Insurers are incentivized to pay higher prices for claims. The Affordable Care Act enforced that insurance companies must have at least an 80% "medical loss ratio." Meaning that insurance companies must make at least 80% of their total spend on actually paying out medical claims. This law was put into place because insurance companies would spend huge amounts of money on advertising and giving execs bonuses, all paid for by patient premiums. Some only paid out 50% of their spend on medical claims.
The Affordable Care Act introduced the newer perverse incentive of insurance companies tolerating higher prices. Because if you can only pay your execs bonuses based on 20% of your total spend, insurance companies can pay execs more if the underlying claims they're paying cost more. 20% of a $1,000 MRI isn't as juicy to your C levels as 20% of a $10,000 MRI.
All insurance companies, all of them are corrupt. The whole system needs to be burnt down. PPOs are the worst, I wish HMOs were the norm, but that won't fix everything.
The Affordable Care Act introduced the newer perverse incentive of insurance companies tolerating higher prices. Because if you can only pay your execs bonuses based on 20% of your total spend, insurance companies can pay execs more if the underlying claims they're paying cost more. 20% of a $1,000 MRI isn't as juicy to your C levels as 20% of a $10,000 MRI.
All insurance companies, all of them are corrupt. The whole system needs to be burnt down. PPOs are the worst, I wish HMOs were the norm, but that won't fix everything.
Further reading: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/medical-cost-ratio.asp