You likely recall that a few years ago, Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JP Morgan Chase decided that they would come together to address the health care needs of their employees collectively. They put Atul Gawande at the helm and paid him the big bucks to fail. Yes, Haven, the name of this health care venture, could not accomplish what it set out to do–take on the health insurers to lower costs and improve quality of care for 150,000 workers.
Here’s a question for those people who believe that employers have the power to use their leverage to hold insurers accountable and deliver people the health care they need: Do you think Gawande/Amazon et al. messed up or have you come to recognize that the system must change in order to deliver better health outcomes at lower cost?
Here are the biggest lessons learned, according to Gawande:
- The Haven concept had a fatal flaw: Insurance tied to people’s work makes no sense. People are changing their work all the time, so employers have no interest in making long-term investments in their health. Employers want to limit their health care spending as much as possible to the short-term.
- Government needs to step in and put an end to employer-provided healthcare if we want to ensure people’s long-term health.
- People want insurance with low or no out-of-pocket costs. They want low-cost mental health care, primary care and prescription drugs. Gawande does not say this, but Haven designed its coverage without these costs, presumably in response to what employees were asking for.
- Medicare for All, one public insurer investing in people’s care over the short and long-term, is the only cost-effective way to ensure critical investments in people’s long-term health. Gawande fails to say this. But, if he doesn’t believe it, how does he imagine getting insurers to meet people’s long-term health needs? How does Gawande imagine our health care system, as is, can protect rural hospitals, vulnerable communities, and other precious health-care resources when the marketplace cannot?
Here’s more from Just Care:
- Coronavirus: Health insurers celebrate their most profitable year
- Coronavirus: Blame corporate health insurers for our failure to contain it
- Private health insurers don’t let you budget for your care
- Can we regulate health insurers to do right by Americans?
- Medicare coverage changes for 2021
