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Aetna CEO Threatened Obamacare Pullout If Feds Opposed Humana Merger

(www.huffingtonpost.com)
142 points helloworld | 1 comments | 17 Aug 16 17:52 UTC | HN request time: 0.273s | 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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mhurron ◴[17 Aug 16 18:13 UTC] No.12306883[source]▶
> Can anyone succinctly explain the benefits of having a market for private health insurance companies, rather than a single provider of health insurance

For the citizen, none. For the insurance companies, they get forced signups.

> Does the lack of a large private insurance market in countries with government-provided health insurance cause lots of inefficiencies and waste?

The US spends the most of any nation on health care. The US is the only western nation with increasing infant and maternal mortality rates.

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1. nradov ◴[17 Aug 16 21:41 UTC] No.12308713[source]▶
The increasing infant and maternal mortality rates are caused more by increasing obesity than any other factor. Improving prenatal care would help a little but doesn't get to the root cause of the problem.

http://www.vox.com/2016/8/8/12001348/more-women-dying-childb...