[ensignavenger]

Many insurance companies (I think that now perhaps all of them in the US, thanks to ObamaCare) have to pay out a certain percent of what they take in to health providers. Thus if they want to increase premiums, and therefore profits, the only way to do it is to increase the cost of care. Preferably, they increase the cost of care for everyone, which drives more people to buy insurance, and means that some other company isn't able to undercut them on premiums by reducing costs. Of course, they als get more float, which insurance companies love. That is the model that health care insurance companies follow, and ObamaCare was a huge gift to helping them out.