Re:Why 23andMe Terrifies Health Insurance Companies
by yummyfajitas on Wednesday November 27, 2013 @07:34AM
(#6807706)
Customers getting pointless preventative care such as mammograms before age 50 increases costs in two ways. First, the mammograms cost money. Second, the mammograms make the patients less healthy (via stress, unnecessary biopsies, infections caused by the biopsies, etc) which costs even more money.
Luckily Congress is looking out for women and passed a law requiring medically useless tests.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-31/in-mammogram-debate...
http://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/uspsbrca...
Re:Why 23andMe Terrifies Health Insurance Companies
by dsr_ on Wednesday November 27, 2013 @07:21AM
(#6807661)
The most cost-effective medical treatments are preventative, followed by early diagnosis.
If you can't deny coverage for a pre-existing condition, or raise premiums when someone develops a new disease, you shift to reducing your cost by doing what's most effective. That's the best part of the ACA.
The worst case scenario they used was if someone at risk for breast cancer got mammograms early. The horror, but also the cost savings from early detection! If you claim your grandmother had breast cancer you will no hassle getting a mammogram at an early age, there should be no difference if you have genetic hints at the same risk-factor. No insurer would pay for a preventative mastectomy without strong medical evidence (e.g. not just a genetic test), there's no sense in bringing up a world-famous rich actress who almost assuredly paid for her surgery out of pocket.
The most expensive thing for a health insurer is the customer who doesn't get a mammogram when she should.