AI robot apocalypse will probably happen before the catastrophic plan term ends.

This catastrophic proposal is hurting my brain. Luckily I'm at an HPA conference with some of the smartest actuaries in the game these next few days.

But I have two masters degrees and some transferable skills so I’d probably be fine. That may not be the case for a billing clerk at a hospital or a claims processor at an insurer. And politicians who love to tout UHC never want to talk about those trade-offs and the pain of a transition.

Depending on how it were implemented, the company I founded would be made obsolete and I’d be one of those out of a job - but I’m still in favor of moving to some form of universal coverage.

But it misses the point… no seemingly quick and easy solution like getting rid of insurers or regulating all drug prices actually fixes the problem. Instead, its a wholesale painful change that would make many jobs obsolete and have lots of other knock-on effects.

All of them have powerful lobbyists trying to convince policymakers that they’re not the problem, someone else is. They all say “oh if you got rid of me you only save 5-10% so you wouldn’t fix it.“ and usually those claims are true… physician salaries are <5%, insurer margins are regulated, etc.

The problem with universal health care in the US isn’t that it is impossible - it’s that there’s no one silver bullet that that would suddenly fix it. tons of powerful, moneyed interest - doctors, hospitals, insurers, pharma, and the universe of vendors supporting them

More than half of Medicare beneficiaries are now on Medicare Advantage plans which are usually HMOs that require referrals.

Get a lot of drops in the first week after I lay out expectations but the students who stick around are delightful.

Those that have decided not to regulate the stop loss have seen their small group ACA compliant market become effectively the high risk pool for the risky small groups.

Basically, healthy small groups can buy these “stop loss” policies which are really pre-ACA underwritten policies in disguise but because a tiny slice of the coverage is “self-funded,” it’s exempt from state insurance law. Blue states have responded by regulating the stop loss part.

This is so blue states can no longer stop things like “level-funded” plans for small businesses (<50 employees) from undermining the small group market.

I’m assuming choice is referring to ICHRAs here from some of the other GOP legislation renaming them.

No carrier in their right mind would sell catastrophic plans under these constraints.