There are very few persons in the United States today who have health insurance which is not affected by managed care. Like anything else there are good managed care companies and bad ones, good HMO's and bad ones.
Lets look at some of the positives and negatives.
Managed Care purports to keep health care costs down while allowing people access to quality health care services. Managed Care companies claim to do this by eliminating unnecessary services, by creating groups of providers who agree to lower or capitated fees for exclusive referrals from that insurance plan, and by keeping the lid on costs. Managed Care companies claim patients still receive what they need but at an overall lower cost. They claim patients receive high quality services and the management of services is transparent. The companies are corporate entities and apply corporate principles to the management of health services.