Why Health Insurers Make Lousy Villains

John, if you think that insurers are just hiking your premiums to turn around and invest... you are out of your mind, and you don't understand the insurance industry, nor do you understand apparently how head actuaries decide how to invest and how much to invest. They must maintain a large amount of liquid assets to respond to even the most dramatic spike in claims. You speak as if they are taking your money and throwing it down on the roulette table. I have news for you.... THAT IS WHAT EVERY GOOD BUSINESS DOES. They invest the assets that they can afford to invest. Now this might shock you, but over the course of the recession... EVERY BUSINESS AND BUSINESS PERSON TOOK HITS ON THEIR INVESTMENTS. Considering it would seem you have the business savvy of an 8 year old, you may not have felt it much in your local savings account interest rates. But seriously John, even at the highest figure you sight, of 8% profit, do you think that they are somehow mistreating you? Because they run a profitable business at 8%? If you feel that way, you might want to get Computer software reform to target those big jerks at Microsoft and Google, you may be surprised to know what kind of profit they are reaping in, and heaven forbid, how much they have lost in their investments over the past few years. If you come around to actually being interested in where the healthcare system went wrong (news flash: this isn't a problem that developed during the recession when all those evil insurance companies went gambling with the huge profits they were making off you), then maybe you will do the unthinkable and take a look at history. (I know how much the left hates those pesky facts and economic laws that have manifest themselves time and time again). In 1954 Congress voted to make healthcare benefits tax exempt. It all goes downhill from there. The reason being because it was the beginning of the feeling of entitlement to healthcare people have gotten to. Because people have become so detached from the cost of healthcare, the system is abused, and gets more and more expensive. If we were to remove that tax credit, employers would stop providing healthcare for people, and would instead have to offer the cash equivalent. This would cause people to become much more interested in the cost of their care, which would drive a competitive market. Physicians would compete on pricing, and insurers would compete on pricing. Then if you remove the mandates that force insurers to ensure things like drug and alcohol abuse, then people can purchase health insurance a la carte, only subscribing for what they want or need. This kind of flexibility, on top of reapplying the current tax break giving to employers, would drive the cost down rapidly and significantly. Then with the mandates removed, it becomes easy to purchase across state lines, further driving competition, and allowing the economy to force prices down naturally, instead of artificially by the government.

Spencer of CA 11:18PM March 22, 2010