Like "charities" before it, is the Govt subsuming of healthcare insurance done? - Granite Grok

Like “charities” before it, is the Govt subsuming of healthcare insurance done?

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“Here’s a nugget that encapsulates the health insurance industry, despite all the noise surrounding the future of the Affordable Care Act: In the first quarter of this year, Aetna collected more premium revenue from government programs (namely Medicare and Medicaid) than it did from commercial insurance for the first time ever.

Why this matters: Most people get their health coverage from their employer, and that historically has been the bread and butter of the insurance industry. But the aging population and expansion of Medicaid managed care means insurers are investing more time and money in the lower-margin (but still lucrative) government programs. Aetna, in particular, has invested heavily in Medicare Advantage.”

With this sluggish growth, government is becoming a more and more of a role in “setting of the economy”.  Certainly those companies, oft call the “Beltway bandits” have been solely dependent on government contracts over the years.  The problem for citizens and taxpayers is that once these large companies have government as their largest customer, they will act to protect that customer for their benefit – but at our expense.  They become further invested, and become much better at, in the Crony Capitalism that strengthens their top and bottom lines even if it means that we, their supposed customers, suffer the consequences.

Make no mistake – once that “tipping point” (as Instapundit said) is past, only Government matters.  As always, this is not a good thing because once Government captures yet another part of our economy (not like the socialist / communist “owning the means of production” but like the Italian and German fascists of last century, virtually controlling them via regulations and contracts), we become not a consumer directed economy but a government directed one.  Once again, that leads into:

The Bigger the Government, the smaller the citizen

(H/T: Instapundit)

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