Where your insurance dollar goes

I'm not the only one who's complained about the cost of medical care - insurance costs are too much, etc, etc. But it might not be the doctor's fault, rather, we might blame the insurance companies. For one restaurant here, the Red Onion, it would cost the owner 45,000 a month to cover his employees, and it's not that many people... really. The report on the link above gives cost increases for different families, etc. While these costs go up, the money doesn't go to the doctors. You'll read,

The average doctor gets 18 percent of every dollar spent on medical care. But family practitioners aren't average... [a]nd family practioners in small practices ... are being run out of the business.

The doctor the news interviewed here, Dr. Van Zant, said that one of their major insurance carriers gave them an ultimatum: 25% cut back across the board.

Where does that money go? Apparently to the boss. One of the insurance companies, the one Dr. Van Zant referred to as the "worst payer," is part of a corporation that paid its CEO $46 million in compensation last year.

United Health paid their CEO $94 million ON TOP of his $639 million in stock options.

Affordable health care is available, if companies didn't pay their executives more in one year than most people spend in their entire life.