2013
Recently I was talking with a doctor about health care reform, insurance, etc. and during our discussion he made a statement I found amazing and he found perfectly logical. He said insurance companies issued customers new ID cards just so they could avoid paying claims. I shouldn’t have been surprised because over the years I have dealt with many physicians and hospital administrators, even negotiating participating agreements for HMOs. Doctors have unique views on health insurance to say the least and they are not above sharing their misinformation with patients. I was always amazed when an employee believed what his doctor told him about our self-insured health benefits plan rather than believing me, the person who designed it.
There is no question that doctors still hold powerful influence over their patients even when they go beyond their area of expertise.
A recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation asked some Americans who they would trust “a lot” to give them information about the health care reform law. Physicians received the top vote. This despite the fact some physicians are among the most egregious purveyors of misinformation … or simply innocently uninformed.
Near the bottom of the poll were insurance companies and of course why should we expect insurance companies to give out accurate information about a law that focuses on insurance reform … the legacy of the constant barrage of Obama rhetoric and the public’s failure to understand the concept of insurance in the first place.
The poll results are upside down but nevertheless indicate the ongoing uphill battle trying to educate the public about not only insurance, but all aspects of the health care system. Until that is accomplished, we have no hope for serious effective reform of the system.
In another indication of the uphill trek administrators are facing, the information shortfall is outstanding … especially among the primary audience and likely users of the health insurance exchanges.
Roughly half the public (51 percent) continues to say they don’t have enough information about the ACA to understand how it will impact them and their family, a share that has been fairly steady since 2010. The share who feel they don’t have enough information is particularly high among Hispanics (64 percent), the uninsured (62 percent), young adults (62 percent of those ages 18-25), and those with lower incomes (60 percent of those with family incomes less than $40,000 a year).
Further, a large share remains confused about the law’s status, with 44 percent either thinking the law has been repealed (8 percent), overturned by the Supreme Court (5 percent), or unsure whether it remains the law or not (31 percent).
QUINNSCOMMENTARY 
Since my father (Korean War generation) was President of the local AMA chapter here in town before he passed away, let me relate his observations. He was outraged by the policies of the health insurers. He was also outraged by the views of doctors from the “me generation.” He commented that they were only in it for the money, and was often indignant that they refused to provide any bit of price reduction at all for low income patients who had trouble paying for medical care. I think the doctors you are writing about are neither misinformed nor uninformed. They are looking at their career with blinders on.
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“There is no question that doctors still hold powerful influence over their patients even when they go beyond their area of expertise.”
This is a perfect example of the “halo effect fallacy”, no different than people paying attention to a Hollywood star giving her views on fiscal or social policy.
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