Cost controls are sorely needed in the health insurance markets. This article implies that the private market will be able to control costs the best, but this ignores what has happened in reality for the past 20 years. Costs have been going up 10% a year and insurance becomes too expensive for families with each going year. This shouldn't be surprising for a service that has an extremely inelastic demand curve. When insurance companies raise rates they don't see a corresponding decline in demand as in other normal industries. Thus costs have to be controlled in another fashion such as mandating 80% of all expenses are spent on health care. If a company can't even do that, it is evident they are fat and bloated and wouldn't survive in any other industry and don't deserve to survive in the health insurance industry either.
The reason for the lack of competition is largely due to two primary issues.
1. The Anti-Trust Exemption which should have been removed and isn't.
2. Lack of Competition accross statelines.
Of course the private market won't compete when the gov't has basically created Health care zones and let one company operate freely within them. You have set the private insurers up to fail here.
Now don't you dare come after me, like I am some flaming libertarian or something because we have discussed this numerous times and you know perfectly well what I support, and if you can't remember then I suggest you refrain from responding to avoid making a fool out of yourself.
Haha wow you really need to calm down. I don't think you have been unreasonable in the health care debate so stop being paranoid.
Now I absolutely agree that anti-trust exemptions should be abolished but the reason it didn't happen is due to your friends Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson. I also don't disagree with the idea of competition across state lines, I would just hope the guidelines for health insurance was more uniform across state lines.
