The bad economics of switching health-care plans

And it continues to occur and grow...moving data and switching information leads to confusion with claims and eligibility as well, but what's the alternative?  BD

In the long-simmering argument over what's wrong with American health care, recent polls show that many people blame our market-based system of private health insurance. Private insurance companies are faulted for, among other things, failing to do enough to prevent disease. They have no incentive to do so, argue advocates for reform, ranging from Michael Moore in Sicko to some of the current presidential candidates. And yet if preventive measures today result in savings on treatment tomorrow, then what's good medicine should also be good business.

Instead, patients are forced to haggle over reimbursement for insulin pumps, and most are rationed only four test strips per day to monitor their blood sugar (sometimes enough, but often not). If better access to insulin pumps and blood-sugar monitoring will save money in the long run, why are insurers so miserly with their diabetes customers?

Employers are tempted into switching because of price disparities across plans. A partial solution would be to legislate away these differences by capping what insurance companies can charge.

The bad economics of switching health-care plans. - By Ray Fisman - Slate Magazine