[lotsofpulp]

Bob, however, did not have to pay for older people’s healthcare during the 1990s and 2000s.

Also, as an fyi, New York and Vermont do not allow age as a factor in pricing, and Massachusetts restricts the age rating factor to 2 instead of 3.

[bugglebeetle]

Everyone pays for everyone else’s healthcare, whether it be insurance pools, Medicaid, CHIPS, Medicare, etc. In America, we just do it in an especially dumb, cruel, and expensive way because it makes some assholes a lot of money.

[lotsofpulp]

We do it that way so “we” can have lower taxes.

We is in quotes because various demographics/political tribes want to pass the hot potato.

The beauty of the health insurance system is it allows you to deliver differing qualities of healthcare to different voter groups.

For example, high voter participation groups like old people can get Medicare that pays providers more and hence more providers are available. And Medicaid for poor people on the other end that pays much less and has stricter rules on prior authorizations. And you can give Senators healthcare that pays providers more than other federal employees, and so on and so forth.

I actually find it impressive in some sense.

[bugglebeetle]

No, we do it that way because both political parties are bought and sold by the assholes who run insurance companies. They use this corruption to impose a private tax on everyone. No one in the US is saving money. We spend more than most wealthy country for worse outcomes.

[lotsofpulp]

The insurance companies are not that powerful. Pharmaceutical companies are far more profitable, as are healthcare software, other tech, doctor groups, hospital groups, etc. You may want to look into liability laws and tort reform for other big reasons for why healthcare in the US costs a lot.

[bugglebeetle]

Do you work in the industry or something? Yes, all of for profit healthcare is a monstrosity that should be abolished. Everyone I’ve ever met knows the first part of that and it does not excuse how awful health insurance companies are or all the terrible things they’ve done, both past and present. Tort reform has been tried on the state level and it has no impact. It’s just a canard trotted out by those who are trying to keep the human suffering money pump pumping.

[lotsofpulp]

No, I am just looking at the numbers. Typically, businesses with a lot of power have high profit margins (who wouldn’t want to earn more money?).