Re:Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan to Create Healthcare Company
by robbiemitchell on Tuesday January 30, 2018 @08:32AM
(#16265080)
That only applies to the individual market, not employer insurance (small and large group.
Higher medical expenses don’t help. It only creates higher premiums, which members then blame on greed.
There are plenty of legitimate problems with providers, drug laws, and insurers. But insurers definitely don’t benefit from higher expenses.
Re:Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan to Create Healthcare Company
by Retric on Tuesday January 30, 2018 @08:48AM
(#16265203)
Actually systemic higher costs do help. An older industry analysis found insurance to be competitive so they only way to grow profits for the industry was to grow costs. The trick is for insurance companies to find ways to get other insurance companies to pay more even if they have to also carry those costs.
AKA, 10% of 2 trillion is more than 10% of 1 trillion.
The ACA requires insurers to spend 80% of the premiums they take in on direct healthcare costs for their members. Inflated billing and high drug costs are actually helpful if they want to make a nice big profit. To a point, at least - they've gotta find the right balance between profit and people being unable to pay their premiums.