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The turmoil around the Affordable Care Act has created heartburn for health insurers. The industry is betting that a different government program will soothe its ills.
Big insurers have retreated from Obamacare’s individual market, where fighting over the future of the health law has contributed to financial losses. They’re focusing instead on Medicare Advantage, a politically popular program that’s being embraced by a growing population of older Americans.
Read more at Bloomberg
If you are a Canadian senior, your life insurance policy could be worth a lot more money than you think — while you are alive. If only provincial governments and life insurance companies would let you sell it for its fair market value.
Recently, a 74-year-old friend of mine asked me if he could sell his term life insurance policy. He knew someone in the United States who had received more than $100,000 for a term policy she no longer needed.
Read more at torontosun.com
In 2009, Rep. Alan Grayson characterized the Republican approach to health care as “don’t get sick, and if you do, die quickly.” Eight years later, the Florida Democrat’s words ring truer than ever, especially in light of the House’s passage of the American Health Care Act.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the bill would deprive 23 million of health insurance by 2026, resulting in substantial premium hikes and out-of-pocket expenses for older Americans and people with preexisting conditions. And the more Republicans are confronted with the devastating consequences of Trumpcare, the more evident it becomes how clueless they are on the Affordable Care Act specifically and health care more generally.
Read more at nationalmemo.com
The United States leads the world in artificial intelligence, but lags behind other countries in applying technical innovations to the field of healthcare. Globally, machine learning is used to increase efficiency, lower error rates, and decrease medical costs, but the fragmented marketplace and lack of universal healthcare in America disincentivize adoption of new technology as buyers often prioritize economics over patient care.
Sally Daub, CEO of Enlitic, a frontrunner in providing AI-based healthcare solutions, illuminates why healthcare technology adoption is stunted. “Here the conversation revolves around ‘Who is going to pay for this? What are the economic incentives to use this technology?’ rather than ‘Will this technology result in better outcomes for patients?’,” she explains. Payoff structures may even discourage insurers from footing the bill for early intervention treatments. If insurers don’t approve a new technology, they don’t issue insurance procedure codes necessary for healthcare providers to be reimbursed for services, which means providers won’t adopt the solution either.
Read more at forbes.com