The American Medical Association's interests in preserving the wealth and ease of their physician membership does not often overlap consumers with their concerns. In 2006, however, it did. In a study opposing the monopolies in health care, the association researched the lack of competition among health insurance companies as a few big players monopolized and merged their way into running the health insurance show.
In typical news-room reporting, the question was posed without answer as to whether this would be good for consumers? Two years later, it's fair to say, no. And now, as we toss around the same ineffective language of supporting health insurance monopolies because we're afraid of government control (though this argument ignores governmental protections and profits available for insurance companies through contracts with the government), we still have not changed the dialogue.
Why are we talking about a free market with health insurance? It doesn't exist. Does any consumer really feel that he has an equal bargaining position let alone a superior bargaining position with health insurance companies when he's shopping for health insurance? We are left making choices among the less than good. And what else are we supposed to do? Our free market choice is currently take it or leave it. The trend is that our choice will be more like MA resident choices: Take it or be fined.
And the future will be take it and hope you don't actually need medical services.
Big box health insurance companies are often the only choice available. In our area, Blue Cross Blue Shield is going to be the only choice, essentially. The good news is that the health insurance environment is bad enough so that many of us really won't care as long as we have something and we don't actually need medical services.
One thing that this will do is grow government and government jobs as people accept the governmental jobs because governmental health insurance coverage remains superior to private sector insurance. In the older days such benefits were seen as compensation for traditionally lower paying jobs, now, it's a right protected by government employees for government employees. I'm not sure how this soothes the free market guys, but the continued growth of public sector jobs does not seem to threaten their world...apparently the government as the biggest employer doesn't threaten them.
But there will be another trend that has already begun: Having monopolized the market there remains only one way for health insurance monopolies to make money and that is to raise prices. Our big box health insurers will not stop raising prices, be sure of that, whether it's through the continued reduction in coverage or through increased premiums and co-pays.
