Aetna CEO Threatened Obamacare Pullout If Feds Opposed Humana Merger

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?

The main issue with healthcare in the u.s. actually has to do with Medicare, Medicaid, and social security.

All of the state options pay only ~10% of what they are billed no matter how large the bill (there is also usually a cap). This forces hospitals to charge exorbitant prices. Private insurance options pay larger percentages: 12 - 50%. People without insurance usually will pay either 100% or 0%, with some people negotiating in between.

Honestly, the easiest way to fix it is to get rid of Medicare, Medicaid, and social security or force everyone to pay 100% as opposed to negotiating lower rates.

Fyi I worked in a medical billing office for 5 years. We did payment processing for about 30% of all hospitals on the east coast and Midwest

> Honestly, the easiest way to fix it is to get rid of Medicare, Medicaid, and social security or force everyone to pay 100% as opposed to negotiating lower rates.

Bullshit. This isn't an easy problem, and you're casually dismissing systems that support millions of people.