Almost a billion dollars in profit in the past ninety days for a health insurance provider? If Trump wants to fix the healthcare industry he needs to take the profit out of writing healthcare insurance. It is morally reprehensible to make money on people who fear of not being able to pay for their medical care and have no choice but to buy insurance. The non-stop premium increases with its own self-generating and unbridled cost structure with no correlated to inflation, but a leverage of fear and no choices.

Aetna made 836 million dollars in the 3rd quarter. how do they make that profit? The charge an egregious amount of policies and pay out a pittance. https://news.aetna.com/news-releases/aetna-reports-third-quarter-2017-results/

There is math behind these statements. The number of policies that Aetna writes, the premiums paid and the payout or underwriting profit. If Trump truly wants to solve this problem the companies need to become mutual companies, where the premium holder is the shareholder, and the interest of the premium holder is aligned with the company’s operations. That is to reduce costs to the buyer/the shareholder, whether that mean negotiating prices for drugs, an efficiency of procedure, bulk buying of a lab test, empowering the patient/the shareholder to report abuse, fraud, malpractice, and any other offense that increases the cost of providing healthcare. If there is an underwriting profit, the money is returned to the policyholder in the form of reduced premiums in the successive years.

The next cost containment breakthrough for effective healthcare is to establish best practices. To make the program successful there need to be technical tracking proven results. The program is a 2 way street for savings and feedback through documenting ailments and successful treatment. The genome mapping will be part of the integrated relationship.

In the coming missives, I will discuss the system for best practices, patient and doctor benefit and how to create massive savings.