You have no evidence for this argument. It's just vibes. The numbers here are stark. It's not like it's close, between providers and insurers. Insurers are almost literally a rounding error.
You asserted "the macro NHE table from last year… simply refutes the argument you're trying to make", but that claim is false. You are welcome to answer the question about where "doc spends two hours on phone arguing with UHC" falls in the expenditure list; it's not insurance, but it's caused by it.
> Insurers are almost literally a rounding error.
Again, the argument is that the raw cost of health insurance does not reflect its externalities imposed on the other items in your list; that insurers drive up hospital and practice costs, as they have to staff up enormous amounts of staff and expensive physician time to deal with the insurer.
You stated this claim upthread, for the record, and tracked down an actual Canada vs. US statistic on this, which turned out to account for roughly 3.6% of total provider inpatient/outpatient expense.
That's not an argument; it's just vibes. Whenever we get actual numbers to look at, your arguments fall apart.
Again, I want to be clear: I'm not here to defend the American health system. It's a disaster. It's just clear to me you don't have a bead on why that is. (The answer is artificial scarcity of practitioners, overprescription, and lack of price transparency).
> Insurers are almost literally a rounding error.
Again, the argument is that the raw cost of health insurance does not reflect its externalities imposed on the other items in your list; that insurers drive up hospital and practice costs, as they have to staff up enormous amounts of staff and expensive physician time to deal with the insurer.