Consider how health insurance \u2014 or any insurance \u2014 works. An insurer collects money, or premiums, from each member of a group, or risk pool, in exchange for covering all or part of a specific set of services that members of the group might need. The total amount of premiums must cover the cost of all the covered services that group members need, plus marketing, administration and profit.<\/p>\n
When covered services are very expensive, the insurance covering them will also be costly. Rising health care costs from increased usage of GLP-1 drugs and other pharmaceuticals, private equity investment in and consolidation<\/a> of hospitals and physician practices, and tariff costs<\/a> and uncertainties all translate to higher premiums.<\/p>\n The answer to this is not to shift costs from employers, insurers and the government to you and me. We\u2019ve tried that and it<\/a> doesn\u2019t<\/a> work<\/a>.<\/p>\n Just insuring sick people also doesn\u2019t work. First, it means that health insurance premiums are extraordinarily expensive, for the reason discussed earlier. Second, you want to catch health problems earlier rather than later. Studies<\/a> show<\/a> that<\/a> uninsured and underinsured people are diagnosed later and have worse health outcomes than insured people.<\/p>\n