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0 pointsrogerbinns13y ago0 comments

> It's not the insurance companies. At least not to any great extent. Their margins are usually under 2%

I'm with Anthem Blue Cross in California. In 2011 they spent 79.9% of premiums on actual medical expenses and due to law changes had to issue a refund for 0.1% This year they raised premiums by 22%.

Various administrative expenses are hidden all over the place. eg the cost of an appendectomy also includes the cost of recovering the money charged.

The problem with the US healthcare system isn't any one part. Every single part is broken in some way, with the interoperations between them compounding to make the problem worse.

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2 comments · 1 top-level

yen22313y ago· 1 in thread

I suspect that the main reason the single-payer healthcare system is so efficient is simply that there are less players involved.

GFischer13y ago

I work for a non-health insurance company. I believe that removing insurance companies from the equation would definitely make things more efficient - at the very least my company doesn't have the motivation to really cut down on expenses, most managers are more worried about internal power struggles, I've seen so much waste I'd start my own company in a heartbeat if only it wasn't so capital-intensive to start, and a papework and political minefield (which of course lets the old boys get by with a lot of leeway in terms of actual efficiency improvements).

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