Kaiser Health News recently made mention of a report that highlights the fact that the vast majority of Americans are not utilizing the available information regarding hospital and doctors. The existing data, if used, would allow men and women to look for the best care at the lowest possible price. While the government’s efforts to make this type of information more readily available in the hands of consumers was successful, the American people have yet to utilize the data.
Compared to nearly every other industry, the costs of health care have throughout history been incredibly opaque in the eyes of consumers. A health law introduced five years ago was created to remedy this exact situation, rendering the process of obtain good healthcare more transparent. Americans looking for health insurance now have the capability of comparing prices of like plans in an online platform. Furthermore, you this internet marketplace provides detailed information about the competing plans such as the deductibles, premiums, and share of medical costs.
The government in Washington D.C., as well as a number of the large private insurance companies, publish a vast number of quality ratings regarding hospitals. Such information is also made available to consumes by U.S. News & Word Report, Consumer Reports, and other similar private publications. In the same vein, only around twenty percent of those polled believe they had actually seen such information.
Furthermore the poll revealed that one in sixteen Americans have ever actually utilized the information that is made available in the variety of platforms mentioned above.
The Kaiser Family Foundation completed a poll that discovered that 66 percent of Americans believe it is still quite difficult to find information on the cost of specific doctors, hospitals, procedures, and medical treatments. The findings of the poll show that less than ten percent of the population utilizes existing price information with regards to their health plans, a meager three percent ever have utilized physician costs.