Re:How Often Do Health Insurers Say No to Patients? No One K...
by jaredklewis on Sunday September 07, 2025 @12:30AM
(#45155404)
I don’t think we tried.
For a market to work, the buyers have to be exercising their discretion. But most health insurance in the US is provided through employers (whose interests are different from those of the employees). There are a thousand other ways that the US healthcare markets are not free or poorly designed, but this is the original sin that (I would argue) causes most of the issues: the insured don’t choose their insurer, so the insurers are not competing for members, they’re competing for employers.
See Singapore for a place that actually tried. They have a public healthcare but also a well functioning private healthcare market.
For a market to work, the buyers have to be exercising their discretion. But most health insurance in the US is provided through employers (whose interests are different from those of the employees). There are a thousand other ways that the US healthcare markets are not free or poorly designed, but this is the original sin that (I would argue) causes most of the issues: the insured don’t choose their insurer, so the insurers are not competing for members, they’re competing for employers.
See Singapore for a place that actually tried. They have a public healthcare but also a well functioning private healthcare market.