The Obama administration has approved “reference pricing” for insurance companies, which means they can put a cap on what health insurance plans will pay for expensive procedures like knee and hip replacements.
Critics of the move argue that this will leave patients with more expensive hospital bills and undercuts the protections put in place in the president’s healthcare reform law. Insurers and their advocates argue it’s a much needed tool to reduce costs.
Even federal regulators are skeptical, however, recently admitting in a policy ruling that reference pricing “may be subterfuge” on “otherwise prohibited limitations on coverage.”
The Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services say they will monitor the effects. Read more at PBS.
{Andy Heller-Matzav.com Newscenter}
that’s a HIPPOCRATIC system – makes everyone BUY health insurance that’s worthless
Forget about caps for medical procedures. How about caps for malpractice lawsuits? That’s what’s driving the costs of procedures through the roof. Caps will probably never happen though because all the lawyers in Congress would never stand for it.
Obama is not really going to improve medical hope but he might break the rope of someone else’s connection to a better future.
If he was intelligent, he would find a way to cap malpractice experiences. It is not a good measure to put doctors out of business or curtain their practices based on unreal expectations.
“BUY health insurance thats worthless”
Most private health insurance has caps on what they will pay for procedures. The real surprise is why the government would even consider prohibiting such.
” How about caps for malpractice lawsuits? Thats whats driving the costs of procedures through the roof.”
Some states such as Texas have tried that and it did not help. And it is probably unconstitutional for the federal government to impose such caps, as malpractice lawsuits are a matter for state courts.
We Americans should cap the Big Fraud and family and hangers-on
sucking up our money on the Federal bureaucracy..