01-20-2010, 02:57 PM
The health care series on "This American Life" pointed out that increased competition doesn't necessarily mean lower costs since each insurance company negotiates it's own fee structure with health care providers. Lots of additional overhead with no real savings. Perhaps a better system would be for the state governments to negotiate one fee structure for all insurance companies and then the insurance companies can compete on customer service and streamlining their own internal operations. Plus, the insurance companies would have a real incentive to promote better lifestyle choices for their customers instead of just writing another prescription for a high-priced drug.