Why so much opposition to Obama cares?

[Ms. Toad]

16. Not really.

One normally thinks of profits in terms of percentage of revenue (or return on investment) - and that is what is fixed.

A company which has a profit of a million dollars, out of a revenue of 100 million is typically seen as far less profitable than a company which has a profit of a million dollars, out of a revenue of 2 million to make it.

And - even if the first company has a two million dollar profit, the second company is seen as more profitable because the first only returned 2% profit, while the second returned 100% profit.

And you are conflating two separate players - the providers (who aren't really interested in increasing the insurance company profits), and the insurance companies (who are interested in increasing their profits, but since the MLR is fixed can really only increase their profits by adding more customers. And in a competitive exchange that gives them a reason to push the providers to give them lower prices so their rates will be low enough attract more customers).