First Dollar Coverage A Thing of the Past

Do you remember the days when first dollar coverage was the “in thing?” Most health insurance offered by employers, as well as Medicare, was more or less based off of an indemnity plan. This meant that patients paid next to nothing for the service that they needed, and even when a deductible was in place, it was not enough to hold anybody back.

But most experts feel that this setup resulted in the overuse of services, and in turn, healthcare costs began to take off. In order to calm this way of doing things, a concept known as managed care stepped forward. And this has led to a change in the way that people look at the health insurance system. Although this seemed to work out fine early on, the up front savings have now been weaned out of the system. The result: higher cost of healthcare across the board.

In today’s day and age, the thought of indemnity coverage is more or less a dream of the past. Instead, everybody from employers to consumers to the government is looking for ways to curb the rising cost of healthcare. The once low deductibles and co-payments are still increasing, which is putting additional strain on everybody involved.

The majority of people with employer sponsored health insurance plans have seen their portion of the costs increase over the past few years. This includes not only the cost of the premium, but also the deductible and co-payments as well.

The government is searching for ways to get healthcare back on track, but have come up empty thus far. First dollar healthcare is more or less a thing of the past; even though it would be nice to enjoy this system once again. Attempting to move Medicare towards more of a managed care system has not worked, and has been shown to be ineffective at controlling costs.

As you can see, first dollar coverage is more than likely gone for good. The powers at be in Washington, D.C. have their hands full when it comes to finding a better healthcare system.