Why do we need the health insurance industry?
Need for health insurance
The health insurance industry (XLV) mainly provides a risk management tool for an individual. People cannot predict the extent and timing of their future healthcare expenses. By paying regularly for health insurance, people can get protection against financial losses resulting from high health care expenses. It also enables them to better manage their cash flows as most health insurance plans specify the maximum amount an individual will need to pay in excess of the charge paid for buying the insurance, in a calendar year.
Risk pooling According to study by the Congressional Research Service, the top 5% of the total population accounted for about 50% of the health expenses in 2011 and 2012. This uneven distribution of spending forms the basis of risk pooling, where people contribute an amount of money, at least equal to the per capita cost of medical services, expected to be used by the group of insured people. Risk pooling in insurance is essentially a cross-subsidy paid by low-risk members to high-risk members of the insurance plan. The above diagram shows that the performance of healthcare system or the efficiency of health insurance and effectiveness of risk pooling increases as the size of the group increases. However, the benefit of reduced risk resulting from the increasing size of the insured population reduces as the size increases a certain optimal size, S*. As size increases, the probability of increase in similarity in risk characteristics of the population also increases, which reduces the chances of cross subsidy. Managerial efficiency which involves activities such as monitoring information, collecting premiums and transferring payments to health care providers, also tends to decline post size of the group exceeds optimal size S*. Insurance companies such as Aetna