I don’t believe so, but that is what I read in a recent comment section of an on-line article about health insurance.
Health insurance premiums have been going up at a much faster rate than inflation in general and many people attribute that to exorbitant heath insurance profits. But the truth of the matter is that 87% of every premium dollar goes to covering medical care and services.
What is driving up the cost of health care?
According to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Kaiser Family Foundation, BusinessWeek, Pricewaterhousecoopers and many other sources:
+ More expensive technology, used more often.
Are all those tests that add to your doctor’s income really necessary?
+ Doctors in the U.S. earn two to three times as much as other industrialized countries.
+ Medical price inflation
Expensive new tests, Rx and procedures drive 51% of the growth in health care spending.
+ Cost shifting
Underpayments of Medicare and Medicaid are picked up by private insurance companies.
+ High cost of complying with government regulations.
Private health insurance companies spend $339.2 billion in order to comply with government health regulations.
+ Poor patient lifestyles
Obesity
Tobacco use
Sedentary lifestyle
Poor nutrition
+ Healthcare fraud and abuse
Conservatively estimated at 3% of total annual healthcare spending.
Someone is getting rich on your premium, but with health insurance companies averaging 3 cents profit for dollar they received, they may not be the villains may people think they are.
Next time you drive by one of those new marble palaces that passes for a hospital today, ask yourself “who’s paying for this?”
