3 ms·

Isn't pressuring them to lower prices (at least a bit) what the insurance companies do themselves?

• root_axis 8y ago
  Not really. It is much more common and much easier from a business operations perspective to simply increase premiums or deny coverage, especially because a lack of competition means that consumers will have to pay the premiums no matter what. If a price hike causes the premiums to become unaffordable the insurance company actually benefits because they no longer have to endure the cost of providing benefits but they get to keep all the money that was paid before raising the rate to a level that the consumer could no longer afford. This is in contrast to healthcare providers which have a much better negotiating position because they're the ones actually providing the service that the consumer actually wants for the money that they're paying, so trying to get them to lower prices ends up being a much more difficult and risky negotiation.