US Health Insurance Cos may Become Extinct by 2020, Say Experts

Will health insurance companies in the US fade out completely by 2020? This is what former advisors to the Obama administration, Ezekiel J Emanuel and Jeffrey B Liebman writing in the Opinion pages of The New York Times, boldly predict.

They say that the extinct breed of insurance companies will be replaced by ‘Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) — groups of doctors, hospitals and other health care providers who come together to provide the full range of medical care for patients’.

California Denied $575 Million Medicaid Savings, as US Rejects Healthcare Co-payment Plan
The US has made it mandatory for those enrolled in its Medi-Cal program for the underprivileged to make co-payments for medical services.

To this, Dr. George Watson, former president of the Association of American Physicians, says in news.heartland.org, ‘Perhaps doctors will finally realize that they were brainwashed to believe they could not succeed unless they signed all the insurance contracts. Doctors will suddenly realize that patients need doctors, not insurance companies, and patients will gladly pay a fair, transparent price, not the inflated price caused by the insurance game. Doctors will learn to trust each other and their patients, and boot out the lying insurance companies and politicians.’

He finally concludes, ‘The third-party payment model has failed. Managed care didn’t save it, and neither can ACOs. It deserves to be extinct, and it will be if patients and physicians return to the direct-payment model that has always worked, and true insurance is allowed to compete fairly.’

Gillard Will Enact Private Health Insurance Law to Make Oz Rich Pay
Oz PM Julia Gillard is confident on getting legislation through federal parliament on the issue of discounted private health insurance for wealthier Australians.

Source-Medindia

IRDA To Do Away With The Age Limit For Purchasing Health Insurance
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority plans to do away with the age limit for purchasing health insurance policy. This will help the senior citizens who need health insurance the most.

IRDA Proposes Health Insurance for HIV Infected People
If the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA) has its way, then people infected with HIV have a cause for celebration – they will soon have health insurance.