News & Insights
News & Insights
BOOK: JOE PUBLIC 2030
Predict-O-Meter
Joe Public 2030 makes five bold predictions about the future, which range from exciting and promising to ominous and discouraging. Through the Predict-O-Meter, we’ll continuously assess the state of the healthcare industry to track the accuracy of the five predictions.
Five Potent Predictions Reshaping How Consumers Engage Healthcare
FALL 2023 UPDATE
What influenced our latest rating?
Our update is an “all-insurer” special, and for good reason. Despite the fact that Americans are paying more for their healthcare than in any other advanced nation, the cost keeps rising. Even with record profits in recent years, the large insurers are pushing some of the highest premium increases in years. This at the same time as more evidence emerges of unethical or illegal insurance practices. ProPublica issued a series on illegal denial of claims that has gone on for years, and both UnitedHealthcare and Cigna have been accused of using AI to wrongfully deny claims. On top of it all, there were reports that Humana and Cigna were in merger talks, a deal that would have resulted in creating a healthcare behemoth close in size to UnitedHealthcare or CVS/Aetna, according to industry expert Wendell Potter. (The deal has apparently been called off, but we shall see.)
Relevant News
- Two words that can make health care a nightmare: prior authorization – NY Magazine, July 10, 2023
- How health insurance may have made healthcare more expensive – CNBC, January 8, 2023
- US employers to see biggest healthcare cost jump in a decade in 2024 – Reuters, September 21, 2023
- AHA reiterates need to quickly finalize CMS prior authorization rule – AHA, October 27, 2023
ORIGINAL PREDICTION
While consumers will become increasingly responsible for their own health and use of healthcare services, they will actually become less and less empowered in the choices they have for care, especially in higher-acuity, higher-cost situations. While many in the industry will continue to sing the praises of choice, the reality is most consumers will have far fewer choices moving forward, often in ways they might never ever consider or see.
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