Insurer says you can help cut health costs

One of the state’s largest health insurers is launching a campaign to try and get Iowans to help hold down the cost of health care. Cliff Gold, the Vice President of Marketing and External Relations at Wellmark Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Iowa, says the initiative called “Decisions Count” has one goal. He says it is to heighten the understanding and knowledge of consumers about the drivers of health care costs and what they can do to influence the overall rate of health care inflation. Gold says noone really knows how much impact consumers could have on insurance costs, but he says there are some indications. He says they’ve calculated that increasing the use of generic drugs by one percent could save five million dollars without impacting the quality of health care. Gold says they’ll try to inform consumers in several ways. He says they’ll have a web-based campaign and some advertising to educate consumers on the real costs of drugs versus the amount they pay out of pocket for a drug. Gold says they’ll use the same tactics the big drug companies use in all those ads for new drugs.He says the direct to consumer advertising used by drug companies is sometimes called “detailing” and he says they’ll try to use “counterdetailing” to give people more information about the alternatives. Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield insures around one-and-a-half million people in Iowa.