[scottw]

Originally Posted by Jim in CT

Health insurance is a highly regulated product. What that means is, before an insurance company can raise rates, they have to get approval from the insurance department in that state. Believe me, no state insurance department (particularly in liberal New England) is going to let health insurers raise rates just to increase profit margins. Companies are required to provide lots of support that the rate increases are necessary. They cannot simply gouge consumers, that's a lie told by Obama (yet another) to justify the federal intervention into healthcare.

Profit margins for health insurance companies are pretty thin. Health insurance is expensive because the thing being insured, healthcare, is expensive. If the insurance was such a ripoff, large employers would elect to drop insurance and pay for employees' healthcare directly. In other words, there is a reason that most folks use insurance as an intermediary to the healthcare providers...because the insurance companies add value. If an employer could take the insurance premiums and provide healthcare directly for less money, obviously they would.

If insurance companies were forced to operate at break-even levels (no profit), premiums would decrease about 5 percent, no more...

The notion that the federal government can replicate the services performed by the insurance companies for less money is a joke. In what arena, just find ONE, where the government is more efficient than private enterprise...

SEE...there you go again...hey, three of my buddies after college were actuaries...in Maine coincidentally...they all worked at UNUM, one was a midget...they were all remarkably smart and could drink like fish...nothing funnier than a drunk midget actuary