Why would an uninsured, broke, anti-government, libertarian --who needed expensive medical procedures--refuse government assistance? He instead would struggle to pay a five figure medical bill out of his own pocket that would devour more than half his yearly wages. The two main reasons the bill is so high is due in part to the government/corporate partnership within the healthcare industry, and the “un-supervisable” expertise of insurance company actuaries.
The higher than competitive market price is a result of government subsidizing medical payments in the form of Medicare and Medicaid—providers continually increase prices and medical procedures they know a disinterested financier (the government) will pay. It is no longer a competitive market when the government pays almost 50% of Americans' health care bill. Ironically the above mentioned person is subsidizing a government-induced, non-competitive, quasi-monopolized health care system.
The private sector is perhaps even more sadistic. Health insurance actuaries are paid well as the worlds' statistical masterminds. No one else can understand what they do because it takes years of specific and complicated study to do it. To oversee what they are doing would be like a preschooler supervising the scientist’s search for the God particle. They minimize the risk of losing money by primarily insuring those who don't need health care, charging exorbitant rates to those who might, and rejecting those who will. (It makes their job easier that the government already pays for 90% of this last, sickly, category through Medicare and Medicaid). So with a lot of help from the government, actuaries played perhaps the most important part in the $12,000,000,000 of profit the five largest health insurers made in 2009.
The higher than competitive market price is a result of government subsidizing medical payments in the form of Medicare and Medicaid—providers continually increase prices and medical procedures they know a disinterested financier (the government) will pay. It is no longer a competitive market when the government pays almost 50% of Americans' health care bill. Ironically the above mentioned person is subsidizing a government-induced, non-competitive, quasi-monopolized health care system.The private sector is perhaps even more sadistic. Health insurance actuaries are paid well as the worlds' statistical masterminds. No one else can understand what they do because it takes years of specific and complicated study to do it. To oversee what they are doing would be like a preschooler supervising the scientist’s search for the God particle. They minimize the risk of losing money by primarily insuring those who don't need health care, charging exorbitant rates to those who might, and rejecting those who will. (It makes their job easier that the government already pays for 90% of this last, sickly, category through Medicare and Medicaid). So with a lot of help from the government, actuaries played perhaps the most important part in the $12,000,000,000 of profit the five largest health insurers made in 2009.
Sincerely,
Lawrence Feriozzi
