There is nothing wrong with making money unless it’s at the expense of retarding innovation, competition, and delivery of apporpriate services, as it’s the case with our health insurance system which is operating according to principles set forth by the mafia and third world dictatorships (I’ll write more about this befitting analogy later).

So here’s the latest news from California: “HMOs spent $6 billion on administrative costs, which include hefty CEO salaries, according to a report by the California Medical Association, which said the money could have gone toward driving down premiums or better protecting the insured.”

It seems like people are going bankrupt because of “rising insurance premiums and having their benefits gutted simultaneously.” Insurance companies are even going as far as “taking steps to persuade physicians and patients to switch from effective medicines to different medicines based primarily on cost to the insurer, without appropriate regard for each patient’s best treatment option,” according to an op-ed piece by Marcy Zwelling-Aamot, an internist and critical care physician in Los Alamitos.

I wonder when all this nonsense and criminal-like behavior on part of some insurance comapnies is going to stop.

Filed under: Health Policy