A possible unintended side effect of Obamacare

[Hoyt]

53. That profit is definitely waste, but at best eliminating "profit" from premiums will save only 10%

or so. A savings for sure, but not enough where anyone will be jumping up and down celebrating. $1200 a month, goes to $1080. Still a lot.

Could also squeeze some profits from providers, I suppose.

And as consumers, we could accept less tests, longer wait time, restrictions on expensive treatments/procedures in later years of life, forgo the latest drug that is basically the same as the cheaper old ones, etc. But, then, government would be accused of "death panels."

If we won't truly affordable health care, we are going to have to stick it to providers and consumers (and perhaps tax the "rich" more, but good luck with that).

I'm not sure most folks are ready to sacrifice to get truly affordable care. I would like to be wrong, but . . . . . .

I do see one advantage to allowing insurers to make a "reasonable" profit -- the government does not have to come up with the hundreds of billions of dollars necessary to invest in the massive system necessary to manage health care/insurance. And insurers end up taking a big portion of the risk for covering some 30 million uninsured, and moving to Obamacare.

(Before someone says, Medicare does it of 3 to 6% -- remember insurance companies currently do most of the administrative work for Medicare. The feds make the rules, and Blue Cross, Cigna, etc., administer the program. Further, 28% of Medicare beneficiaries have voluntarily chosen to enroll in Medicare Advantage Plans offered by . . . . . . .the same insurance companies we are griping about.)

Health care is not going to be an easy fix, no matter how we do it. I'm just glad we've made a small start, rather than kicking the can down the road like we did with Hilliarycare in the 1990s.