Interesting holiday dinner discussion at my family's table this week. We got into it on health care reform which is a loaded conversation since my two siblings work for a big health insurer and a big pharmaceutical, respectively I was surprised at the level of consensus that big changes are needed now. Where the disagreements start is when you get to talk of the cause of the problems and how to fix them.
Not surprisingly, you will hear from my health insurance industry sibling that our problems are more about hospital and doctor costs and overall health care management. Others at the table pushed back insisting that big insurance companies -- and their strong profits and margins as well as underwriting policies -- are the problem.
In the complex world of health care policy, I think the answer is all of the above . . . another reason we need a comprehensive reform program. But I do think it is an interesting and complex question in itself as to how much you can blame the health insurance companies for lack of affordability and availability of health insurance. Do large company financial metrics naturally push us toward the problems we are having? How would you change that short of a single payer system (which I believe is off the table and certaintly has plenty of its own problems)?
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