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Health Insurance

Health Insurance woes

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Read Why Your Health Insurer Doesn’t Care About Your Big Bills

The Affordable Care Act kept profit margins in check by requiring companies to use at least 80 percent of the premiums for medical care. That’s good in theory but it actually contributes to rising health care costs. If the insurance company has accurately built high costs into the premium, it can make more money. Here’s how: Let’s say administrative expenses eat up about 17 percent of each premium dollar and around 3 percent is profit. Making a 3 percent profit is better if the company spends more.

Pleasantly surprised to read this piece from ProPublica/NPR. Michael Frank was my professor for a Health Insurance course I took while at Columbia and he was a terrific one at it. Though I moved on to Property and Casualty Insurance as an Actuarial Analyst, I continue to be intrigued by Health. Who wouldn’t be -…