Not a US citizen, so a genuine question: do US health insurance companies have a track record of passing on such savings to consumers?

That has not been my impression as an outside observer.

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vjvjvjvjghv a day ago | parent | next [-]

"passing on such savings to consumers"

Absolutely not. They inflate prices by 200% and then give you 20% "savings" back. The whole idea of a health insurance company as publicly traded corporation is totally insane. They are designed to extract maximum profit from wherever they can get. The is no incentive to save money for patients. Any savings go to shareholders.

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lotsofpulp 20 hours ago | parent [-]

There are plenty of health insurers that are not publicly traded, and in fact are non profit, and yet they have the same premiums as the publicly traded ones. See Kaiser, Providence, Cambia, Regence, and the dozens of other BCBS affiliated plans.

If your claims were true, then the publicly traded businesses would have no customers.

	▲	Buttons840 18 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		> There are plenty of health insurers Yeah. And they all ultimately have to be paid by my health premiums. When I visit my parents, and they have the TV on, and I see 3 90-second advertisments for prescription drugs every single commercial break, I remind myself that, no matter what, we have to keep funding these commercials. Whatever the US decides to do for healthcare, I guarantee these commercials will continue to be paid for. I also guarantee that pharmacy company executives, and insurance company executives will continue to make millions of dollars a year. We have to keep paying them as well. The huge bureaucracy of insurance workers who decide what is and isn't approved, that all will have to be paid for as well. I used to work for a company that did background checks on doctors, we had different customers in every state, every state had their own companies and their own system for maintaining and verifying doctors licenses. These different companies in each state have to be paid. I made good money as a programmer doing background checks for these various companies and my paycheck also ultimately came from your medical premiums. I think we need to stop and appreciate the patriotic duty we all have to pay high premiums and medical costs, because every time we do we're propping up a huge portion of US workers. -- Just kidding. The truth is a lot of companies need to go out of business before things get cheaper.
	▲	vjvjvjvjghv 18 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I would argue the non profit insurers are as profit oriented as the publicly traded ones.

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zdragnar a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Ostensibly, the Affordable Care Act was supposed to reduce the average family's premiums by $2,500 a year.

When that didn't happen, the story changed to that number being how much more premiums would have risen.

Insurance premiums have only gone up as far as I can remember, though there's a ton of variables at play here. Inflation is an obvious one, plus continual introduction of more and more costly treatments- biologic injections, cancer therapies and so forth. The unfortunate increase in obesity rates in my lifetime (along with all the health complications) has been a significant contributor as well.

It all adds up.

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tzs a day ago | parent | next [-]

> Insurance premiums have only gone up as far as I can remember, though there's a ton of variables at play here.

An interesting thing about rising health costs is that it has happened at roughly similar rates in most first world countries for the last 50+ years.

For example in 1990 the UK, FR, and US were paying 2.0, 2.2, and 2.6 times their 1980 costs per capita. By 2000 that was 4.1, 4.1, and 4.2. By 2018 (the last year I had data for when I calculated this a few years ago) it was 10.6, 7.5, and 10.2.

Here's the 2000 to 2018 increase for those and some others: DE, FR, CA, IT, JP, UK, US were 2.1, 1.8, 2.0, 1.7, 2.6, 2.6, 2.3.

When politicians in the US talk about rising health care costs they usually put the blame on recent policies from opposing politicians. That so many first world countries with so many different health care systems all have seen similar increases for the last 50+ years suggests that it is due to something they all have in common and that government policy doesn't affect it much.

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alright2565 a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The individual mandate part of the ACA was the part designed to reduce premiums. You need healthy participants in any health insurance scheme to subsidize unhealthy people.

That was eliminated by a Republican bill, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

	▲	zdragnar a day ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Yes, and that was years after the ACA took full effect and the rates did not decrease. Most people get insurance through their employer, and most employer plans (at medium to large companies) are self funded by the company and merely administered by insurance companies. That means the healthy participants had no effect on those plans whatsoever. Even at peak, the individual mandate had only cut the number of uninsured by half, and the effect on rates was negligible.
	▲	kjkjadksj a day ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		FWIW the state of california has its own individual mandate.

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lotsofpulp 20 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

In 2010, it was already known the proportion of old to young was increasing, and the proportion of doctors was decreasing.

Prices were always going to increase.

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butvacuum a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

you're correct. UHC is so hated because they're a "pharmacy benefits manager." - an organization that exists soley to make your life so miserable you give up on getting your medication.

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FireBeyond a day ago | parent [-]

Aetna has their own scumminess. Want the convenience of 90 day refills? Have to use their mail order service. They'll refuse to authorize >30 day supplies of medication through any other pharmacy.

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DANmode a day ago | parent [-]

These comments (on UHC, Aetna) always strike me the same way as complaining about the lack of inflight meal,

baggage fees,

or lack of WiFi,

on, say, Spirit Airlines.

You looked at the list of insurers/jobs offering health insurance carriers,

selected the cheapest, or second-cheapest option,

and you’re surprised they’re harder to work with?

How?

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FireBeyond 20 hours ago | parent [-]

Oh yes, because the vast majority of employers in the US say "pick whatever healthcare plan you want from whatever carrier you want, we'll make it work" and not "You'll get what you're given and be glad for it".

Even in tech spaces with money to throw around, that just means that maybe your partner and dependent's premiums will be covered/negligible, or that your deductible will be low.

You're still going to be fucked by their policies, though.

	▲	DANmode 19 hours ago \| parent [-]
		You’ve highlighted why I do not work for the vast majority of employers in the US. Pay me enough in cash to secure my own wellness with whatever organizations I choose, or: next, please.

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lotsofpulp a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Health insurance companies in the US are not allowed to deny coverage, and can only price premiums based on age (highest premium capped at 3x lowest premium, location, and tobacco use.

https://www.healthcare.gov/coverage/pre-existing-conditions/

https://www.healthcare.gov/how-plans-set-your-premiums/

Health insurance premiums in the US are more tax than insurance. They also have low single digit profit margins with less than desirable shareholder returns (many are non profit in the first place), so they don’t have much room to lower premiums without also reducing healthcare expenses.

The insurance business in general is very competitive and not very profitable, so an insurer that tries to collect outsized premiums will usually suffer a loss of business.

	▲	monooso a day ago \| parent [-]
		> The insurance business in general is very competitive and not very profitable... Knowing several Americans, and how much they pay for health insurance (and are still required to pay for some things "out of pocket"), this is incredible to me. And that's before you even get to the process of making a claim. Such a broken system.