> Compared with other countries, the inefficiency of for-profit healthcare is a far worse problem than the amount of profit they make.

Yes! That's a really pithy way of saying it.

The big insurers spent a lot of money internally on handling claims, administrative overhead, etc. That's because of the whole model of insurance, where each individual claim has to be reviewed.

Some health systems are experimenting with simpler models, like capitation: "the insurer will pay the hospital $X per covered patient, and the hospital will handle all of that patient's health needs." That model would get us out of claims hell.