Patients Should Think About Costs

Getting Patients to Think About Costs - NYTimes.com: " . . . A majority of the participants refused to consider the expenses borne by insurers or by society as a whole when making their choices. Some doubted that one individual’s efforts would have any real overall impact and so gave up considering cost-savings altogether. Others said they would go out of their way to choose the more expensive options, viewing such decisions as acts of defiance and a kind of well-deserved “payback” after years of paying insurance premiums. Underlying all of these comments was the belief that cost was synonymous with quality. Even when the focus group leaders reminded participants that the differences between proposed options were nearly negligible, participants continued to choose the more expensive options as if it were beyond question that they must be more efficacious or foolproof. The study’s findings are disheartening. But Dr. Goold and her co-investigators believe that public beliefs and attitudes about cost and quality can be changed. They cite the dramatic transformation in attitudes about end-of-life care as an example of how initiatives to improve understanding can lead people to make higher quality and more cost-effective decisions, like choosing hospices over hospitals. “We need to begin to talk about these issues in a way that doesn’t turn it into a discussion pitting money against life, and we need to find ways of getting people to think about not spending money on things that offer marginal benefit” Dr. Goold said. “Because it’s going to be tough otherwise trying to implement any cost-saving measures, if patients don’t accept them.”


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Wages and Health-Care Costs

the role of health costs in suppressing wage growth--

What Republicans Misunderstand About Health-Care Costs - Bloomberg: "The research that conservatives cite, in other words, doesn’t show that wage stagnation is nothing to worry about. It helps explain a troublesome trend. If you ignore the role of health costs in suppressing wage growth, you might be tempted to rely too much on other explanations, such as a technology slowdown or the decline of unions. The data also make clear that reducing health inflation would go a long way toward boosting wages. President Barack Obama’s health-care law is supposed to bring costs down, although there is reason for skepticism. Conservatives have their own ideas, but Republican politicians haven’t done much to advance them, partly because they haven’t paid much attention to the link between health costs and wages. (In fairness, Democrats sometimes get this link wrong, too.) Conservatives shouldn’t say that the wage-stagnation problem is an illusion because health benefits have been rising. They should say, instead, that the problem is real and that surging health costs are a major cause. The American dream isn’t to pay ever-higher health premiums."


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