Health insurance should not be a cash cow.
Because?
Because they're rent-seekers.
The profit motive doesn't drive them to innovate or improve services, products, or delivery. It makes them seek out clients who will pay more in premiums than they use in coverage.
The failings of the human body being what they are, that means seeking out the young and healthy while denying coverage to the old and sick, ie those who need it. Individual insurance markets are a nightmare for anyone over 40 whose patient history isn't up to
David Dunn's standard.
The only way to keep those people covered is through pooling. So you get things like fraternal insurance and later health care through employers. But that puts small businesses at a disadvantage, and the big companies only play along thanks to federal subsidies or union pressure.
A purely free market system of health insurance based on individual negotiation would be dysfunctional, with tons of people lacking coverage and companies heading into adverse selection death spirals.
If you want to argue that private insurance is the only moral choice because we've all been gifted with the Natural Rights to Contract and Property by YHWH or Equivalent, by all means go ahead. "It's so terrible that things are this bad, but we have to stick to our principles." Something like that.
But this is one area where you can't argue the power of the market, where self-interest doesn't translate to more efficient results. The market outcome is worse than the social democratic one by any criteria. That's just how it is.
