Shrinking Hospital Networks Greet Health-Care Shoppers on Exchanges

Report Shows How Insurers Are Betting Price Is More Important to Consumers Than Choice

Click here to read this WSJ article. Excerpts:

"Many plans being offered now on the new insurance exchanges sharply limit the number of hospitals where services are covered, according to a new McKinsey & Co. report. Insurers are making a bet that price is more important to consumers than choice, and limiting the number of hospitals and doctors allows them to keep the cost of a plan as low as possible. Many of the new plans offered still are more expensive than current plans because they offer more benefits."

"about 60% of health plans offer coverage at a smaller number of hospitals than comparable current individual plans"

"Some of these new plans limit coverage to one or two large hospitals. The number of hospitals accepting insurance from a consumer who buys coverage on the exchange could be 60% lower than the number of hospitals in current individual plans."

"Consumers can still buy plans on the exchanges that offer coverage at a wide network of hospitals, but they cost significantly more."

"Leading research and teaching hospitals...are cut out of most plans sold in their home states."

"In Los Angeles, two top research hospitals, Cedars-Sinai and Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, are excluded from most of the area's plans sold on the state-run exchange"