Will the SCOTUS ruling on the health car law have any effect?

[BigV]

Originally Posted by Stormieweather

Last time I mentioned the extremely high cost of medicine and medical supplies on this forum, it was pointed out to me that this is due to ME having to pay extra for mine in order to compensate for Joe Blow not having insurance/paying anything at all for his.

So, now, if everyone HAS to have insurance, the insurance companies should be able to, collectively, force down the cost of supplies and equpment (bandages, anesthesia, drugs, etc.). This will help insurance companies be profitable again.

That, and better, more comprehensive preventative care.

I'm... a little skeptical that we'll get lower rates because of the innate goodwill of the insurance companies. But! I do believe in this case it is possible, even likely. You outline a lot of the reasons why, but you leave out a couple key elements. Here's how it *could* work out.

Now with the question of the validity of the law behind us (yes, I know we'll be hearing about repeal efforts from now until doomsday... whatthefuckever), now that it's in place and vetted by the court, the insurance companies just scored thirty million new customers. And... tha's big. Lots of new premiums coming in, and of course, lots of new claims to be paid. But there isn't a cap on how much money the insurance companies can charge or make. There IS a cap on the ratio of how much the insurance companies can retain as profit -- 20% -- and the other 80% must be spent on patient care. So they can't just raise the rates with impunity as they seem to have done for years up until now.

Granted, 20% profit on ten kabillion dollars is better than 20% profit on one kabillion dollars. However the creation of the health care insurance exchanges will give the customer (you and me and our bosses, if we had bosses) a chance to compare publicly viewable apples to apples rates and services. Guess where the business will flow? Until now, there was a lot of grief about comparing plans, and frankly there was a minimum of competition at all. Now we'll have competition, easy and fair ways to compare service and price. The customers are "built in". This is the perfect storm for business.

And since staying healthy is clearly a high priority for the customers, those insurance companies that showcase such benefits will likely have an advantage over their competition. As you pointed out, preventative care is less expensive than other care. I think this will tend to bend the cost curve in a downward direction.

Hey. Don't laugh. It could happen!