Changing Health Insurance Plans and Doctors
If there exists a mystical world where employees don’t routinely switch health care plans, mostly for cost reasons, please tell me the planet and how to get there. An informal survey of friends who work in small- to medium-sized businesses reveals that their employers switch health care plans nearly annually, with very little regard for which employee might lose a particular doctor. They have no choice: it’s the cost of trying to find a plan that they can afford.
So, media, perhaps instead of obsessing over whether health care reform will lead to workers having to switch plans or doctors, I’d say this: your time would be better spent reporting about the merits or demerits of a particular proposal.
As employers shop around for the best deal, trying desperately not to drop coverage altogether, many workers have gotten used to having to switch plans and doctors. Most of the time, they’re thankful to have any coverage at all.