I understand risk vs company viability. I was an insurance agent at one time.
Think, not every precondition is lifetime hospital care until death. Many are treatable with drugs or other procedures. I'm just suggesting if enough insurance companies came together, they could lower costs. Simple supply and demand, not to mention consolidation like mergers that always produce profits.
It would also help if the pharm companies would reduced their drug prices to those in other countries. You can buy the same brand name drug in Canada, Europe, India, Philippines, etc. for less than a quarter in the US. Yes, I understand the pharm companies spend millions on research and development and need to recoup those expenses.
However, since our aging population is in need of more medical services/medications, I have no problem with the individual States having price controls as long as the pharm companies can keep making billions. They don't like a State control, they have the assets to move.
Fedgov control is not the way. Do they ever do anything efficiently or on budget? The RINO's need to just repeal Obamacare and let the free markets adjust to their consumers. It always works.
Don't want to pay the price for a high-tech Lexus, you get a KIA Optima. I know, I have one. It has more goodies than the same basic Lexus and has a high reliable rating. Then there is the incredibly low-priced high-tech electronics. I just purchased a 55" Ultra High-Definition(4K) OLED TV for less than a quarter it would have cost 5 years ago. Again, competition.
American free enterprise with competition/profits as its motivator has been copied time and again all over the world. I could be wrong, but I believe the same would happen with a free Health Insurance system providing DC gets out of the way.
Are you suggesting price controls at the state level?
I think that would cause more chaos than anything you could imagine. I’m thinking of something like the NYC metro area, where you would have NY, CT, and NJ all essentially “competing” in a way for the lowest prices. I’m not sure those decisions should be made in Albany or Trenton any more than they should be made in Washington.
You would also basically force the pharmaceutical companies to have compliance and lobbying in 50 states. They may just decide that the market in some place like Wyoming is just not worth the damn effort.