Profit Maximizers Are Not Cost Minimizers

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of hearing managed care companies talk about health care ‘affordability’. They seem to think that by offering bare-bones health plans at prices that are lower than more comprehensive policies, they are fulfilling the needs of society and ensuring that health insurance is within reach for more consumers.

But is that really the case? Many of these new plans come with lifetime caps not significant enough to cover any real catastrophic event. Several are targeted toward the young and healthy, ensuring healthy profits from an under-tapped maket. At least plans are being offered to consumers that previously had no other options, so that can be seen as progress, but is it progress in the right direction?

I think not. Insurance companies are profit maximizers, not cost minimizers. Until the focus shifts from taking as much profit as possible from the system to truly minimizing the cost of running such a system, we are simply seeing costs being shifted around. The winners? Managed care companies of course.