Insurers restricting choice of doctors and hospitals to keep costs down - The Washington Post: "In New Hampshire, consumers who purchase insurance through the exchange have only one choice of carrier — Anthem BlueCross BlueShield— because no other insurer applied to join the exchange. The company’s network includes access to only 16 of the state’s 26 acute-care hospitals.
That’s forcing people such as Michael Justice, 63, a Web developer from Peterborough, N.H., to leave doctors they like. Justice has been treated by primary-care doctors, cardiologists, orthopedists and eye doctors affiliated with Monadnock Community Hospital in his town for 15 years, and his wife for 30 years. But starting in 2014, that medical center will no longer be in network for the Anthem plans sold in his state, whether he buys the insurance through the health exchange or on his own."
People are going to start finding out that they not only can't keep their plan but that the new plan does not include their doctor. That may be a much more devastating blow politically than the rate shock that people on the individual market have been experiencing. More importantly, unlike the rate shock which is only directed felt by people who buy their health insurance on the individual market, the 'doc-shock' will affect people that get their medical insurance through their employers.
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