FOR IMPORTANT INFORMATION ON MEDICARE RATIONING, CLICK ON THE LINKS BELOW:

“How Medicare Was Saved from Rationing – And Why It’s Now in Danger”

The Pro-Life Postition on Medicare

WHY DOES THE PRO-LIFE MOVEMENT
SUPPORT MEDICAL SAVINGS ACCOUNTS
AS A WAY AROUND RATIONING?

Managed care’s strong suit with patients is its furnishing of routine care. For the relatively inexpensive provision of childhood immunizations, flu shots, and the like, managed care is generally adequate. It is when you have a significant illness or injury for which lifesaving treatment is expensive that you are most likely to encounter rationing as a result of utilization review, capitation, and the other strong cost controls that are endemic to managed care.

But it is precisely for coverage of expensive treatments that catastrophic health plans exist. The high deductible plans do not include the costs of providing routine care nor the very significant administrative costs of processing large numbers of small claims. That means they are likely to be able to make catastrophic coverage provided in an unmanaged fee for service plan available at an affordable cost.

So someone who is concerned about the prospect of a devastating illness or injury might do well to pick an MSA with a high deductible unmanaged fee for service plan instead of a managed care plan.

It is true that a more standard unmanaged fee for service plan with a lower deductible might be an attractive alternative. However, its premium would undoubtedly have to be higher. While that would not be the case for the government fee for service program, there is a significant danger that in the long term it may be difficult to find enough doctors who can afford to continue to see patients in the government fee for service program as the government reimbursement rates continue to fall farther and farther behind the actual costs of providing treatment.

Thus, in the long term, MSAs and catastrophic insurance may be one of the most viable ways to escape rationing for many older Americans.