[mw1]

The article I posted did not claim they were the whole problem, nor did I.

They are, however, a large part of the system that no one likes to deal with and can be fully eliminated without obvious negative consequences.

Health insurance doesn’t provide health care and is a purely extractive rent-seeking business. The article I posted even explains how single payer can help drive health care provider rates lower, as you now have a single, powerful entity (Medicare) negotiating against doctors, hospitals and drug companies.

And this “one player” (health insurance companies) heavily lobby against the implementation of single payer health care system. And their profit caps ensure that their goal is to grow the cost of medical care so they can take an ever higher profit in absolute dollars.

[mw1]

The article I posted makes a case that eliminating private health insurance will be VASTLY more than 5% savings and people can read the article to see why.

You’re choosing to avoid all of the other cost savings that will come from eliminating private health insurance and having a single payer who can effectively negotiate with providers without the goal of taking a slice of profits from an ever bigger pie.

[tptacek]

You're citing Matt Breunig's figures about how much more efficient Medicare would be than private insurance. But the truth is, mechanically, the opposite. Medicare's efficiency is a statistical illusion. Administrative overhead is a simple ratio of fees paid to services rendered. The more services you render, the better your admin costs look. And Medicare's look good indeed, because virtually everyone in America over the age of 65 is covered by Medicare --- that's the point of the system, to do single payer at the point where costs suddenly ramp up. If you let people enroll in Medicare at age 25, they would incur lower service costs, while paying the same in fees. If you do the math, Medicare for a 25 year old looks a lot like private insurance for a 25 year old.

Meanwhile: all insurance costs, in the whole economy, across all of national health expenses, total less than 10% of costs overall. Providers drive all the costs in our system, not insurers. But Breunig is fixated on his preferred solution, so he's not telling you that. But the numbers are right there if you want to see them; just search [National Health Expenditures by Type of Expenditure and Program: Calendar Year 2022].

I honestly don't care if you want Medicare vs. private insurance. I don't love my insurer. But if you zero out the total cost of insurance, public and private, you barely make a dent in our health costs. There is no way around it; the numbers are stark.

Personally, I think the balance we've struck in our payment system --- private markets until age 65, at which point the state steps in --- is pretty smart. Our system is fucked, of course, but that's because health provider chains have been ripping people off for decades.

[jrflowers]

> Providers drive all the costs in our system, not insurers.

I like your proposed solution that the state somehow engineer a way to drive down the costs billed by providers. Perhaps if the state operated a (pseudo-)monopsony wherein they exercise their leverage as the payer to drive down costs.

It could have a snappy name like if you combined medical and care? Or maybe medical and aid?

Anyway I also cannot fathom why anyone would hold ill will towards an industry that lobbies to stop that from happening. They are simply smol beans and the fact that there is no single payer monopsony means they are splitting a measly fraction of a trillion dollars per year. The fact that somebody else makes money too is proof that they couldn’t be a problem uwu

[tptacek]

Yes. They're a part of the problem. Specifically: they are less than 10% of the problem. If you replaced them with Medicare, you would get somewhere between 1-5% off your health care bills, if everything went optimally.

Meanwhile: we are commenting on a story about someone murdering a health insurance executive.

[paulryanrogers]

> Meanwhile: we are commenting on a story about someone murdering a health insurance executive.

Is this surprising? Motive is always of interest after a high profile crime. And apparently it requires assassination with manifesto to bring these robber barons into the spotlight. The only thing I find surprising is the use of a 3D printed gun instead of just buying one from a show or local gun store.