Not listening to my own opinion–i.e., that Sean Hannity is not worth
listening to–I just had the Hannity show on the radio while having
some dinner before I go teach my class. A caller was complaining to
Sean that insurance companies only pay 68 cents on the dollar for
health care expenses. Hannity’s answer? Medicare pays less than that.
Unfortunately, this was a teachable moment that Hannity was not equipped to take advantage of. Leaving aside exactly what the caller meant by “68 cents on the dollar,” i.e., on the first dollar, on the 1000th dollar on the 50,000th dollar, the average dollar, the point that Hannity should have made was that for most dollars spent on health care by most people, we have insurance plans that pay too much, not too little. This is the whole point of moving toward high deductible plans supported by HSAs–an idea that Hannity says he supports, although it is not clear he knows why.
One of the reasons why health care costs are high is that for too many health care expenses, there is a disconnect between payment and consumption. The insurance company pays while the employee, whose employer is the policyholder, does the consuming of health care. Costs are driven up because patients are not cost-conscious consumers.
The reason why the widespread use of high deductible plans–where the insurance company pays 0 cents out of every dollar for the first $2000, $3000, or $5000 spent coupled with Health Savings Account–is a good idea is because it makes for cost conscious consumers. Unfortunately, Hannity just had the opportunity to explain this to millions of listeners and he blew it.
