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Why Does Health Insurance Cost So Much?


Why does health insurance cost so much? Year after year, many of the articles that appear in print detail the specific factors driving the cost of healthcare.

These factors include: general inflation, advances in drugs and other medical devices, rising hospital and doctor expenses, government mandates, increased consumer demand, litigation, fraud, and cost shifting.

The basic answer is that a magic bullet to solve the cost of insurance does not exist because the real difficulty is controlling the cost of healthcare. A simple way to dramatically decrease the dollars spent on healthcare is to reduce the demand for healthcare.

I have seen estimates that up to 40% of all healthcare related expenses result from preventable conditions. These preventable conditions are caused by lifestyle choices such as tobacco, obesity, stress, lack of exercise and poor diet.

Most of us, myself included, make lifestyle choices everyday that eventually increase our demand for healthcare. We are never going to be able to totally eliminate all lifestyle related healthcare costs. However, improved lifestyle choices would cause a dramatic reduction in demand. This would then result in a similar reduction in the dollars spent on healthcare.

Lower demand for healthcare would result in lower health insurance costs, increased productivity, and reduced absenteeism. If your organization has not done so already, your organizational leaders need to seriously consider the benefits of health promotion and disease prevention programs. Your return on investment will most likely be as high as 2:1 in the first year.

Michael Ertel is the President of Ertel & Company, Inc. and has over 15 years of experience in the health insurance business. He is the founder of MedicalInsuranceNow.com which is an internet based service that assists individuals, families, and small business owners by providing side by side comparisons of health insurance alternatives and the convenience of applying for health coverage online.


MORE RESOURCES:

The Star-Ledger - NJ.com

Insurers hold billions in federal death benefits in unprotected accounts
Washington Post
It was a thick, 9-by-12-inch envelope from Prudential Financial, which handles life insurance for the Department of Veterans Affairs. ...
Keller Rohrback L.L.P. Investigates Life Insurance Companies Regarding ...MarketWatch (press release)
Prudential denies misleading military familiesThe Star-Ledger - NJ.com
Damn the Insurance Companies (Again)American Thinker
BusinessWeek -CNN -The Associated Press
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Moneycontrol.com

U.S. regulators take over 5 failed banks
UPI.com
LibertyBank, which had total deposits of $718.5 million at the end of March, will be assumed by Idaho's Home Federal Bank, the Federal Deposit Insurance ...
US Regulators Close Five Banks In Four StatesWall Street Journal
Two Florida bank failures bring 2010 total to 106MarketWatch
Acworth bank closed by regulatorsAtlanta Journal Constitution
BusinessWeek -The Associated Press -Mail Tribune
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kjrh.com

Health Insurance Reform to Help 30 Million Women
eMaxHealth
Health reform reportedly will both stabilize and reverse the disadvantages regarding health insurance that women have faced over the decades. ...
New insurance pool set up for Kansans with pre-existing conditionsKansas City Star
1-in-5 Californians without health insuranceSan Jose Mercury News
Sen. Reid Announces Initial Funding for Creation of Health Insurance ExchangesInsurance News Net (press release)
Los Angeles Times -WebMD -Worlds Breaking News
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Reuters

Insurers Subpeonaed Over Military Death Benefits
New York Times
By REUTERS Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo of New York has subpoenaed six more insurers as the state widens an investigation into whether life insurance ...
AG questions insurance benefits [New Haven Register, Conn.]Insurance News Net (press release)
Cuomo widens insurer probe with 6 more subpoenasReuters
CORRECT: UPDATE: Six More Life Insurers Subpoenaed By CuomoWall Street Journal
TopNews New Zealand -Waterbury Republican American -Hartford Courant (blog)
all 53 news articles »


RTT News

Aon 2Q profit inches up, beats view
BusinessWeek
Insurance broker Aon Corp. said Friday that its second-quarter profit rose slightly as a recent acquisition lifted revenue. That gain was largely offset by ...
Aon 2Q Profit Rises 2.7% As Sales, Margins AdvanceWall Street Journal
Aon quarterly profit rides high on acquisitionsReuters
Aon 2Q Net Income Rose 3%; Organic Growth ImprovesNational Underwriter Property And Casualty Insurance News
RTT News -Insurance Journal -Morningstar.com
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Lawsuit seeks to prevent Jeffrey Locker's family from collecting life ...
New York Daily News
The family of a Long Island motivational speaker who cops say set up his own murder should not collect $4 million in life insurance because ...
Insurer sues over policy in suicide-by-hire case [Newsday, Melville, N.Y.]Insurance News Net (press release)

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Minivan News

WikiLeaks publishes 1.4 GB encrypted 'insurance' file
Minivan News
A mysterious 1.4 GB encrypted file named “insurance” has appeared on the WikiLeaks Afghan War page that released tens of thousands of secret documents last ...

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The Hindu

Norms for public offers by insurance companies soon
Economic Times
NEW DELHI: The norms for public offer of shares by insurance companies will be issued soon, which will allow Indian promoters to dilute stake or issue fresh ...
Draft norms on health insurance policies soon: IRDAThe Hindu
In exception, cashless cover for trauma, emergency casesTimes of India
Insurers violating cashless mediclaim terms face fineHindu Business Line
domain-B -Hindustan Times -Indian Express
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Town Hall

PMI 2Q Loss Narrows, Helped By US Mortgage-Insurance Ops
Wall Street Journal
The company's US mortgage-insurance operations have continued to post losses, though they have stabilized recently. Those operations in the most recent ...
PMI Plunges, Leading Drop in Mortgage-Insurance Shares, After Posting LossBloomberg
PMI Group posts 12th straight quarterly loss; shrs fallReuters
The PMI Group, Inc. Reports Second Quarter 2010 Financial ResultsPR Newswire (press release)
Housing Wire -San Jose Mercury News -MarketWatch
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