"DGDevin" writes:
J. Clarke wrote:

One of the big problems is that the insurance companies are being
forced to cover the uninsured. How does that happen you ask? Well,
hospitals are required by law to give at least a minimal standard of
treatment to anyone who walks into the emergency room, without regard
to means. The laws that require them to do this do not provide any
means of compensating them for the costs incurred. Even nonprofit
hospitals have to recover costs somehow or they run out of money and
can't pay their bills. Thus the means they use to recover costs is
to set their rates so that anyone _with_ insurance gets surcharged to
cover the uninsured.

Yup, 8 to 10% of what we pay for insurance is shifted to cover the costs of

You need to document that number; How was it derived?

while a full 25% is pure insurance overhead, to wit (From UHC 2008 10-K)

Revenue (premiums): USD 81 Billion
Payments (medical care): USD 60 Billion
Insurance Company Costs: USD 15 Billion
Insurance Company Profit: USD 5 Billion.

25% overhead is entirely too much. Need to get rid of the insurance companies
entirely to save any money in health care. Add in the savings in the
hospitals, doctor's, etc. due to less paperwork, and you end up cutting 50% or
more from the costs of medical treatment.

Perpetual HSA's for individuals with competetive catastrophic coverage
from multiple vendors would go a long way towards reducing medical costs.

scott