>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.
If this perverse incentive were true, then you would expect the medical care costs to rapidly increase after the passage of ACA, but medical trend has actually slowed down since then[0] [1].
You can also look at the total dollar spend on hospital and medical expenses for the entire health insurance industry [2]. After the passage of ACA, there was a large increase in medical spend as more people obtained insurance coverage, but the increase in medical expenses year over year has settled back into the 5% range, which doesn't seem that perverse.
If this perverse incentive were true, then you would expect the medical care costs to rapidly increase after the passage of ACA, but medical trend has actually slowed down since then[0] [1].
You can also look at the total dollar spend on hospital and medical expenses for the entire health insurance industry [2]. After the passage of ACA, there was a large increase in medical spend as more people obtained insurance coverage, but the increase in medical expenses year over year has settled back into the 5% range, which doesn't seem that perverse.
[0]https://www.statista.com/statistics/720767/medical-cost-tren...
[1]https://www.pwc.com/us/en/industries/health-industries/libra...
[2]https://content.naic.org/sites/default/files/2021-Annual-Hea...