Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Are the health insurance companies' profits too high

President Obama is right about one thing in his plan for health-care reform: insurance companies need more controls placed on them. Insurance companies are middle-men. They don't diagnose illness and they don't treat illness. Some offer incentives to stay healthy but mostly they decide how to spend your money. What they prefer to do is not spend it at all and use it to make a profit and distribute your money to the shareholders.They make money when you are healthy and they make money when you are ill by denying services that your doctor requests in order to make you healthy again. Somehow they think they know better than the doctor if a treatment plan may work or not. So why not restrict the profits of insurance companies since they are only "managers" of your money? Why not do what is done with utility companies, allow only limited profits. somewhere in the neighborhood of 1-2%. More money would go to providing health care and less into redistributing the money that you paid to obtain good health-care.

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