Healthcare Daily Digest for 4 February 2013: Americans Confuse Healthcare Price for Healthcare Quality

According to a health economist, Americans are paying too much for not very great healthcare. Somewhere along the way, we’ve confused a high price tag with high-quality: and we’re wrong.

“Healthcare prices, in recent years, have still managed to rise faster than the average prices of other items,” Michael Lawlor, professor of economics and health policy, said. “An ever increasing portion of the average households’ budget is devoted to medical care.”

Healthcare is turning out to be an impossible hydra (the seven-headed beast from mythology whose barrier to defeat was its regenerating heads): there are too many fronts from which to do battle, and each one is messy, and attempting to “fix” one part results in three more popping up in its place.

Here are some headlines for you for Monday:

• Do Medicare Advantage Plans Skim Off The Healthiest?: “Many seniors who switch from their HMO-style Medicare Advantage plan to traditional Medicare have higher levels of significant health problems, fueling concerns that the private plans cater to more profitable, healthy beneficiaries but don’t provide the most attractive care for the very ill.”

• Senate GOP Probes Treasury Pick Lew’s Failure to Comply with Medicare Law: Turns out, there may be a lot of questions about Jack Lew’s tenure as head of the Office of Management and Budget.

• Less Healthy AND Dying Younger: Look at How Awesome Americans Are NOW!: “Seventy-five percent of healthcare costs in the United States come from treating chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes. More than half of Americans suffer from one or more of these health problems largely caused by poor eating and lifestyle choices. Overall life expectancy in America is in decline. It is estimated that for the first time in our nation’s history future generations will be less healthy and die younger than their parents.”

• Religious Organizations Excused from Birth Control: “After months of criticism and legal challenges, President Barack Obama’s administration proposed Friday that religious institutions no longer be required to provide their employees with health insurance coverage for birth control.”