Map

Here is a cool map that shows who the largest health insurers per state are. Now after you have looked at this map, listen to the CEO of Wellpoint Angela Brawling being interviewed on NPR today. Sounds like she hasn't seen the map. Also, she says that 1 penny of every dollar spent on health care goes to insurance profit, which sounds like very little, until you realize that 16% of GDP each year goes to healthcare. GDP last year was $14.2 trillion, so 16% of 14.2 trillion is $2.27 trillion, and 1% of that is $22.7 billion dollars. Not too bad. That's a lot of profit. The NPR interview is pretty awesome, and the Wellpoint CEO comes across as sounding like a hack.

One idea that I have heard that could lower costs would be to tear down state barriers and allow people to buy insurance from other states. That would change the map above quite dramatically. Combine this with decoupling insurance from employment and I think you have a real possibility there. It would be like auto insurance, except you would need to have a federal law that requires insurers to cover people regardless of their medical conditions. Oh, and recissions have to go.

And now let's read about National Debt basics.