[thewebcount]

My experience in talking to people with chronic conditions that aren’t easily treatable is that Kaiser’s model works great until anything that’s slightly out of the ordinary happens, and then it falls apart. If you’re a zebra (as in “when you hear hooves, think horses, not zebras”), their model is pretty horrible.

[narrator]

The best thing about Kaiser, IMHO, is there is never a surprise out-of-network astronomical charge on the bill as I've seen with regular insurance.

[dnissley]

Isn't it pretty bad to be a zebra in general though? Certainly there isn't any place where zebras have it better than horses.

[sgent]

Yes but if you're at Kaiser in San Francisco and have a zebra there may only be one doc (or a small group) at UCSF that can treat your zebra, and they are not in the Kaiser network, so you go to Los Angles where Kaiser's specialist is, get treated by a lesser doc with a virtual visit assist from LA, or pay cash out of network.

[savanaly]

I think their point is that it's relatively better under another system, not that it's amazing there.

[Kinrany]

Have insurance split into two parts, the 95% cases and the rare and expensive?

[CogitoCogito]

Sounds like they have intelligently optimized for the common case.