Too much variety
In health care, more choice may not always lead to better choices, particularly for the elderly. In a new study, researchers from Harvard Medical School’s Department of Health Care Policy found that the large variety of managed care plans offered by the Medicare Advantage program may be counterproductive. Elderly patients, particularly those with low cognitive ability, often make poor decisions — or no decisions at all — when faced with an overwhelming number of complex insurance choices. “We are providing the most complex insurance choices to the very population that is least equipped to make these high-stakes decisions,” says J. Michael McWilliams, assistant professor of health care policy and medicine at Harvard Medical School and a practicing general internist in the Division of General Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “Most other Americans choose from just a few health plans, but elderly Medicare beneficiaries often have to sift through dozens of options.” The...