How does the presence of insurance factor into healthcare? Are costs higher because it exists?

Question

How does the presence of insurance factor into healthcare? Are costs higher because it exists?

In: 1

Answer 1

Insurance companies profit by collecting more money from customers than they pay out for medical care. Cigna, for example, made $5.4billion in 2021. That’s $5.4billion that they collected in payments from their customers which they did NOT give to doctors or nurses or hospitals.

For-profit insurance companies exist specifically to make the healthcare system inefficient, because that inefficiency is how they get their profits.