Value in Health Care

“Of everything we spend on goods and services, 17 percent of it goes to health care. That means 17 percent of your dollars go to health care, even if you didn’t go to the doctor last year.”

The implementation of the Affordable Care Act lead to expanded health insurance coverage in Colorado, decreasing the uninsured rate from 17% to 11% but are those newly insured people getting value in their health care coverage and are sky rocketing medical costs being curtailed? That is one of the issues discussed at the 7th annual Colorado Voices for Coverage Conference which happened in Denver on June 2. One of the keynote speakers is Lynn Quincy of Consumers Union.

Quincy says Americans are over-paying by up to 30 percent for health care, and believes a more coordinated approach is needed to keep costs under control. She adds creating incentives for patients to seek preventive care by eliminating co-pays would save more money in the long term. Quincy says that another challenge for consumers is access to the doctors they want, as a result of fewer providers within health care networks. People are being faced with longer wait times with primary-care physicians as new patients enter the system.