Land O’Lakes employees happy with consumer-directed insurance

Friday, February 19th, 2010

The president and CEO of Land O'Lakes says: Offering consumer-driven health plans to Land O’Lakes employees is helping to keep health care costs in check, while maintaining or improving care quality. For Land O’Lakes, this approach supports our commitment to employees, while at the same time ensuring that we remain highly ...

Market-based alternatives to big-government health care reform

Sunday, November 15th, 2009

Congress to Healthcare Market: Drop Dead, economics Professor Mark J. Perry summarizes "market-based healthcare solutions have gone largely unnoticed, despite the fact that they have successfully lowered medical costs and improved both access and quality of service." He describes the success of: Retail clinics Retail clinic-hospital partnerships "full range of medical services, from ...

High marks for retail medical clinics

Saturday, November 14th, 2009

From the Washington Post: Walk-in medical clinics run by CVS, Wal-Mart and other retailers provide care for routine illnesses that is as good as, and costs less than, similar care offered in doctors' offices, hospital emergency rooms and urgent care centers, according to a new Rand Corp. study. The cost savings ...

Success of Health Savings Accounts & high-deductible insurance

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009

Alex Tabborok summarizes the results of a study by the The American Academy of Actuaries: Emerging Data on Consumer-Driven Health Plans. Cost-savings: 12% to 21% in the first year. Cost containment: Compared to traditional insurance with higher deductible, costs appear to increase more slowly. Proper and preventive care. Quoting the report: "Generally, all ...

Safeway’s health insurance success story

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

From Steven Burd, CEO of Safeway: At Safeway we believe that well-designed health-care reform, utilizing market-based solutions, can ultimately reduce our nation's health-care bill by 40%. The key to achieving these savings is health-care plans that reward healthy behavior. As a self-insured employer, Safeway designed just such a plan in 2005 ...

Stossel - Sick in America, Part 5

Friday, September 5th, 2008

Continued from Part 4. Topics: High deductibles are good.  Whole Foods example.  Whole Foods contributes to employees' Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), which accumulates and grows over time. (Speech my Whole Foods CEO on this topic. Do HSAs discourage patients from getting preventive care?  Many policies cover preventive care, and it gives patients incentives ...

Wendy’s employees save with HSAs

Wednesday, June 4th, 2008

Linda Gorman, Director of the Independence Institute's Health Care Policy Center has a new report: ''Why Milwaukee Health Care Costs are High: What to Do About It.'' (Her summary us here.) It's chock full of good references and analysis on how people with different levels of health can save ...

Employers & employees save big with HSAs

Thursday, May 8th, 2008

Check out Linda Gorman's post on how Manitowoc County, Wisconsin has saved its taxpayers and employees money by offering its employees high-deductible insurance plans and contributing to their Health Savings Accounts (HSAs): It estimates that employees with family plans will save a minimum of $2,126.70 in cash compared to what ...