Justin Amash (R) gets Town Hall question: "Why would we want to trust insurance companies...?"

[HumansAndResources]

15. EXACTLY !! And "Special Legal Monopolies" to boot

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarran%E2%80%93Ferguson_Act

So they are Both Right and Both Wrong (though my sentiments align with the questioner). Yes, competition would be helpful in reducing cost, but there isn't any. Single-Payer would be much better than what we got, or what we had before.

But Empowered Citizens, with the land and resources of this wealthy nation, could ALL afford to pay for insurance - especially if insurance companies, pharmaceuticals, and hospitals were not-for-profit - like hospitals and insurance were through the 1970s, when the costs were much lower. This was before Bill Frist's father / HCA went around "privatizing" the hospitals, and brought us the $10 aspirin.