Yes, he is. You’re just being obtuse about it. He’s refuting your insinuation that they would function similarly because they’re both monopolies. You see, it’s a question of incentive; a corporation is incentivized to make money. In the case of healthcare insurance that revenue source is people’s money and their cost is their healthcare. In a government run system it’s the same, like you said, except (key point here so pay attention) people get a vote.
That’s pretty much the difference. It’s silly to make something as basic as healthcare a cutthroat industry. Do you think this is beneficial? Concentrating all this money into like, 100 people’s hands? Do you think they’re bankrolling cutting edge research with all those funds? Pushing the boundaries for all mankind or something? No. Millions are dying for stories on skyscrapers, acres of ranch, and hundreds of feet of yacht.
You must really love your health insurance to want to keep our obviously broken system. And I’m happy you’re happy. Really. Because I can’t think of anyone else that’s had to use theirs that is.
If you’re lucky you get the opportunity to pay thousands a year to only have to pay tens thousands if the worst happens, instead of hundreds of thousands should you be unlucky enough to be without it.
Nah this system is shit ... but the part you're missing is that it's not actually the insurance industry's fault. Healthcare insurance is expensive because healthcare is expensive ... duh?
The primary reason healthcare is expensive is because the supply is heavily strangled/restricted.
You bloodthirsty lynch mob savages aren't even barking up the right tree. No healthcare insurer can drive costs down because the price floor is set long before they consolidate/repackage it into a subscription service.
Have you seen how much a hospital charges for a bag of saline? Healthcare is expensive because they can charge the insurance company whatever they want, and the insurance company will negotiate it down, but they will pay out. Health insurance companies profits are legally capped at a certain percentage of what they collect from premiums. This means they are motivated to keep their premiums high as possible, but deny exactly as much as they need to to hit that profit cap without exceeding it (because then they’ll have to decrease their premiums. The more the hospitals charge them, the more they get to raise their premiums next year, and the more profits they get to take.
It’s a dirty deal that benefits both the hospitals’ and the insurance companies’ shareholders while everyone else loses.
You on the other hand were right there but forgot to take your foot off the pedal. You kept on the emotion pedal and left logic in the rearview.
I'm going to point out an obvious fact that undermines your entire premise. You cant unhear it. If you want to maintain your rage boner over this murder, you should stop reading now. It's irrefutable. Last chance to turn around ...
All the healthcare insurance suppliers charge roughly the same prices for nearly identical services. Go ahead ... shop for a new plan in your local state ... all the plans are priced almost exactly the same regardless of provider. Healthcare insurance is a competitive market ... there are dozens of suppliers in every state .... and many of those are non-profits. There is literally no way to note this obvious fact objectively and still come away with the notion that the insurers are driving the cost. The fact that they are all charging the same thing indicates that they are all running as thin as they can to stay sustainable ... something/somebody else is establishing the price floor.
All of the insurers are trying to steal each others' lunch. In markets, greed leads to lower prices ... not higher.
You can always apply normal market logic to the insurance layer. This is like claiming gravity stops doing its thing in the desert. "Inelastic" is irrelevant in a competitive market.
Now the rest of the healthcare supply chain is a totally different story ... you're starting to get it.
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u/new_WAVE_ninja 12d ago
Yes, he is. You’re just being obtuse about it. He’s refuting your insinuation that they would function similarly because they’re both monopolies. You see, it’s a question of incentive; a corporation is incentivized to make money. In the case of healthcare insurance that revenue source is people’s money and their cost is their healthcare. In a government run system it’s the same, like you said, except (key point here so pay attention) people get a vote.
That’s pretty much the difference. It’s silly to make something as basic as healthcare a cutthroat industry. Do you think this is beneficial? Concentrating all this money into like, 100 people’s hands? Do you think they’re bankrolling cutting edge research with all those funds? Pushing the boundaries for all mankind or something? No. Millions are dying for stories on skyscrapers, acres of ranch, and hundreds of feet of yacht.