FF, As we all know, the profit that goes to the suckers, er, shareholders, is only a small part of the story. How much does mgt. get paid and how much advertising revenue can they farm out to the Mad Ave firms that have hired their wives or kids sometimes counts for more. It's not like profit is really the goal of mgt. It's nice, but, as we've seen in big business forever, it is not as important as the care and feeding of the folks in the Executive Offices. That also includes the directors, who have to be coddled so they won't raise a stink.
We have a very weak insurance dept. here in Texas, but the extra cos. "competing" for business does not decrease health care premiums. The prices are as high as they are anywhere.
Car insurance is a much lower actuarial risk. If the co. covers you for the minimum liability, that's their entire risk. They cannot know what their total liability may be in health insurance. So, they play these games with cancelling policies, screwing small businesses and making a high percentage of claims a "preexisting condition." The simple fact is, private industry was never designed to handle the total pool of the nation's health care. They simply cherry pick policy holders, soak them and exclude the higher risks. The concept of tying health card to your employer is insane, on the face of it. It reeks of the old company store and has prices to match.
Of course, it now looks like the insurance execs will continue to scam America and govt. can't do anything about it due to campaign bribes. |
