The article is for lower upper class / upper middle class readers where obviously what the dr writes is what is done aside from questions about "why is money being wasted?". The actual strategy is for making money at the cost of poorer people.
Lets say the name brand is $75, generic is $50. If a poor person gets the generic the insurance company is out $50, well, depending on deductible, etc. If the bureaucracy can be mysteriously blamed for not allowing the generic, at least some percentage of the poor people cannot afford the medication at $75 therefore the insurance company is NOT out $50.
Its merely price based rationing. If you increase the cost of health care, some fraction of the population will be frozen out of the market, just like real estate or car prices or tuition. One of many failures of our current economic system is maximal profit does not coincide with maximal participation rate, some percentage will be frozen out for financial reasons, ranging from not too many like health care, up to most of the population WRT real estate in bubble areas. Eventually once a large enough percentage of the population is alienated and disenfranchised from the system, there will be enough support to burn it all down, until then its the existing slow boil.
Your argument doesn't make any sense. If the insurance company is paying for the drug then they would rather pay $50 than $75 for it. If the person has a deductible, it is conceivable that they would forgo treatment if the price is $75 but not if it is $50 because they didn't think they would use up their deductible, but then they ended up using it up anyway. The insurance company would then save money. But this doesn't seem like it would happen often enough to make this a good bet for the insurance company.
Lets say the name brand is $75, generic is $50. If a poor person gets the generic the insurance company is out $50, well, depending on deductible, etc. If the bureaucracy can be mysteriously blamed for not allowing the generic, at least some percentage of the poor people cannot afford the medication at $75 therefore the insurance company is NOT out $50.
Its merely price based rationing. If you increase the cost of health care, some fraction of the population will be frozen out of the market, just like real estate or car prices or tuition. One of many failures of our current economic system is maximal profit does not coincide with maximal participation rate, some percentage will be frozen out for financial reasons, ranging from not too many like health care, up to most of the population WRT real estate in bubble areas. Eventually once a large enough percentage of the population is alienated and disenfranchised from the system, there will be enough support to burn it all down, until then its the existing slow boil.