 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Truth: Insurance companies are a lot less efficient than government payer systems.
The federal government has essentially told the insurance industry that they can have no more than 20% overhead. That way, we get at least 80% of our money going to the care. This is called the medical loss ratio. The ratio is there to help save Americans money. However, it’s not quite as good as it sounds.
The Taiwanese spend only 2% for the same care. In fact, the US Medicaid program spends roughly the same amount (2-3%). Most industrialized nations spend close to this rate. So, why is insurance so bad at controlling cost while they are denying care?
Insurance companies don’t really compete intensely with each other. It is more like they all work together in harmony in a monopolized workplace. Consider that Blue Cross/Blue Shield alone insures over 105 million people. It’s not exactly a free marketplace.
The biggest problem is insurance companies collude with providers to keep cost high. And, they are smart enough to manipulate the medical loss ratio. The expenses are high because they have to do a lot of things a government program wouldn’t have to do. They need to advertise, spend money on lobbyists, and make huge salaries and profits for top management. The CEO of United Healthcare made 102 million in one year. That’s more than some countries GDP.
A government run program would get rid of the exhorbitant salaries and wouldn’t have lobbyists and advertising expense.
It is impossible for a patchwork system to control cost. There needs to be one cost for a procedure. The rubber pricing system allows for price gouging at every opportunity.
Other developed nations have created a unified pricing strategy. Everyone is on one system that is much more transparent and efficient. A unified system can easily find the abusers of the system. A complicated patchwork confuses just about everybody. How can you hold anyone accountable when you have no idea what’s going on? That’s how it is today.
Most countries use a single id card. It has your medical history on it. You can take it anywhere and the medical office can use the data instantly. After the care is done, the physician can press a button and the payment gets taken care of itself.
There is a lot less need for paper shufflers. The data is done electronically. Our system is still wasting millions of papers every day.
David Belkin explains how insurnace companies collude to rip you off: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbC7fJiiSkw