Managed care appears to have succeeded in reducing the growth of health care spending. But it also has interfered with the doctor-patient relationship, often making doctors feel they are agents for a managed care bureaucracy more than agents of their patients. Critics believe that managed care has lowered the overall quality of care. Anecdotal horror stories are numerous. Voters are complaining.
Politicians are ready to act.
Protecting Patients Through Regulation and Bureaucracy. Many advocate keeping the current economic incentives in place, while piling restrictions on the managed care industry. Another restriction would prohibit health plans from creating economic incentives for physicians to withhold care. These types of regulations would destroy the traditional HMO, and limit the ability of managed care organizations to hold down costs. As a result, they threaten to cause the reemergence of health care inflation.