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To do that math effectively, you'd have to look at which parts of a health insurance company's structure are essentially waste caused by health insurance being
by kerkeslager 7y ago
To do that math effectively, you'd have to look at which parts of a health insurance company's structure are essentially waste caused by health insurance being private, and zero all that, and I'd presume that's a large portion of premiums. The CEOs are just the most obvious example.
- tptacek 7y agoI don't have to do very complicated math to add up (or even wildly overestimate) compensation for CEOs, zero them, and see what that saves. I don't like that CEOs make that much money either, but why would I waste time on them? They're not the problem.
- kerkeslager 7y agoI'm saying that a doctor's contribution to society is a lot more than a health insurance CEO's and yet that is not reflected in their salary. It wouldn't surprise me if doctor pay was a larger factor in healthcare costs. But doctor pay is an inherent cost of healthcare, and while we can certainly lower their pay, it's not entirely clear to me what a fair pay would be. Health insurance CEOs, and indeed most of what a health insurance company does, are not only not inherent costs, but active blights on the healthcare system. A fair pay would be zero, with fines for literally killing people. So they're much higher priorities than doctors for the axe.
- tptacek 7y agoThese are arguments about making people feel better about the system, but not about making the system meaningfully better.
- kerkeslager 7y agoWell, I think removing private health insurance from the equation is the first step. Doctor pay indeed might be too high, but what can we do about it? Health insurance companies are a bit part of what determines doctor pay.
- tptacek 7y agoWhy is removing private health insurance the best next step? Medicare also overpays for care, both historically and compared to other countries.