DY: healthcare is different in many ways. Among them that most of us already have our own doctors we prefer. Change is not good for the patient medically or psychologically. I can buy a light bulb from Washington state on Amazon (although they’re also becoming more locally based) or from my corner grocer with little impact on my day-to-day life.
If a new network wants to come to town they need to be huge for my doctor to want to join/accept it — meaning many of his potential patients will be using it. Health insurance networks negotiate favorable rates from providers by offering patients in “bulk”. So an out-of-state based network either won’t have my doctor and hospital on it (especially in the early stages when they need to get familiar with the territory and build alliances) or if they do manage to, since they’re not big locally, the bargained rates won’t be such a great bargain and nobody will gain.
And from where do you take your information from that Employer Plans are subsidizing ObamaCare? I haven’t seen that anywhere. According to a Fortune article I just read, specialty drugs are one of the top drivers of Employer premium increases — and so the reasons are many — but insurance companies seem to keep each plan separate, and dump those that aren’t profitable.
As we’ve seen from Obamacare where many insurance companies are opting out, many companies are in it for the quick buck, so when things don’t pan out as planned and profits tank, they simply make a u-turn…