In trying to get caught up on the industry news from December, I ran across an article from The Hill today. The article is a summary of a Health Affairs study conducted as a follow-up to a 2009 article by the New Yorker magazine. The conclusion of the study and article is that private insurance plans are better at controlling costs than Medicare. Here is a quote from the article:
According to the study, Medicare spent almost double in McAllen ($14,817 per patient) than what it spent on an average El Paso beneficiary ($7,947 per patient). Both figures, however, far surpassed private insurance costs: Blue Cross spent $2,266 on the average McAllen enrollee, while spending $2,428 on the average El Paso enrollee.
Needless to say, the numbers above are shocking. I’m sure we will see additional studies on this topic from Medicare and independent groups. Below are links to the articles:
- Here is a link to the full article from TheHill.com.
- Here is a link to the full article from the New Yorker.
