One of the best examples of bad policy and misplaced incentives is how the Affordable Care Act limits the amount of profit as a percentage of premiums that health insurance companies are allowed to make. Sounds great, right? If they make too much as a percentage (profit margins) they have to give money back to customers.
However, all it has done is incentive costs to up for them so they can charge higher premiums (since they have to now) and pocket the same percentage of premiums which is of course a larger number overall. How could an insurance company ever even consider lowering premiums by striking better deals with providers?
The dead CEO is a symbolic thing for people to direct their anger at, and with some justification (anger, but not wishing death), but really the frustration is with how bad policy and regulations of the healthcare industry in general is. There's a reason there's very few startups in the space as regulatory capture is all over the space. Between tort law, regulations, and poor policy it's no wonder the space is a mess.
However, all it has done is incentive costs to up for them so they can charge higher premiums (since they have to now) and pocket the same percentage of premiums which is of course a larger number overall. How could an insurance company ever even consider lowering premiums by striking better deals with providers?
The dead CEO is a symbolic thing for people to direct their anger at, and with some justification (anger, but not wishing death), but really the frustration is with how bad policy and regulations of the healthcare industry in general is. There's a reason there's very few startups in the space as regulatory capture is all over the space. Between tort law, regulations, and poor policy it's no wonder the space is a mess.