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Kaiser is one of the good ones, too. How can it be worse? Well, you can not have insurance, but you already knew that one. You can have an insurance company th

Kaiser is one of the good ones, too. How can it be worse? Well, you can not have insurance, but you already knew that one. You can have an insurance company that's poorly integrated with providers, resulting in "edge cases" that somehow always involve you paying more. A lot more. Here's the one affecting me, though: insurance companies use pricing to ensure that my employer picks a new plan every year, which always has an extremely decrepit sign-up process every year, which no doubt shakes some fraction of the generally young and healthy workforce from going through it at all. It usually takes hours, even for someone of my technical aptitude, because you have to go on a scavenger hunt for the correct links, ID numbers, and codes. It's not bad UX, it's brilliant UX, but the masters it servers are... not us.

dragonwriter 6y ago
> Here's the one affecting me: insurance companies use pricing to ensure that my employer picks a new plan every year, which always has an extremely decrepit sign-up process every year, which no doubt shakes some fraction of the workforce from going through it at all. That's probably not the insurer’s intent, since it's in their interest to have the most people possible enrolled.
- jjoonathan 6y ago
  People who elect the benefit but don't complete the signup process are still enrolled, they just can't consume the services until they run the gauntlet, discouraging service use and increasing profit.
  - dragonwriter 6y ago
    Under the ACA Medical Loss Ratio rule, insurers must refund premiums if they exceed a certain percentage of reimbursed costs across a plan (there's a couple different tiers with different limits.) In order to maximize profits, they need maximum utilization, which takes completing the signup, not just idle premium payment.
    - jjoonathan 6y ago
      Eh, I've seen accounting rules of that sort worked around with relative ease. It's not difficult to find ways to spend money that send value back your way, and even when you're in that position it's always the right move to ask for more. Budgeting incentives 101.

dragonwriter 6y ago

> Here's the one affecting me: insurance companies use pricing to ensure that my employer picks a new plan every year, which always has an extremely decrepit sign-up process every year, which no doubt shakes some fraction of the workforce from going through it at all. That's probably not the insurer’s intent, since it's in their interest to have the most people possible enrolled.

jjoonathan 6y ago
People who elect the benefit but don't complete the signup process are still enrolled, they just can't consume the services until they run the gauntlet, discouraging service use and increasing profit.
- dragonwriter 6y ago
  Under the ACA Medical Loss Ratio rule, insurers must refund premiums if they exceed a certain percentage of reimbursed costs across a plan (there's a couple different tiers with different limits.) In order to maximize profits, they need maximum utilization, which takes completing the signup, not just idle premium payment.
  - jjoonathan 6y ago
    Eh, I've seen accounting rules of that sort worked around with relative ease. It's not difficult to find ways to spend money that send value back your way, and even when you're in that position it's always the right move to ask for more. Budgeting incentives 101.