Drew Altman Mean Quotations

Beneficiaries are having a difficult time answering the most important question: 'What does it mean for me?'

We may be looking at the start of a fundamental shift in what we mean by health insurance, from a system where we share risks to one where it's up to individuals to make their own deals and bear their own risks.

It's just too complicated for them to get it from a brochure, or a Web site, or to answer the critical question of, 'What does this mean for me?' ... Unfortunately, it's going to take a real world test for us to figure out whether this works or doesn't work.

The positive drum beat has caught up with the negative one. But on an individual basis, most seniors still can't answer the big question: 'What does it mean for me?

The point is that when they talk about quality of health care, patients mean something entirely different than experts do. They're not talking about numbers or outcomes but about their own human experience, which is a combination of cost, paperwork and what I'll call the hassle factor, the impersonal nature of the care.