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Aetna CEO Threatened Obamacare Pullout If Feds Opposed Humana Merger

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142 points helloworld | 2 comments | 17 Aug 16 17:52 UTC | HN request time: 0.638s | source
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seibelj ◴[17 Aug 16 18:06 UTC] No.12306806[source]▶
Can anyone succinctly explain the benefits of having a market for private health insurance companies, rather than a single provider of health insurance (government, aka "public option")? Can a capitalist case be made for their existence? Does the lack of a large private insurance market in countries with government-provided health insurance cause lots of inefficiencies and waste?
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1. 3princip ◴[17 Aug 16 19:03 UTC] No.12307397[source]▶
Everything the government provides causes lots of inefficiencies and waste, and unintended consequences to boot.

That said, some things may be worth the sacrifice, healthcare may be one of those things. One question to ask, will the quality of care improve (whatever the cost) if the government takes over?

Since the US is made up of states, what is stopping one state from providing single-payer and proving the model works?

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2. lutorm ◴[17 Aug 16 20:52 UTC] No.12308370[source]▶
At least one has: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermont_health_care_reform

It apparently didn't work well, though.