When Your Health Insurance Drops Your Hospital, Which Means You Must Drop It

Babygirl loves the song “I Won’t Grow Up” from the show Peter Pan. She finds it fascinating. The first time I showed her a video of it, she was entranced and wanted to see it over and over; when she was ready, at least momentarily, to move on from that, she said, “Now the one where they do want to grow up!” (After a moment of bafflement, I showed her “I Just Can’t Wait To Be King,” which she deemed acceptable, though nowhere near as compelling.)

By this point, I have the Lost Boys’ song memorized and a bit of a chip on my shoulder, frankly, about Peter, who appears to be a fascist. In one verse, a Lost Boy stands up and pledges:

I won’t grow up

I will never even try

I will do what Peter tells me

And I’ll never ask him why.

Creepy, right? Another adds:

I won’t grow up

No I promise that I won’t

I will stay a boy forever!

And be banished if I don’t.

Peter gives that sentiment the big thumbs up. Thanks a lot, Commandant.

I’m feeling more in sympathy with the Lost Boys these days, as I’m forced to adult as hard as I can on several fronts at once. Like, here’s one thing. It’s open season again on the Health Insurance Marketplace! But the site was prohibitively buggy when I tried to go through it yesterday and the wait time for help by phone was well over thirty minutes. For the sake of my blood pressure, I had to quit and figure I’d try again.

I need the info in the Marketplace even more than I thought I would, too, because I got a letter from my current provider, Oscar, letting me know that they’ve decided to part ways with an entire hospital system, effective December 1. This affects me, rather, since the system that they’ve decided will no longer be in network includes the hospital where I gave birth last time and where I am scheduled to give birth this time as well. It is in fact the only place where my midwives deliver.

Just like that, I have to find new insurance.

Maybe it’s for the best. As I’ve mentioned, according to the Times, a lot of consumers err in choosing a plan. We think we can rely on ourselves to get the best deal. We can’t.

Eric Johnson, a Columbia business professor, led a study that found that without substantial additional assistance, a consumer’s likelihood of selecting the lowest-cost plan is no better than chance. The researchers conducted a series of experiments on people similar to those who would shop for marketplace coverage. Each study participant was asked to presume he’d use a certain amount of health care and, based on that, to choose the lowest-cost plan from among eight choices, which varied by premium, doctor co-pay and deductible. Only 21 percent could accomplish this task, a figure not statistically different from chance. The annual cost of errors was about $250. …

Another way consumers get stuck with bad deals is by staying in plans as their premiums increase, a status quo bias. One study found that New Jersey enrollees in Medicare prescription drug plans paid an average of $536 more over three years because of this kind of inertia. Some insurers strategically enter markets with low prices and increase them over time, exploiting consumers’ inertia. This “invest then harvest” pricing strategy has been observed in markets for Medicare Advantage plans, commercial health insurance and others.

By being forced to choose something else, it’s possible I’ll end up with a more affordable situation. Still, it’s a bummer, since overall I was satisfied with my coverage, and now I have to start from scratch.

Sing it with me, y’all:

’Cause growing up is awfuller

Than all the awful things there ever were …

I’ll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up, no, sir!

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