“Sure! in one of my first comments to you
here it is:”
I posted a point that I was trying to make which was 100% true and you said that it wasn’t true. I asked if you could respectfully mention that you had a different point in mind instead of accusing me of lying. You left out the second half of my sentence in your response. (And no, an earlier post of yours cannot constitute a response to a later post of mine.)
Anyway- from my point of view this thread has run its course- I answered a number of questions other posters had but they still want to point the blame in the wrong place. I don’t think there’s anything else I can add.
I explained why actuarially it’s not possible to have reasonable premiums and coverage for dental care but people still think that insurance companies are selfish capitalists.
I mentioned that the ACA mathematically had a 0% chance of working as designed (it’s more complicated than dental care but I was willing to discuss it if anyone had any questions) but posters still consider health insurers to be greedy corporations.
The issues that you brought up, having to find new doctors every time your employer switches insurers, is more of a problem with your employer not keeping the same plan and your providers not being in consistent networks than with health insurers trying to be stingy. Sure, it’s annoying and I sympathize with you but you need to put the blame where it belongs.
I didn’t read the story you mentioned but I’ll agree with you that there can be some bad apples out there just like there is in any industry, that doesn’t mean that the insurance industry is rotten to the core.
As far as insurance companies raising rates whenever they want to make the greedy executives even richer- that’s a lie. As I mentioned before- insurers have to file a rate increase with the state before they can raise the rates and the state usually doesn’t allow the full increase applied for. This is on the CMS website.
Also, on the CMS website you can read about the MLR- Medical Loss Ratio. Depending on the plan 80% to 85% of premiums have to go to medical claims, the other 15% to 20% can go to marketing, salaries, benefits, real estate, bonuses… If the claims ratio doesn’t reach the threshold the insurer needs to return the excess to the policy holders- they cannot pocket it.
So, in short- NO, insurers cannot raise premiums on their whim to enrich themselves.