ProPublica admits Obamacare the culprit driving insurance costs sky-high

**Elspeth** · 05-28-2018, 02:21 PM

Buried lede: ProPublica admits Obamacare the culprit driving insurance costs sky-high
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog..._sky_high.html

ProPublica, the pro-Obama left-wing investigative reporting website funded in part by George Soros's buddies, seems to have slipped up.

One of its reporters, a real good one named Marshall Allen, has written a bang-up, worth-reading-every-word, satisfying exposé about why health insurance costs are so high and why so many patients get ugly surprises when it's time to pay the bill. Buried within, in what should have been the lede, is an indictment of not the insurance industry, but of the perverse incentives embedded within Obamacare – that are driving insurance costs through the roof.

It's the biggest unintentional argument for getting rid of the nightmare of Obamacare I've seen in ages, because the report is real good.

NPR, probably thinking it was running a establishmenty left-wing piece due to its headline indicting insurance companies, actually ran it. The article itself says its reporters participated in it as well.

Here's the money quote, which ran more than halfway down the long, well written piece (emphasis mine):

The Affordable Care Act kept profit margins in check by requiring companies to use at least 80 percent of the premiums for medical care. That's good in theory, but it actually contributes to rising health care costs. If the insurance company has accurately built high costs into the premium, it can make more money. Here's how: Let's say administrative expenses eat up about 17 percent of each premium dollar and around 3 percent is profit. Making a 3 percent profit is better if the company spends more.

It's as if a mom told her son he could have 3 percent of a bowl of ice cream. A clever child would say, "Make it a bigger bowl."

Wonks call this a "perverse incentive."

"These insurers and providers have a symbiotic relationship," said Wendell Potter, who left a career as a public relations executive in the insurance industry to become an author and patient advocate. "There's not a great deal of incentive on the part of any players to bring the costs down."...