Most hospitals aren't raking it in. Most physicians have seen their reimbursement stagnant at best for the last few years. Where are all the huge increases going? Insurance companies, drug companies, and medical device companies. Caregivers get shortchanged while middlemen and manufacturers get rich.
Not as much as you'd think. Insurance companies can make at most 15 cents on every dollar they take in from premiums in the large group market, where the majority of Americans have their coverage. They can make at most 20 cents on every premium dollar in the individual market. From that 15 or 20 cents, they have to actually pay all of their employees' salary and benefits, pay the insurance agent something in commission, run their businesses and yada, yada, yada. If they didn't pay back the other 85 or 80 cents in claims, they have to rebate the difference to their policy holders. Now, 15 or 20 cents of ever dollar when we're talking hundreds of millions of dollars is a pretty large sum - but it's not like we're telling any other industries or businesses that they have to keep their overhead and profits under a certain level. Now with the drug companies, I agree.
