dollar for the insurance company.
At the heart of the Medicare For All proposal is a desire to create a much better user experience for everyone. Patients get care that is free at point of use. The plan covers all medically necessary care and procedures. Since it covers everyone, and bans private insurance for covered services, the number of doctors who won’t take M4A will be vanishingly small.
Most Americans have begun to understand that in other major countries with single payer, people have a much better user experience. They want that, and Democrats can win with that promise.
Recently, we have found broad support for proposals that expand the role of public programs like Medicare and Medicaid (Figure 3). Overall, about six in ten adults favor a national health plan or Medicare-for-all plan (Figure 4). Yet, how politicians discuss these different proposals does affect public support (Figure 5 and Figure 6). In addition, when asked why they support or oppose a national health plan, the public echoes the dominant messages in the current political climate (Figure 7). A common theme among supporters, regardless of how we ask the question, is the desire for universal coverage (Figure 8). — www.kff.org/...
— @subirgrewal