We felt that it was too much in one year. Critics charge that HMOs underpriced their products to gain customers. Some analysts say Kaiser and other HMO's underpriced their products during the early and mid 1990's in an effort to increase membership and gain market share. And low rates did increase membership dramatically. That's up from 45.2 million workers just four years earlier.
Some polls show as membership has risen, so has dissatisfaction with managed care.
A Louis Harris poll last March showed only 45 percent of those surveyed felt managed care companies were doing a good job. And the sound of that frustration has echoed in the halls of both the state capitols and the US Congress. There are certainly a managed care backlash. And in Washington, DC, Congress is considering a number of measures as well. Health care analyst Roberta Walter of Merrill Lynch says bills that mandate services will help drive up the cost of managed care.